There is a lot of talk these days of Alternative Medicines or Complementary and Alternative Medicine s (CAM, in short). For a common man like me these terms are very confusing. What is alternative medicine? When a medicine prescribed by your doctor is not in stock, the chemist may offer the same formulation of another company, obviously with a different brand name. Is that the alternative medicine we are talking about? If that is so, then why is there all the fuss about it? And we know it is a common practice for pharmaceutical companies to give samples of their medicines to medical practitioners with compliments. Are those the complementary medicines they are talking about? It doesnt make any sense!

Lets get this straight. Registered medical practitioners such as doctors, nurses, therapists, etc. follow certain practices and prescribe certain medicines in accordance with the system of medical education they have gone through; we shall call this standard care. Practices and products used or intended to be used for treating a patient that are not a part of the standard care are termed as complementary medicine or alternative medicine. Such practices and products that are used along with the standard care such as aromatherapy, acupuncture or herbal medicines will be termed as complementary medicine; those that are used as alternative to, or in place of, standard care- such as homeopathic or ayurvedic medicines - are called alternative medicine.

There is a catch in this definition of CAM. As you must have realized, the definition of CAM is very relative. In the first place, standard is not the same in all places and at all times. In the Western world, allopathic system of medicine is taught and practiced and so ayurvedic medicine system is classified under CAM. In India, for instance, Ayurvedic system of medicine, which is an ancient Indian system, is taught at university level, degrees are awarded in ayurvedic medicine; ayurvedic medicines are manufactured and approved. Would Allopathic then be termed as CAM in India? Moreover, a practice or product that is categorized as CAM today may get absorbed under the standard once its efficacy is established and then it would not be CAM any more!

We shall look into some of these issues in future.