CAMs for Health

What's YOUR experience of Aletrnative Therapies?

In today’s society, stress is recognised as one of the social evils of our time, blamed as being at least in part responsible for a wide range of physical and emotional afflictions from heart attacks, asthma, skin complaints and even cancers to anxiety and depression.

But stress is not the only factor affecting our lives and health. A more sedentary lifestyle, processed food, chemicals, additives, pollutants and other factors of 21st century life constitute an ever-present threat to our well-being.

Many people have discovered that alternative techniques and complementary therapies can offer significant help in promoting health, preventing the onset of illness, in palliative care and pain reduction, in pre- and post-operative situations and in all forms of healing.

To clarify the distinction from “conventional” medicine, the whole range of alternatives is commonly referred to as Complementary and Alternative Medicine or CAM, despite the fact that a majority of CAMs do not involve the ingestion of anything and many, like Yoga and the many varieties of Massage now available, are considered by most of us as just an enjoyable and healthy use of our leisure time.

Other well known CAMs include Reiki, Homeopathy, Aromatherapy, Hypnotherapy, Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Acupuncture and Autogenics as well as a wide variety of more spiritual approaches.

The House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology report on CAMs (HL Paper 123 2000) categorised specific approaches and therapies into 3 groups:

Group 1: Professionally Organised Alternative Therapies
(acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal medicine, homeopathy and osteopathy)

Group 2: Complementary Therapies
(Alexander technique, aromatherapy, Bach and other flower remedies, body work therapies, including massage, counselling stress therapy,
hypnotherapy, meditation, reflexology, shiatsu, healing,
Maharishi ayurvedic medicine, nutritional medicine, yoga)

Group 3: Alternative Disciplines
3a: Long-established and traditional systems of healthcare
(anthroposophical medicine, ayurvedic medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, Eastern medicine, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine)
3b: Other alternative disciplines
(crystal therapy, dowsing, iridology, kinesiology, radionics)

You'll find comprehensive information on most CAMs here, but remember this link is to an NHS website. The opinions expressed may well be depedent on the existence of rigorous scientific evidence (or lack of it). as well as being potentially biased towards the view of "conventional" or mainstream medicine. For further research, you may also wish to access the Department of Health Archive

Back pain is one symptom for which many sufferers will turn to CAMs. A recent study, "Perceived Benefit of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for Back Pain" (Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, May - June 2010, Vol. 23 No.3), found that the majority of respondents receiving CAM for back pain reported great benefit from the various CAM treatments. Overall, 60% of who had at least one CAM therapy in the last 12 months found remarkable relief using the most popular CAM therapies. viz: Chiropractic, Massage, Yoga/Tai Chi, Acupuncture, Herbal Therapies, and Relaxation Techniques

Whatever your view, the fact remains that, in studies, it has been found that some 75% of the population has tried one or more CAMs and some 60% had used at least one CAM within the past year.

Whilst not denying there are probably some charlatans in the CAM field and that the placebo effect (or more properly the unknown extent to which our minds can, and clearly do, directly affect our bodies) inevitably plays a part in the healing process whether delivered by conventional or alternative medicine, it's abundantly clear that a substantial majority of people gain benefit from the wide range of complementary and alternative therapies available.

WHAT'S YOUR STORY?

If you have a story or experience with the success or failure of a CAM, please tell us about it by email to watford@theflea.co.uk. Please put "CAMS" in the subject line and provide full contact details. We will publish suitable submissions, revealing only your initials and edited where we feel it necessary to minimise the possibility of libel. Please read our terms regarding the submission of material to flea magazines - you'll find a link to them at the bottom of every page on the site.

This article was created on Monday, 19th July 2010.

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