Complementary Therapy

Complementary therapy is the use of alternative medicine practices in addition to standard or traditional medicine. Often time’s conventional medicine alone is not able to accomplish the desired effects. By combining the two concepts of medical practice, the best from both can be used to complement each other. Historically, the traditional medical society resisted such ideas, but.....
By 1997, responding to numerous studies, the Canadian Medical Association decided to encourage medical schools to offer courses in alternative medicine.
By 1998, nearly two thirds of 75 medical schools located in Canada were offering courses in alternative and/or complementary medicine.
Even though nearly 40% of the Canadian population surveyed had used some forms of alternative medicine, we must not lose site of the fact that standard medicine does many things extremely well. Perhaps the best illustration is the effectiveness of a well trained emergency room team. There is no equal to their skill at saving lives. Another good example would be the cures that today's modern medicine performs in such areas as cancer treatment. However, in many instances, complementary medicine has taken its place as a partner in the effort for overall cure and treatment.
It has been estimated that world wide only 10 to 30 percent of all healthcare is provided by traditional or conventional medical care. The balance (70 to 90 percent) of care is provided through various practices which fall into the broad category of alternative or complementary medicine. The World Health Organization has identified over three hundred different practices or variations of practices. These practices vary from the most basic levels of home care based on folk medicine, to fully organized professional health care providers working within highly educated and highly structured systems. When looked at from the patient's viewpoint instead of the practitioners as above, the numbers are even more impressive. The World Health Organization has estimated that over 80% of the world's population is presently using some form of herbal medicine as a part of their everyday primary healthcare. This may be as simple as the use of herbal teas for colds and related illnesses, to the complex combining of herbs with other primary forms of alternative medicine such as Ayurvedic, homeopathic, naturopathic, traditional oriental, Native American Indian medicine and even traditional medicine.