The Rise of CAM
Complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM) is “a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine” (NCCAM). Some of the most common practices include: acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, herbalism, naturopathy, ayurveda, massage, yoga and meditation. The core philosophy of these therapies is about healing and understanding health in a new way. More and more value and attention is being given to CAM therapies as an effective option for improving health and preventing illness. On a consumer level, the demand is constant and growing like never before. With our current economic and healthcare situation, this transformation toward a more natural and holistic approach to health and healing could not have come at a better time.

The role of CAM in health and healing is becoming more prominent in our society today through modern medical practice, healing practitioners, and schools. Here in the Twin Cities we have Abbott Northwestern’s Institute for Health and Healing, with one of the largest outpatient integrative medicine services available in the country. In the education sector we have the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. Minnesota is also one of the most well known states for alternative healthcare practitioners like acupuncturists, chiropractors, naturopaths, herbalists and homeopaths.

Transforming Lives: What CAM offers us
At the heart of the CAM approach to health is the ability to heal deeply and transform lives. It also offers us invaluable concepts to contemplate and practical benefits to consider in our own healthcare.

Understanding healing
CAM continues to grow because it offers a system to explore our understanding of healing. All of us have a deep need within us to understand what it means to heal and how to heal. Healing is a dynamic process, similar to disease. We know this in some way within each of ourselves. For example, fibromyalgia, a migraine, depression, or anxiety, do not just develop overnight. They are the result of our day-to-day living, combined with a multitude of factors that continually create and build upon one another and contribute to an imbalance, or disease process.

To be listened to
The healing process begins when we feel listened to and understood. This unfortunately is not given space in our busy lives and healthcare system. More often than not we settle for the magic pill the commercials promise. However, behind the superficial desire for a quick fix there is a deeper desire to be listened to and understood. This is the philosophy behind compassionate, patient-centered care within CAM therapies. To listen compassionately, to simply “Be” there and help put things into perspective. It has such a huge capacity and people know and appreciate it. Patient-centered care answers the demand for having more time for consultation and discussion of people’s needs. In my own homeopathic practice, many people reaffirm this notion by sharing comments such as, “You are the first person that has really listened to me and understood me, thank you.”

Responsibility for our health
CAM also teaches us to have responsibility toward our own health, which at times falls short. In one way or another we put off our health and do not really worry about it. It is only when something goes wrong we feel the doctor is responsible and he/she should take care of it. It is an ingrained habit of traditionally giving our power to the healthcare system. Health is not thought about on a daily basis, in terms of what we eat, do, think and say. These have a powerful influence though on our health in the long term. An alternative health practitioner can help identify many of these variables and help us to better understand our role and responsibility in our health. Many negative consequences can then be prevented and we will become freer and more creative in our lives as a result.

Transitioning to a new approach
The rise of CAM also allows us the opportunity to transition to something new, something more dynamic and full of potential. To allow ourselves to do this, we often have to come to a breaking point in our own healing. With established social norms, advertisements, insurance plans, and even family dynamics, the pursuit of a new approach toward health can be difficult. It often requires a lot of effort, or simply coming to a dead end in answers to our health concerns. Having an open and inquiring mind, and confidence to pursue what your gut tells you, is the first step in making a needed transition. By making this transition we reap the countless benefits to our own health, learn about a more sustainable and effective approach to healthcare, and support a system that is much more economical for us, and healthcare as a whole.

Effective and well-established
CAM therapies also offer us some of the most effective and well-established types of healthcare available today. One of the best measurements of how effective a modality is its qualitative outcome. Qualitatively, people report repeatedly they feel better and healthier overall, as their specific concern also heals. Medical research is beginning to recognize this as a valid outcome measure and incorporating it into research design. Quantitative research through NCCAM and NIH also supports the effectiveness of many of these practices.

Systems like acupuncture, chiropractic, naturopathy and homeopathy also have a well-established history as comprehensive forms of healthcare. Chinese medicine has been practiced for thousands of years and continues to demonstrate its efficacy in many areas.  The system of naturopathic medicine dates back to the late 1800’s, has four well-known schools within the US, and offers multiple modalities to benefit health. The chiropractic profession has grown steadily since 1895, with over 20 percent of adults engaging the beneficial effects of chiropractic care, according to a 2002 CAM national survey. Homeopathy is over 200 years old and has an excellent track record, dating back to the 1800’s cholera epidemic, as well as effectively treating many modern day chronic illnesses like fibromyalgia (Bell, 2004). According to a CAM study through the National Center for Health Statistics, over 44 percent of people considered naturopathy in 2004, and 2.1 million used acupuncture in 2002. Homeopathy is one of the fastest growing alternative modalities, with over 3.4 million adults having used it in 2002, while in 2005 was recognized as “the second most common form of alternative medicine in the world” (WHO, 2005). Overall, it is evident that CAM modalities continue to grow rapidly due to public demand for better health.

Accessible, convenient and affordable
The accessibility, convenience and affordability of CAM therapies are also an advantage for many individuals and families. These types of therapies are widely available, scheduling is easy and appointment availability is usually within the same week. Service is often prompt and convenient, with shorter and less frequent office visits in general. Practitioners are usually available for after hour’s calls, and messages are commonly returned within the same day. One practitioner can conveniently be engage for multiple concerns, such as chronic and acute needs, rather than having multiple health care providers for different concerns.

CAM therapies are also highly affordable. They are often much less expensive in comparison to conventional care and its medications. CAM therapies also have a high efficacy rate and help prevent illness, which reduces the need for spending on regular office visits, and may save many from expensive allopathic procedures and medications. Overall, CAM therapies provide a real cost benefit to families making healthcare more economical for both short-term and long-term care.

A complex systems approach
Many modalities within CAM utilize what modern science terms as a complex systems approach to health. Acupuncture, naturopathy, chiropractic and homeopathy are the most well known in this area. A complex system is like a network, where individual parts interact and influence the system as a whole. The system is seen as dynamic, not static. Within homeopathy for example, a person’s illness in a given location is an emergent property of the person as a whole, indivisible system, not something separate that is to be isolated out and treated. “There is self-similarity at every level of scale, down to the local parts. This self-similarity concept is parallel to the clinical notion in homeopathy that deep examination of any symptom will reveal the larger disturbance in the person as a whole,” for which a single homeopathic remedy is indicated (Bell, 2005). This type of complex systems approach has far reaching benefits to a person’s health.

Healing and CAM
Healing is at the heart of all the benefits of CAM therapies. They deeply and gently heal both mind and body. As healing progresses under alternative care a person is able to handle problems with more ease and is not affected by the health problem as before. They become less limited on a physical, mental and emotional level. Essentially they become freer from the problem they came with and more free in general. This healing of suffering and increased freedom on all levels of a person is what is so powerful and heart warming to see in the complimentary and alternative healing arts, and as a homeopath.

References
NCCAM – National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine -www.nccam.nih.gov
World Health Report (2005). “WHO Global Atlas of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicine” (Map Volume).=
Bell, Iris MD, PhD (2005). “Complex Systems and Network Science: A Bridge toward Translating Classical Homeopathy into Appropriate Research Designs.”

Bell, Iris MD, PhD, et al. (2004). “Improved clinical status in fibromyalgia patients treated with individualized homeopathic remedies versus placebo.” Rheumatology, Jan. 20 issue.

Published in Twin Cities Naturally, April 2009, Minneapolis, MN