| Alternative medicine has been gaining in both | | | | frowned upon by the medical profession as it once |
| popularity and acceptance in recent years. Many cities | | | | was. Treatments such as acupuncture are common, |
| now have a plethora of shops where a person | | | | and many other forms of alternative medicine are |
| interested in buying alternative medicines can go to | | | | gaining acceptance. Even watching weekly magazine |
| find whatever they are seeking, in addition to being | | | | shows like Dateline on NBC, observers can see radical |
| able to take advantage of many alternative medicine | | | | alternative medicine practitioners curing patients with |
| services at local practitioners' offices. | | | | terminal illnesses to the wonderment of experts. |
| Alternative medicine is simply a way of referencing a | | | | Some are scams to be sure, but some are simply |
| type of treatment that is not officially recognized by | | | | inexplicable, and professionals who witness the |
| the medical establishment as a relief or cure. There | | | | events tend not to endorse them, but neither do |
| are literally thousands of practices that fall under this | | | | they dismiss them. |
| category, and most people would be surprised to find | | | | Part of the reason for the increase in acceptance of |
| some of the items that either are or were once | | | | alternative medicine is the recognition of the powers |
| considered to be against the grain, or categorized as | | | | of the mind over the body. There is increasing |
| "alternative" medicine. | | | | evidence that a patient's attitude can sometimes |
| Not too far back in medical history, doctors did not | | | | shape the physical response, and this in part helps to |
| wash their hands while helping a woman through child | | | | illustrate why alternative medicine is more well |
| labor. The result was thousands of contracted | | | | received than it used to be. A patient who believes |
| infections and death due to bacterial transfer. | | | | he or she is doing better, often will. |
| Doctors who advocated the practice of | | | | Before going out to walk on coals or ingest an ear |
| hand-washing or warned of unseen microbes were | | | | tuft of a koala though, it is important to do some |
| shunned and mocked by their professional peers, and | | | | research into the practice or practitioner one is |
| only in the last century has sterilization been a | | | | considering for advice. Alternative medicine, by its |
| common and then regulated medical practice. It is | | | | definition, is not regulated and that leaves a lot of |
| hard to believe that something we take so much for | | | | room for quacks to take advantage of people's ills to |
| granted was once considered alternative medicine, | | | | make a quick buck. Don't rush into anything, and if it |
| but it was so. | | | | appears shady, do not partake of it. |
| In the 21st century, alternative medicine is not as | | | | |