An Overview

Complementary therapies, alternative remedies, non-conventional treatments and holistic health care are just some of the names used by different people to describe a diverse collection of health care practices - such as acupuncture, ayurveda, herbalism, homeopathy, massage therapy and naturopathic medicine - not generally considered to fall within the scope of conventional western medicine.

What's common to most definitions is the idea that practitioners of such therapies treat the whole person, rather than the disease, in large part by stimulating the body's own natural healing powers to heal itself. In their 1997 book, 'Alternative Health Care, The Canadian Directory,' authors Bonni L. Harden and Craig R. Harden suggest that practitioners of complementary medicine see symptoms of illness as 'signs of imbalance that must be corrected to help prevent disease and promote good health. Some practitioners prefer the term 'Complementary Health Care,' because they do not claim to replace conventional medical care, particularly in case of injury or serious disease.'

Whether or not any form of complementary therapies, however, has an effect on 'serious disease,' increasing numbers of North Americans are beginning to view it as a viable alternative, or adjunct, to conventional medical practice in the treatment of all sorts of serious conditions, including cancer, heart disease - and arthritis. In fact, the use of complementary medicine is especially widespread among people with arthritis, many of whom are frustrated by the lack of success conventional treatments may be providing. What some of them have discovered is that certain forms of  complementary therapies do seem to offer a measure of relief from their disease and its relentless symptoms - a discovery that puts them in good company, if numbers are any indication.

Indeed, a 1993 study in Canada Health Monitor reported that one in five Canadians had used some form of alternative therapy, while a study in the same year published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that one in three Americans had tried some form of non-conventional therapy. Also in 1993, Toronto East General and Orthopaedic Hospital became the first hospital in Canada to accept a controversial non-conventional therapy known as Therapeutic Touch into its policy and procedures manual, and to allow its nurses to practise the technique.

In the years since, a number of other Canadian hospitals have followed suit, while legislators in several provinces have passed laws to regulate the use of various forms of complementary medicine; in other provinces and in federal health departments, politicians have begun conferring with and asking advice from medical experts on the regulation and potential use of non-conventional therapies and medicines, including acupuncture and herbal medicines.

Other signs that complementary medicine is on the rise are everywhere: In 1996, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court upheld an earlier Appeal Board decision in favour of a woman who had petitioned the Workers' Compensation Board for repayment of fees she'd incurred for treatment in environmental medicine, which the court called 'a relatively new and developing discipline.'

That same year, on the opposite coast, the Vancouver Hospital and Health Science Centre announced plans to open an Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine that would combine research, treatment and education. And, in Toronto, the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine reported that enrolment had more than doubled.

In 1999, Health Canada established the Office of Natural Health Products (ONHP) to coordinate the development of a new regulatory framework for dealing with natural health products.
The products have existed in a regulatory limbo, regulated by the Food and Drugs Act, without being either a drug or a food. With the increased mainstream use of natural health products, it became apparent to the government that a regulatory body would be required to deal directly with the distinct nature of these products. The body would help to ensure a balance between Canadian consumer's freedom of choice and the assurance of consumer safety.

This page was last reviewed/updated on : 02/23/2008