ALL treatments, whether or not they involve drugs, supplements, herbs, exercise, meditation, crystals, homeopathic, or "typical Western medicine" are ALL "alternative". In the Mid and Far East and in Africa, "Western medicine would be considered to be "alternative". What determines your definition of "standard" and "alternative" depends on your point of origin and comparison.
Even within the field of "typical Western medicine", literally hundreds to thousands of alternatives exist. Most medications known to Western medicine are actually naturally occurring products from bacteria, fungi, plants, roots, flowers, leaves, animals, etc. Many "folk" remedies are the source of now standard and commonly used prescription drugs. For example, people who suffered from high blood pressure were told to chew on a bay leaf. Well, there is a natural substance in bay that is now marketed as a prescription anti-hypertensive drug. Also, the commonly used heart medicine Digoxin (used to treat irregular heart beat) is derived from a common "weed" known as foxglove. Famously, Penicillin, one of the wonder drugs in the entire history of medicine is derived from simple bread mold. As another person wrote you, Aspirin is derived from the bark of a particular tree. Curare, used to cause muscle paralysis during surgery, is a naturally occurring substance, as is Warfarin, used to prevent blood clotting.
The point of this "lecture" is that what we in the U.S.A. consider to be "standard" medicines are rarely manufactured from nothing inside some sterile "mad scientist" laboratory. Most are based on naturally occurring substances found in the soil or from other living creatures. Chamomile tea has, for centuries, been known to help calm an excited person. Chamomile contains a natural "tranquilizer". St. John’s Wort contains a substance which increases the blood and brain level of serotonin, as do many newer anti-depressants such as Prozac and its cousins. Turkey makes us sleepy because it contains a high level of one amino acid, tryptophan (which was marketed for a few years as a prescription sleeping aid).
What Westerners typically consider "alternative" treatments, beyond herbal preparations, include things such as acupuncture, acupressure, massage, aromatherapy, meditation, chanting, prayer, religious ritual, exorcism, visualization, guided sensory imaging, sensory deprivation, achieving "higher" levels of consciousness, use of crystals and healing stones, etc. Do these work? Yes, for a great many people, all across the world. If they didn’t provide some benefit, why would they have lasted thousands of years? How and why do they work? There are as many theories as there are alternative methods of treatment. Any method of increasing concentration and focus force our brains and bodies to make a choice. You cannot be both physically and mentally calm and nervously anxious and upset at the same time; it’s simply not possible. So, meditation, chanting, seeking "oneness" or enlightenment, prayer, ritual, etc., all put us in that "choice" mode. We cannot be focused and concentrate on peace, tranquility and reaching a "higher plane" and at the same time focus on our pain or misery, so we feel better. And, the more we practice these things, the better tools they become. As we become more calm and peaceful, our bodies and minds relax, which allows our own internal healing mechanisms to work more effectively, and have been shown to improve the overall functioning of the immune system.
Psycho: <<<That you think drug synthesis labs involve mad scientists speaks volumes about your knowledge base.>>>
When did I say that??? Re-read the paragraph you quoted. You misinterpreted what I said entirely.
