Medicine, conventional

Complementary and alternative medicines A group of practices and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine, including alternative medical systems (e.g., homeopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine), mind-body interventions (e.g., meditation and mental healing), biologically-based therapies (e.g., dietary supplements, vitamins, herbs, and other natural products), manipulative body-based methods (e.g., acupuncture and massage), and energy therapies (e.g., therapeutic touch and bioelectromagnetic-based therapies). 

Medicine, of course, was never monolithic, and well into our own century renewed challenges to reductive orthodoxy have appeared, even within mainstream conventional medicine constitutionalism, psychosomatic medicine, neo-Hippocratic medicine, neo-humoralism, social medicine, Catholic humanism, and, in Europe, homeopathy and naturopathy (Lawrence... 

However, the public has not abandoned conventional medicine for alternative healthcare. Most Americans seek out alternative therapies as a complement to their conventional healthcare whereas only a small percentage of Americans rely primarily on alternative care. Why have (30) so many patients turned to alternative therapies Frustrated by the time constraints of managed care and alienated by conventional medicine s focus on technology, some feel that a holistic approach to healthcare better reflects their beliefs and values. Others seek therapies that will relieve symptoms associated with chronic disease, symp-(35) toms that mainstream medicine cannot treat. 

Complementary and alternative medicine, which includes a range of practices outside of conventional medicine such as herbs, homeopathy, massage therapy, yoga, and acupuncture, hold increasing appeal for Americans. In fact, according to one estimate, 42% of Americans have used alternative therapies. In all age groups, the use of unconventional healthcare practices has steadily increased in the last 30 years, and the trend is likely to continue, although people born before 1945 are the least likely to turn to these therapies. 

Fourth, they are difficult to measure in body fluids. There are very precise ways of measuring very small quantities, in plasma or urine, of almost all conventional medicines and this has made it possible to make the kinetic measurements we have been considering earlier. Some of the techniques for the big protein medicines are not as reliable. For example, one way of tracing a big molecule s progress through the body is to label it with a radioactive tracer. Biopharmaceuticals can be labelled with, for example, radio-iodine (Iodine-125) which can be counted in samples of plasma or urine. However as proteins are similar or identical to normal proteins they can be metabolised and the label can become part of a metabolite or another breakdown product. Counting the iodine radioactivity in this case will not be measuring the parent molecule alone. 

Unlike the regulatory reproductive toxicity testing of conventional medicines, the developmental toxicity testing of vaccines may be performed in a single species, provided that the chosen species is relevant for the vaccine in question. 

Dietary supplements are products taken by mouth that contain an ingredient intended to supplement the diet, such as vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, organ tissues, and metabolites. Dietary supplements come in many forms, including extracts, concentrates, tablets, capsules, gel caps, liquids, and powders. They have special requirements for labeling. In the U.S., the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 states that dietary supplements are considered foods, not drugs. (Note that some dietary supplements are used in conventional medicine for example, folic acid... 

Many of these products are being used for specific medical conditions. The top five conditions, in many cases are refractory to conventional medicine, namely menopausal symptoms, colds, allergies/sinus, muscle/joint/ back pain, and premenstrual/menstrual symptoms. 

In 1997, Landmark Healthcare Inc. commissioned a report entitled The Landmark Report on Public Perceptions of Alternative Care. They conducted 1500 telephone interviews in November 1997, using random digit selection. The survey included a representative sample of minority patients—85%o Caucasian, 8%o African-Americans, and 3% Hispanic. The survey found that 17%o of the U.S. population used botanical dietary supplements in the past year and even more striking, 75 /o of the U.S. population was most likely to use botanical products. Eighty-five percent of those reported to have taken a botanical supplement self-prescribed and self-administered the products. Three-fourths of patients who used alternative forms of care did so in conjunction with conventional medicine, yet 15% of patients replaced their conventional treatment with alternative care (16). 

A general disillusionment with conventional medicines, coupled with the desire for a natural lifestyle has resulted in an increasing utilization of herbal medicinal products (HMPs) across the developed world. Sales of botanical products in the United States have increased sharply in recent years, according to industry reports. An estimated 4 billion was spent in health food stores in 2000 for botanical products in bulk, as well as capsules, tablets, extracts, and teas (1 ). A similar trend is noted for European countries (5). 

Lahans, T. 2000. Integrated medicine the interface between oriental and conventional medicine. J. Naturopathic Med. 7 28-33. 

Riley D, Fischer M, Singh B, Haidvogl M, Heger M. 2001. Homeopathy and conventional medicine an outcomes study comparing effectiveness in a primary care setting. J Alt Comp Med 7 149-159. 

Brazier NC, Levine MA. Drug-herb interaction among commonly used conventional medicines a compendium for health care professionals. Am J Ther. 2003 10 163-169. 

The majority of alternative medicine users appear to turn to it not so much because they feel dissatisfied with conventional medicine, but largely because they find these health-care alternatives to be more congruent with their own values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations toward health and life. Also, they are more educated and more likely to report their health status. 

For modem Native Americans who live on reservations, the use of herbs and other traditional methods of healing remains vitally important and is still preferred to conventional medicine. The Cherokee of the Southeast recognized more than 100 types of medicinal herb. Some were used because they resembled the causative agent of the disease or because they looked like the part of the body affected. Herbs were gathered after ritual prayers and promises not to take more than was... 

Lead explosion and other directed synthesis methods may uncover better compounds, but these may not be the best. Further lead refinement may be necessary, more likely using chemistries that are less amenable to high-throughput methods, to design compounds which will enhance the properties still further. This activity still lies firmly in the domain of conventional medicinal chemistry. 

The lack of support from physicians causes great stress to MCS patients, and when the MCS patient is prescribed conventional medicine to treat certain symptoms, the situation could even get worse in reaction to the medicine. Treatment with antidepressants — used because the doctor thinks the condition is psychosomatic — can cause other serious health problems, according to the experience ofMCS patients and specific research (see entry 21 about which therapies are found to be helpful). 

In 2001 Alivisatos, writing in Scientific American, identified several clinical targets for bionanotechnology [16]. As with conventional medicine there were two main threads diagnosis and therapy. Many existing and proposed applications of... 

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