Overview of Alternative Therapies
ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
Alternative to What?
With the rising cost of health insurance and conventional health care in the United States, many people are turning to Alternative Therapies. The question that naturally follows is Alternative to what?
Conventional medicine, Biomedicine, and Allopathic Medicine are all terms for what is mainstream or Western Medicine. Interestingly, Western Biomedicine only recently became the dominant form of medicine in the Western world with the establishment of the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1847. One of the purposes for the establishment of the AMA was to stamp out therapies that were considered ‘quackery’ or ‘fringe.’ The AMA was able to appeal to the Western Scientific Method and to lobby Congress to enact legislation limiting other kinds of therapy. Some of these practices died out, but others went underground and are often termed ‘folk medicine’ or ‘home remedies.’ In fact, these home remedies were the major source of health care throughout the 20th century.
Researchers such as Linus Pauling and Adelle Davis began writing about a healthy diet and the importance of supplements as early as the 1950s. With the rise of the counterculture in the 1960s, among a certain proportion of Americans, increasing emphasis was placed on natural or holistic remedies. In researching medical practices internationally, these Baby Boomers recognized that there were feminist, spiritual, and environmental aspects to medical therapy that were being overlooked by Biomedicine. In the promotion of other medical modalities the term “Alternative Medicine” arose in the 1980s, likely as an effort by the Biomedical establishment to distinguish themselves from these other modalities.
Today we see the Biomedical establishment recognizing, if not the efficacy, at least the popularity of Alternative Therapies, by trying to align itself with some of the modalities through the use of the term “Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).” Institutions such as the federal National Institutes of Health have set up entire departments and are spending many research dollars on CAM.
Can I Have a Career in Alternative Therapies or Massage and Bodywork?
Yes. The aspiring Alternative Therapist currently has a world of opportunity ahead of her/him, and should, in no way, be deterred by claims that Alternative Therapies are somehow less efficacious than Biomedicine. There are many reasons why a vast majority of Americans are turning in part or in whole to Alternative Therapies. For many, Alternative Therapies provide the attention to mind, body, and spirit that so many are seeking in their therapists; for others, Alternative Therapies provide care and pain relief that they have not been getting from Biomedicine; for others, Alternative Therapies provide most cost effective ways to address their ailments; and most importantly, Alternative Therapies provide empowerment for individuals who want to take responsibility for their own health care and to make informed decisions.
What are some Alternative Therapies?
First we must recognize that the term, Alternative Therapies, is really a misnomer. Many of the so-called Alternative Therapies have their roots in medical systems such Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurvedic Medicine whose unbroken practice and demonstrated efficacy goes back thousands of years. Although contemporary Biomedicine clearly has its roots in Greek and Roman medical practices, it is more accurate to think of Biomedicine as the latecomer or the ‘alternative’ to established traditional medicine practiced successfully throughout the world for millenia.
In 1992 the NIH hosted a conference on CAM and organized therapies into types, loosely based on fields of practice. Some of these are listed below, but it is worth bearing in mind that although the NIH hosted this conference and continues to research CAM, very few of their researchers are actually trained or have expertise in the areas they are researching.
Alternative Therapies as organized by the NIH are given here:
Mind-Body Interventions: Pyschotherapy, support groups, meditation, imagery, hypnosis, biofeedback, yoga, dance therapy, music therapy, art therapy, prayer and mental healing.
Alternative Systems of Medical Practice: Professionalized Health Systems such as Traditional Oriental medicines and Ayurvedic medicine, Homeopathic medicine, Naturopathic medicine, Environmental medicine, Community-based Health Care such as found in some Native American or Latin American communities.
Manual Healing Methods: Physical Healing Methods such as Osteopathic medicine, Chiropractic, Massage therapy (Swedish, deep tissue, sports, neuromuscular, manual lymph drainage), Pressure point therapies (reflexology, traditional Chinese massage, acupressure systems like shiatsu, tsubo, jin shin jyutsu), Postural reeducation therapies (Alexander technique, Feldenkrais method, Trager pyschosocial integration), Structural Integration or Rolfing, and Bioenergetic Systems; Biofield therapeutics such as Healing science, Healing touch, Huna (traditional Hawaiian), Mari-el, Natural healing, Qigong, Reiki, Specific Human Energy Nexus (SHEN®) therapy, Therapeutic Touch, Applied Kinesiology, Network Chiropractic spinal analysis, Polarity therapy, Qigong longevity exercises, and Craniosacral Therapy; Physical Therapy.
Other categories the NIH looked at included Pharmacological and Biological Treatments, Herbal Medicine, and Diet and Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Disease.
*For more information on this topic, refer to Marginal to Mainstream: Alternative Medicine in America by Mary Ruggie, published by Cambridge University Press, London, 2004.
