by Vicki Phipps

Created on: November 16, 2008

Complimentary medicine is extremely effective in enhancing conventional health care. What used to be referred to as an alternative to traditional western medicine has become a compliment to the conventional medical world. According to the Mayo Clinic, "Ranging from herbs to acupuncture, alternative medicine is becoming increasingly popular."

Our medical care used to be limited to resolving a symptom which our family doctor could fix, but with complimentary medicine and treatment techniques, the medical world has achieved unlimited possibilities for actual healing. It took time to open the minds of physicians within the western medical world, but today at medical facilities all over the USA, like the Mayo Clinic, conventional physicians are using complimentary medicine and techniques to not only fix our symptoms, but to prevent what creates damage and disease to the body in the first place.

Today, our physicians are more likely to suggest treatments like homeopathy, ayurveda, acupuncture and hears. We are learning words we've never heard within the medical world, but are they safe? Are they a compliment or a demise to our well being and life? The following explains in laymen's terms what complimentary medicine means and why it's effective today in the USA.

WHEN ALTERNATIVE TECHNIQUES COMPLIMENT CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE:

Alternative medicine is seen as a treatment the patient chooses to the exclusion of conventional modern medicine. If the alternative technique has not been scientifically proven to be beneficial, it won't be used within the modern medical world. On the other hand, when physicians and medical facilities combine proven alternative medicine to their conventional treatments, alternative medicine becomes, "Complimentary medicine."

In other words, when a patient chooses alternative medicine to the exclusion of conventional treatment, that treatment is then referred to as, "Alternative medicine," but if the physician combines alternative medicine with conventional medicine, it's known as, "complimentary medicine." As confusing as it seems, this basically means that what was once seen as alterative medicine is quickly becoming a compliment to conventional medicine.

THE INTEGRATION OF ALTERNATIVE AND CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE:

Some physicians choose to use tai chi or auromatherapy massage techniques to compliment their conventional treatment of depression and anxiety. Through complimentary medicine, the physician is not only treating the patient's symptoms, but he

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