When we look at modern medicine, we can marvel at some of the things that it can achieve now, things that our ancestors could only dream about. It is easy to pat ourselves on the back and think that we discovered such a marvel only a few years ago with Louis Pasteur and his discoveries.
Medicine is much older than you are or I can imagine. It actually goes back some four thousand years to the Ancient Chinese and Egyptians. When we look at the history of medicine, it soon becomes apparent that thing we call medicine today was only one of a whole range of things that were practiced for thousands of years. Many of these techniques are still with us today under the name of Alternative medicine.
Alternative Medicine is the term given to any form of treatment that does not fall within the confines of conventional medicine or cannot be shown to be consistent. There are literally more branches of alternative medicine than there are parts of the body! The medical world has grouped them and given them, the title of Complimentary Alternative Medicine (from now on referred to as CAM).
The history of Alternative medicine is long and many of our most staggering discoveries in medicine have come from it.
There is another point of difference that explains better why CAM is so popular. With modern medicine you can have the ailment treated, but it often does not deal with the underlying cause. Doctors prescribe pills for heart conditions and tell us to take things easy. However, CAM seeks to treat the whole person as Body, Soul and Spirit. Based on a wide variety of philosophies from Judea-Christian to Buddhism and many others, some of which work and others are not so effective. However, they all give what modern medicine cannot and that is hope.
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