natural remedies


alternative medicine

a heterogeneous set of practices 'that are offered as an alternative to conventional medicine, for the preservation of health and the diagnosis and treatment of health-related problems; its practitioners are often called healers'; alternative health care practices constitute a vast array of treatments and ideologies, which may be well-known, exotic, mysterious, or even dangerous, and are based on no common or consistent philosophy; the practitioners range from being sincere, well-educated, and committed to their form of healing, to charlatans, deprecatingly known as 'quacks'. See Fringe medicine, Holistic medicine, Integrative medicine, Office of Alternative Medicine. Cf Unproven methods for cancer management.
Alternaive therapies, types of
Alternative (formal) systems
Acupuncture, ayurvedic medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, homeopathy, osteopathy
Body awareness
Exercise and movement therapies, eg dance therapy, martial arts, yoga
Manipulative therapies
Chiropractic, Hellerwork, Rolfing®
Mental therapies
Humanistic psychology, hypnosis
Natural remedies
Diet, eg macrobiotics, naturopathy
Sensory therapies
Art, color, and music therapy
.

natural remedies

Substances of claimed medical value derived directly from plants or other natural sources. The view that natural remedies are in some way superior to those developed scientifically is mistaken. Many useful drugs in the pharmacopoeia are derived from natural sources but these have been purified and assayed so that accurate and safe dosage becomes possible. Most readily available and useful natural remedies have been exploited in this way and the search for other useful natural drugs continues. Some natural remedies have been found to be dangerous. Many of those on sale are of little value.