Why fund complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) research instead of conventional medicine?
Funding CAM research creates more proven options for human beings in areas where conventional medicine is ineffective. Conventional medicine has made great advances in addressing acute diseases, but is limited in treating cancer and chronic illness. Alternative medicine has many anecdotal claims, but often lacks evidence. More research is needed to increase proven options for CAM to complement conventional medicine. The funding for CAM research is disproportionately under-funded. … Only 1% of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding went to CAM research in 2005, yet two-thirds of US Americans use some form of CAM each year according to NIH NCCAM. If you are already a CAM user, then why support the scientific research of it? There are three reasons that may strike a chord with you: (1) our mainstream medicine and insurance are not behind CAM without scientific evidence; that means most likely there is no support for you from the mainstream healthcare economics standpoint; (2) CAM u
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