Alternative medicine
healthcare and treatment practices, including traditional Chinese medicine, chiropractic, folk medicine, and naturopathy, that minimize or eschew the use of surgery and drugs.
Contemporary Examples
Even Deepak Chopra, the alternative medicine and spiritual guru, preaches a dietless diet.
The No-Diet Diet May Be the Key to Avoiding the Holiday Belt Bulge Erin Geiger Smith November 25, 2013
Unfortunately, a lot of alternative medicine is indeed deeply unscientific, and deserves to be treated with skepticism.
Clinton Doc: This Is How We’ll Fix Health Care Daniela Drake June 11, 2014
“Some alternative medicine practitioners have made claims that are simply ridiculous,” he offered.
New Research Shows Poorly Understood “Leaky Gut Syndrome” Is Real, May Be the Cause of Several Diseases Daniela Drake March 26, 2014
noun
another name for complementary medicine See also holism (sense 2)
alternative medicine
(ôl-tûr’nə-tĭv)
A variety of therapeutic or preventive health-care practices that are not typically taught or practiced in traditional medical communities and offer treatments that differ from standard medical practice. Homeopathy, herbal medicine, and acupuncture are types of alternative medicine.
Medical practice or therapy that uses methods that have not been associated with the traditional, standard care most generally taught and executed by AMA-certified medical schools.
Note: Alternative medicine includes practices such as acupuncture, naturopathy, and chiropractic, as well as such therapies as chelation therapy, homeopathic remedies, and biofeedback. There has been an explosion of interest in alternative medicine in recent years.
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