Complementary And Alternative Medicine

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There has been a growing trend over the past few years in health care using Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) or also known as Eastern medicine. The new and emerging type of health care has been around for thousands of years, but in recent years have been more accepting in Western culture. CAM is described as, “a wide range of practices, technologies and treatments not traditionally associated with the medical professions or medical curriculum” (Solomon & Adams, 2015). There are many different types of CAM health care. Some of the more popular practices include acupuncture, massage therapy, aromatherapy, reflexology, chiropractic and herbal remedies. Each of these therapies are used in different ways to help with the overall …show more content…

According to Singh & Chaturvedi (2015), with Western medicine (also known as modern medicine) being very reactive in nature, CAM tries to be proactive and help with not only the quantity of life, but also the quality of life. Using both of these types of medicine has become a growing trend when looking at present day health care. The popularity of both has been looked at and today there are many insurances that do cover popular CAM therapies in their health policies that were not covered before. This push towards CAM has been seen in the trends of insurances coverage and also physicians referring their patients to use CAM instead of Western …show more content…

Integrative medicine is, “…the combination of conventional high-tech medicine with alternative medicine in nontraditional therapies, products, and practices, using the best approaches in healing” (Saxon & Etten & Perkins, 2010). Using this integrative medicine helps for a wider spectrum of possible treatments and to focus on the health of the whole body. This ever growing change in health care has helped with the elderly and the growing issues relating to pain. Each one of these complementary and alternative medicine can benefit the elderly when dealing with chronic pain and an option when looking into pain

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