Alternative & Complementary Medicine
Health care approaches that are not typically part of conventional medical care or that may have origins outside of usual Western practice are often described as "alternative" and "complementary" interchangeably, but the two terms refer to different concepts:
- If a non-mainstream approach is used together with conventional medicine, it's considered "complementary."
- If a non-mainstream approach is used in place of conventional medicine, it's considered "alternative."
Most people who use non-mainstream approaches also use conventional health care.
In addition to the terms complementary and alternative, you may also hear the term "functional medicine." This term sometimes refers to a concept similar to integrative health (described below), but it may also refer to an approach that more closely resembles natur (a medical system that has evolved from a combination of traditional practices and health care approaches popular in Europe during the 19th century).
Integrative Health
Integrative health brings conventional and complementary approaches together in a coordinated way. Integrative health also emphasizes multimodal interventions, which are two or more interventions such as conventional health care approaches (like medication, physical rehabilitation, psychotherapy), and complementary health approaches (like acupuncture, yoga, and probiotics) in various combinations, with an emphasis on treating the whole person rather than, for example, one organ system. Integrative health aims for well-coordinated care among different providers and institutions by bringing conventional and complementary approaches together to care for the whole person.
The use of integrative approaches to health and wellness has grown within care settings across the United States. Researchers are currently exploring the potential benefits of integrative health in a variety of situations, including pain management for military personnel and veterans, relief of symptoms in cancer patients and survivors, and programs to promote healthy behaviors.
Complementary Health Approaches
Complementary approaches can be classified by their primary therapeutic input (how the therapy is taken in or delivered), which may be:
- Nutritional (e.g., special diets, dietary supplements, herbs, and probiotics)
- Psychological (e.g., mindfulness)
- Physical (e.g., massage, spinal manipulation)
- Combinations such as psychological and physical (e.g., yoga, tai chi, acupuncture, dance or art therapies) or psychological and nutritional (e.g., mindful eating)
Nutritional approaches include what NCCIH previously categorized as natural products, whereas psychological and/or physical approaches include what was referred to as mind and body practices.