Complementary Alternative Medicine

Canada’s health care system is starting to integrate complementary alternative therapies with modern medicine. Although not covered by Alberta Health, people are finding relief with these ‘New Age’ therapies:

Types of Alternative Therapy:

• Naturopathy
• Massage therapy
• Acupuncture
• Chiropractic
• Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Reiki
• Qigong
• Reflexology
• Homeopathy
• Shamanism
• Rolfing
• Alexander Technique
• Craniosacral Therapy
• Mind body stress reduction
• Ayurveda

Different things work for different people. At the very least, it’ll be a new experience. Who knows what’ll work for you.

The Association of Doctors Integrating Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) has three principles:

1. All healing therapies have validity
2. Prevention has equal weight as therapy.
3. Patient participation, empowerment, self-management

How to be a bad patient:

• Get many opinions
• Research the disease
• Try lots of therapies
• Get better

Where you put your mind, there goes your experience. Remember that the locust of control is inside you and around you.

URGENT: Never alter prescribed medication without the supervision of your family doctor. Never take herbal medication if on prescribed medication without consulting your physician.

The traditional view of the ‘doctor as expert’ can breed dependency, helplessness, blame and apathy on the part of the patient as well as resentment and burnout for the doctor. Therefore, share responsibility for your health with the Medical doctor.

An ideal complementary and integrative approach occurs when the patient's doctors know about the complementary care, agree that it will not be harmful, and continue to monitor the patient's progress while keeping an eye on the effects of both the complementary and the conventional therapies.

For example, someone with cancer who has acupuncture to help with the side effects of chemotherapy would be taking a complementary approach.

Physicians who practice integrative medicine focus on the whole person. And, just as they must keep abreast of current research in conventional medicine, they also review the latest research results for complementary therapies. This ensures that the treatments don't conflict with each other and don't cause any harm to the patient.

For any proposed CAM therapy, it is important to consider:

• Safety (appropriateness for particular conditions, producers' quality control for items such as herbal medicines, etc.)
• Effectiveness
• Cost in time and money in relation to potential benefit
  
• Credentials of the practitioner