Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can be used as an incredibly beneficial approach, but education regarding CAM is an essential component in making safe health decisions.
Let’s start with the basics. The National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) (2013a) provides definitions to
help consumers get started.
- Complementary: utilizing a non-mainstream approach together with conventional medicine
- Alternative: utilizing a non-mainstream approach in place of conventional medicine
- Integrative: an evidence-based complementary approach (example: prescribing acupuncture to help with pain management for cancer patients)
What makes an approach complementary or alternative?
According to NCCAM (2013a), CAM can be stratified into the
following two categories:
- Natural products: herbs, vitamins, minerals, probiotics
- Mind-body practices: acupuncture, massage therapy, meditation, movement therapy, relaxation, spinal manipulation, tai chi, yoga
The graph below published by NCCAM (2013a) shows the usage
of different forms of CAM by adults and children. Natural products are the most
utilized form of CAM. This emphasizes the need for safety information to ensure
that consumers are able to make educated health decisions to minimize risk of
drug-interaction and product contamination (NCCAM, 2013a).
Who uses CAM?
According to Briggs (2009), 38% of adults and 12% of
children utilize CAM as a part of their healthcare approach. The most common
uses of CAM involve chronic illnesses or pain such as back, neck, and joint
pain, arthritis, and anxiety.
Be empowered to research!
NCCAM provides an excellent safety resource on their
website. This guide can be found at http://nccam.nih.gov/health/safety/topics.htm
(NCCAM, 2013b). It is important to remember that this is a guide. Conversations
with medical providers are an essential component in order to ensure that
patient safety is kept at the forefront of any treatment.
A growing field
To learn more about the more recent growth of CAM, I encourage you watch this short video by PBS.
References
Briggs, J. P. (2009). Expanding horizons of health care. MedlinePlus, 4(1), 16-17. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/winter09/articles/winter09pg16-17a.html
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
(2013a). Cam basics. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(2013b). How safe is this product or practice? Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/safety/topics.htm
Public Broadcasting Service. (2009, October 5). PBS nightly business report: Complementary and alternative medicine. Retrieved June 12, 2013 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Ek9i05HkE
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed learning about the most commonly used forms of alternative medicine approaches. Some information was interesting to learn. Before reading your post I probably would not have considered deep breathing as an complementary health approach.
Thanks for your post,
VL