Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) - good and blemished

Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) – good and blemished

With a tremendous amount of sick people as friends, family members and neighbors, it’s no mystery why many have turned to CAM for deliverance. But is Complimentary and Alternative Medicine the answer? According to The National Center of Complimentary and Alternative Medicine or NCCAM, an impressive 4 in 10 adults and 1 in 9 children are utilizing it in some form. It seems that mainstream Americans are attempting to answer the healthcare reform question themselves by seeking to be well and endeavoring to solve their ills at there root. But does the general public, who are daring to correct their health, fully understand both the pros and cons of such therapies? Let us explore the wonderful side of CAM before getting to its blemished shadow.

What’s So Good About CAM?

Health Education Alliance for Life and Longevity, (HEALL) reports that Complimentary and Alternative approaches to health and medicine are among the fastest growing aspects of healthcare in the United States, noting that the majority of therapies are not reimbursed by insurance companies. There is an awakening in this country, and conventional medicine is slowly taking note. Because CAM is such a broad field I have chosen to break it down into 3 major areas: Herbal Remedies and Non-Herbal Supplementation, Mind, Energy and Spiritual Healing, and finally Practitioner Asserted Physical Manipulation. It is necessary to state that many therapies can overlap into more than one category but my attempt is to define it as best possible.

Herbal and plant remedies have proven to be very effective in assisting the body in healing itself when used appropriately. In fact the U.S. National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health, report that nearly 1 in 5 people in the US population are using an herb for treatment of health conditions and/or health promotion, and the reasons are apparent. Herbal remedies are significantly less expensive than pharmaceutical drugs. When examining the popular herb Ginkgo Biloba, it is hard to ignore the selling power as well as the popularity of this herbal powerhouse. It is used to address a number of issues including, but not limited to, improving both short and long term memory, improving bouts of depression, enhancing circulatory problems, and erectile dysfunction.