Five Alternatives to Conventional Medicine

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There are five major areas of alternative medicine taught in alternative medicine education, some of which sit comfortably within the precepts of modern science. However, there are some alternative medicine systems which are almost entirely outside the scientific framework.

• Alternative Medicine Systems include traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda), homeopathy, and naturopathy.
• Mind-body Techniques use meditation, relaxation techniques, hypnotherapy, bio-feedback, and guided imagery as ways to allow the mind to influence physical health.
• Biologically Based Therapies use herbal medicine and nutrition to preserve and restore health.
• Energy Therapies use energy fields thought to exist both inside the body and externally.
• Body Based Therapies treat certain conditions through manipulation, including chiropractic, massage therapy, reflexology, and other techniques.

Alternative medicine education deals with these five classifications in different ways; some alternative medicine schools concentrate on those therapies that sit alongside conventional medicine, such as nutrition, massage, chiropractic and mind body techniques.

Programs in Alternative Medicine School

Most of the programs in alternative medicine school are graduate courses, or include some of the conventional medical background necessary to put the therapies and treatments into the scientific framework. Indeed, in some conventional medical programs courses dedicated to specific forms of alternative medicine are beginning to make an appearance.

Alternative medicine education dealing with some of the more esoteric therapies tends to stand by itself, the alternative medicine school dealing with the particular concept being dedicated to that theory. These types of treatment tend to be condemned by conventional medical practitioners, although they attract enough people who believe in the therapies and their results.

The verdict is still out on many forms of alternative medicine, but increasingly techniques that used to be regarded as alternative medicine are now seen as part of conventional treatment.

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