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The term “traditional medicine” is a misnomer. The medicine that is traditional to a culture is that which is historically rooted in a given society. Traditional medicine in the USA is called “American folk medicine” and includes schools of thought like apitherapy, “Vermont folk medicine,” and Native American traditions. All cultures include beliefs about wellness and healing, most of which use earth-based elements, like gathering wild plants and making herbal remedies. Shamanism, midwifery, and witchcraft are three examples of traditional healing techniques. Thus, the predominant “allopathic” medical model is not truly traditional medicine, but “conventional medicine.”

Conventional medicine is based on the scientific model and is sometimes called “evidence-based medicine.” This method became the predominant healing modality in industrialized countries during the twentieth century. Proponents of conventional medicine are often critical of other forms of treatment, citing the need for well-structured peer reviewed testing and studies. Many practitioners of this method are concerned that techniques they often label as “alternative medicine” increase a patient’s risk. They’re concerned about unexpected side effects, the dangers of self-medication and regulation (by not seeking qualified medical assistance), and combining traditional medicine with unproven—and potentially dangerous—treatments.

Many health providers who practice outside the belief systems of traditional medicine prefer to call their work “natural medicine.” They see the human body as part of nature, which they feel can provide answers to every health need. Often critical of conventional medicine, they cite studies that highlight the risks of using the mainstream health care system. Negative examples are many, and include attempting rapid weight loss with drugs like Fen-phen and use of unhealthy liquid fasts, rather than fueling the body with nutritious whole foods. Many believe that greed lies at the core of USA organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as drug industry pharmaceutical giants, insurance companies, hospitals, medical doctors, nurses, and myriad health associations and lobbying groups.

There are efforts underway to create umbrellas that cover both conventional medicine and alternative medicine. The term “complementary medicine” has been coined to describe an approach wherein alternative medicine is used in conjunction with—more accurately, in support of—conventional medicine. The term “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) describes this approach, and includes a wide array of non-conventional techniques. The traditional side wants to apply a more scientific and evidence-based approach, while the natural-alternative side acknowledges the need for sound science, but wants to move quickly away from drug-based therapies. Nearly all alternative medicine practitioners support using evidence-based approaches that are truly intended to discover the best treatment methodologies (not just make the conventional establishment richer).

Andrew Thomas Weil, a well-known Harvard University trained M.D., is a proponent of “integrative medicine” and he feels that physicians, who are often very unhealthy, should instead be positive examples of wellness. At the University of Arizona, his Program in Integrative Medicine is working hard to transform notions about the physician-client relationship, help doctors to become models of vibrant health, and integrate the best of all possible medical paradigms. For example, using techniques like herbal stress relief can help doctors and their patients, most often without suffering the negative side effects that using most drugs creates. He sees integrative medicine as including and transcending the tenuous partnership between complementary and alternative medicine.

With health care costs rising, environmental problems like water contamination posing more toxic health risks each day, and huge numbers of the USA baby boomer population entering retirement age, we all need our health practitioners to stop bickering and protecting their turf by “being right.” We need the best of all worlds, from the oldest traditions to the most leading-edge scientific breakthroughs. We need safety. We need efficacy. We need support in our efforts to live long and healthy lives. If the medical industry can set aside greed, fear, and self-righteousness, and focus on the well-being of humanity, the current dysfunctional systems can transform and create a new age of synergistic cooperation, medical breakthrough, longevity, and wellness. Humankind expects and deserves no less.