What are the main differences between complementary and alternative medicine and conventional medicine?
Complementary and alternative medicine includes therapies from very diverse historical and cultural backgrounds; however they do share a common view of health and wellness and tend to be ‘holistic’, i.e. they treat the whole person, not just the symptoms of a disease. It is believed that wellness comes from a balance between the body, mind and the environment. Each person is treated as a unique individual who has his or her own particular make-up, is subject to a unique combination of stresses, lives in a unique environment, and has his or her own healing mechanisms to recover from illness. Many forms of complementary and alternative medicine aim to stimulate or enable the body’s ability to heal itself. Many complementary and alternative therapies require the individual’s active participation in the treatment. The holistic approach of complementary and alternative therapies usually requires more ‘lifestyle’ changes (i.e. diet, exercise and positive thinking) than conventional treatment
