- Our dictionary of alternative medicine covers topics that have been identified as being related to alternative
medicine (CAM); wellness, or
are about an alternative position on health, healing, and/or illness.
- Our dictionary of alternative medicine is a comprehensive work on the branches of alternative medicine, alternative
treatment methods, as well as the people and the terms and concepts commonly referenced in the field of complementary
and alternative medicine.
- Our dictionary of alternative medicine provides a lot of useful information.
- Our dictionary of alternative medicine builds upon the work started by the GNU Free Documentation Project
on Alternative Medicine.
- You can find what you are looking for by either manually scrolling through our dictionary, or by using our
Google site search command.
Dictionary of Alternative Medicine - J
- Isaac Jennings cofounded a healing system called
Orthopathy.
- Journaling is a mind-body
technique for reducing stress by writing about stressful events in your life.
- Junk food is any food that is high in calories while
being low in nutritional value. People interested in wellness
considered it an unhealthy choice because these foods contains excessive amounts of fat, sugar, or salt.
Dictionary of Alternative Medicine - K
- Karma - According to the law
of Karma, performance of positive action results with the reaction of a good conditioning in one's experience,
whereas a negative action results in a reaction of a bad response. This may be an immediate result following the
act, or a delayed result occurring either in the present life or the next. Thus, meritorious acts can create rebirth
into a higher station while evil acts might result in rebirth as a human living in less desirable circumstances.
- John Harvey Kellogg - promoter of colon
therapy at the Battle Creek Sanitarium
in Battle Creek Michigan.
- Will Keith Kellogg - inventor of corn flakes
in 1894 and manger of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
- Sebastian Kneipp - a priest who asked for a
different life, not for better pills.
- Korean hand acupuncture
- Dolores Krieger developed therapeutic
touch.
Dictionary of Alternative Medicine - L
- Jack LaLanne - For over 30 years, Jack promoted exercise
on television. He is also famous for a series of well-publicized feats of strength that always took place on his
birthday.
- LDL (Low density lipoprotein) is commonly referred to as
bad cholesterol due to the link between high LDL levels and
cardiovascular disease. People interested in wellness
consider it a risk factor for atherosclerosis
and cardiovascular
disease.
- Life extension consists of attempts to extend
human life beyond the maximum natural lifespan.
- Lifestyle describes the particular attitudes, habits
or behaviors associated with an individual.
- Lifestyle diseases are diseases that appear
to become ever more widespread as countries become more industrialized. They are different from other diseases
because they are potentially preventable with changes in diet,
lifestyle, and environment.
- Like cures like - There were two opposing schools of medieval medical practice. The Galenists argued that contraries cure. The Paracelsians argued that like cures like: a poison in the body would be cured by a similar poison. The medieval docorine that like cures like predated homeopathy.
- List of diets
- Living foods diet
- Longevity - Is a goal pursued by people interested
in wellness.
- Low density lipoprotein (LDL)
- Lower back pain can be either an
acute or chronic disabling
condition. According to a recent
survey, 16.8% of the adult American population use complementary
and alternative medicine to treat back pain. (See CDC Advance Data
Report below.)
- Benedict Lust - purchased the rights to the term
naturopathy from John
Scheel.
Dictionary of Alternative Medicine - M
- Macrobiotic lifestyle
- Magnetic healing
is based on the concept that certain medical disorders can be treated
by exposure to magnetic fields. Proponents believe that magnetic fields
emanating from permanent magnets placed close to the body can cause
bonesto heal faster, relieve pain, and perform other forms of healing
to the body. It is most commonly recommended by practitioners as a cure
for joint disorders and back problems.
- Manipulative and body-based methods is the name of a NCCAM
classification, for alternative treatments that are based on
manipulation and/or movement of one or more parts of the body (See also
Manipulative therapy).
According to a recent rsurvey, 10% of the adult American population (table 4 on page 10) use this form of complementary and alternative medicine. (See CDC Advance Data Report below.)
- Cheng_Man-ch'ing
- Manipulative therapy involves use of body work or massage therapy and other physical manipulation of the body for healing, such as osteopathy, and chiropractic. According to a recent survey, 10% of the adult American population use this form of complementary and alternative medicine. (See CDC Advance Data Report below.)
- Massage therapy
"involves pressing, rubbing, and otherwise manipulating muscles and
other soft tissues of the body, causing them to relax and lengthen and
allowing pain relieving oxygen and blood to flow to the affected area.
Using their hands and sometimesfeet, elbows, and forearms, massage therapists may use over 75 different methods, such as Swedish message, deep-tissue massage, neuromuscular massage, and manual lymph drainage. Massage is considered effective for relieving any type of pain in the body's soft tissue, including back, neck, and shoulder pain, headaches, bursitis, and tendonitis. (See CDC Advance Data Report below.)
- Kiiko Matsumoto - modern charismatic teacher of Japanese acupuncture styles.
- Medical acupuncture - "Today, acupuncture describes a family of procedures involving stimulation of anatomical points on the body by a variety of techniques.
American practices of acupuncture incorporate medical traditions from China, Japan, Korea, and other countries.
The acupuncture technique that has been most
studied scientifically involves penetrating the skin with thin, solid, metallic needles that are manipulated by
the hands or by electrical stimulation." [NCCAM].
- Medical intuition (Medical intuitive)
- Medical scientism is a pejorative
expression used by some in alternative
medicine to refer to the attitude and methods of the typical researcher conducting medical research.
- Medicine (traditional)
- List of medical symptoms
- Meditation -- "Mental
calmness and physical relaxation is achieved [with meditation] by suspending the stream of thoughts that normally
occupy the mind. Generally performed once or twice a day for approximately 20 minutes at a time, meditation is
used to reduce stress, alter hormone
levels, and elevate one's mood, In addition, a person experienced
in meditation can achieve a reduction in blood pressure,
adrenaline levels, heart
rate, and skin temperature." (See CDC Advance Data Report below.)
- Mediterranean diet
- Mega-vitamin therapy, or Orthomolecular
medicine, refers to the regular consumption of vitamin
supplements by people interested in improving their wellness.
- Menopause
- Meridian therapy - Treatment in meridian therapy
is designed to balance the energy, called Qi, or chi,
between the meridians of the body. Following a meridian in the normal flow direction is thought to be strengthening,
while tracing in the opposite direction supposedly will weaken and sedate the meridian. In applied
kinesiology the term meridian therapy is often used in place of acupuncture
because the latter term refers to stimulating the points by puncturing the skin, which is only one method of stimulating
acupuncture points.
- Midwifery
- Migraine
- The mind-body connection
says that the causes, development, and outcomes of an illness are
determined as much from the interactionof psychological and social
factors as they are due to the biological factors of health.
- Mind-Body Interventions is the name of a NCCAM
classification, that coves a variety of techniques designed to enhance the mind's capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms.
- Mindfulness meditation
- Minerals - For people interested in
wellness, minerals as a dietary
supplement are taken to supplement their diet in the belief that it will help to improve their health.
- Modality classifications are a classification by who is performing the CAM
treatments.
- Professionalized
forms of CAM, refers to all doctor - patient relationships where the professional is functioning in the role of
a doctor, whether licensed or not. The professional is providing some type of treatment which the patient cannot
perform on themselves.
- Self-care
- For people interested in wellness,
self-care modalities are forms of CAM that an individual can perform by themselves, even if they need to be trained
to do so. These cover techniques that can be self-taught with the aid of books or instructional videos, or can
be learned from an experienced practitioner. Although some initial training is needed, once these techniques are
learned, you will need no additional outside assistance unless you want to improve your skills.
- Group performances - For people interested in wellness,
group modalities are forms of CAM that an individual must usually seek out and perform with a group of like minded
people, such as Aerobics or Yoga.
- Modifiable Risk Factors are those conditions
that, when present, increase the likelihood that a lifestyle
disease or illness will occur that can be altered so that the likelihood of getting a lifestyle disease will
be less.
- Moxa is an herbal preparation of mugwort
dried and rolled into a pole which resembles a cigar. It is not smoked, but used for warming regions on the body,
such as acupuncture points. Use of moxa is called
moxibustion. It is one of the techniques of traditional
Chinese medicine.
- Moxibustion
- Multiple chemical sensitivity
- Michael T. Murray - author of many modern
books on naturopathic medicine.
- Music therapy is the use of music to achieve alternative therapeutic goals. For people interested in wellness,
music can be used to treat depression,
anxiety, and
insomnia.
- Caroline Myss - coined the term medical
intuitive
Dictionary of Alternative Medicine - N
- Devi Nambudripad - founder of NAET,
controversial allergy treatment
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
- NCCAM
classifications has classified CAM therapies
into five different categories, or domains.
- Alternative Medical System
- Mind-Body Intervention
- Biologically Based Therapy
- Manipulative Methods
- Energy Therapy
- Nature cure is the progenitor of naturopathy
in Europe. It postulates that all disease is due to violations of
nature's laws, and that true healing consists in a return to natural
habits.
- Natural Health is an eclectic self-care system
of natural therapies that purports to build and restore health by working with the natural
recuperative powers of the human body.
- Natural hygiene is a variation of the nature
cure. Its major practices are fasting, food
combining, and a raw food diet.
- Natural therapy is the treatment method used
by advocates of natural health.
- Natural medicine - For people interested in
wellness, natural medicine is viewed
as a more natural approach than prescription drugs and surgeries are to treating health conditions. It generally
refers to either natural health or naturopathy.
- Naturopathy, or Naturopathic
Medicine, "proposes that there is a healing power in the body that establishes, maintains, and restores
health. Practitioners work with the patient with a goal of supporting this power, through treatments such as
nutrition and lifestyle
counseling, dietary supplements, medicinal
plants, exercise, homeopathy,
and treatments from traditional Chinese
medicine." [NCCAM].
- New Age loosely describes alternative spirituality and
lifestyle practices, books, ideas, teachers, and groups. New agers are typically interested in developing their
wellness.
- Paul Nogier - French founder of Auriculotherapy
- Nutritional supplements include vitamins,
mineral, amino
acid, enzyme, and metabolite
supplements taken to supplement a person's diet and are, thus, considered as foods that promote health and wellness
in general. They are a subset of dietary supplements.
Specifically excluded are supplements marketed as aids to loosing weight, herbs,
and organ tissues; because they are used as medicines
to treat a specific health condition by those who take them.
References
- Barnes P, Powell-Griner E, McFann K, Nahin R. CDC Advance Data Report #343. Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Use Among Adults: United States, 2002. May 27, 2004.
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