Alternative medicine refers to practices that are claimed to have healing properties but are not scientifically proven. It includes practices like homeopathy, acupuncture, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, and others. These practices are based on cultural traditions, beliefs about supernatural energies, or pseudoscience rather than evidence from scientific research. Examples of alternative medicine types discussed include herbalism, body manipulation techniques, energy therapies that believe in concepts like biofields, and faith-based healing practices.

1. Welcome
Made by M.K.Kruthi class X D
English holiday home work

3. • Alternative medicine is any practice that is put forward as
having the healing effects of medicine, but is not founded
on evidence gathered using the scientific method. It consists
of a wide range of health care practices, products and
therapies. Examples include new and traditional
medicine practices such
as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, energy medicine,
various forms of acupuncture, traditional Chinese
medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, and Christian faith healing.
The treatments are those that are not part of the
conventional, science-based healthcare system.

4. Natural medicine Symbols
Logo for alternative
medicines

5. Types of alternative medicine
• Alternative medicine consists of a wide range of health care
practices, products, and therapies. The shared feature is a claim to
heal that is not based on the scientific method. Alternative
medicine practices are diverse in their foundations and
methodologies. Alternative medicine practices may be classified
by their cultural origins or by the types of beliefs upon which they
are based.
• Methods may incorporate or base themselves on traditional
medicinal practices of a particular culture, folk knowledge,
superstition , spiritual beliefs, belief in supernatural energies
(antiscience), pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda,
fraud, new or different concepts of health and disease, and any
bases other than being proven by scientific methods.
• Different cultures may have their own unique traditional or belief
based practices developed recently or over thousands of years,
and specific practices or entire systems of practices.

6. Systems based on unscientific beliefs or
traditional practices.
• Alternative medical practices can be based on an underlying belief
system inconsistent with science, or on traditional cultural practices.
Unscientific belief systems
Alternative medical systems can be based on a common belief systems
that are not consistent with facts of science, such as in
• Homeopathy
• Naturopathic medicine
Traditional ethnic systems
Alternative medical systems may be based on traditional
medicine practices, such as traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic
in India, or practices of other cultures around the world
• Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Ayurvedic medicine

7. Homeopathy
Homeopathy is a system developed in a belief that
a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease
in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick
people. It was developed before knowledge
of atoms and molecules, and of basic chemistry,
which shows that repeated dilution as practiced in
homeopathy produces only water and that
homeopathy is scientifically
implausible. Homeopathy is considered quackery in
the medical community.

9. Naturopathic medicine
• Naturopathic medicine is based on a belief
that the body heals itself using a
supernatural vital energy that guides bodily
processes, a view in conflict with the
paradigm of evidence-based medicine. Many
naturopaths have opposed vaccination and
"scientific evidence does not support claims
that naturopathic medicine can
cure cancer or any other disease

11. Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Traditional Chinese Medicine is a combination of traditional
practices and beliefs developed over thousands of years in
China, together with modifications made by the Communist
party. Common practices include herbal
medicine, acupuncture (insertion of needles in the body at
specified points), massage (Tui na), exercise (qigong), and
dietary therapy. The practices are based on belief in a
supernatural energy called qi, considerations of Chinese
Astrology and Chinese numerology, traditional use of herbs
and other substances found in China, a belief that a map of
the body is contained on the tongue which reflects changes
in the body, and an incorrect model of the anatomy and
physiology of internal organs.

13. Ayurvedic medicine
• Ayurvedic medicine is a traditional medicine of India. Ayurveda believes
in the existence of three elemental substances, the doshas (called Vata,
Pitta and Kapha), and states that a balance of the doshas results in
health, while imbalance results in disease. Such disease-inducing
imbalances can be adjusted and balanced using traditional herbs,
minerals and heavy metals. Ayurveda stresses the use of plant-based
medicines and treatments, with some animal products, and added
minerals, including sulfur, arsenic, lead, copper sulfate. Andrew Weil, an
American promoter of alternative medicine, wrote that in Ayurvedic
medicine, "being 'healthy' is more than the absence of disease - it is a
radiant state of vigor and energy, which is achieved by balance, or
moderation, in food intake, sleep, and other activities of daily life,
complemented by various treatments including a wide variety of plant-
based medicines".
• Safety concerns have been raised about Ayurveda, with two U.S. studies
finding about 20 percent of Ayurvedic Indian-manufactured patent
medicines contained toxic levels of heavy metals such
as lead, mercury and arsenic. Other concerns include the use of herbs
containing toxic compounds and the lack of quality control in Ayurvedic
facilities. Incidents of heavy metal poisoning have been attributed to the
use of these compounds in the United States.

15. Supernatural energies and
misunderstanding of energy in physics
• Bases of belief may include belief in existence
of supernatural energies undetected by the
science of physics, as in biofields, or in belief
in properties of the energies of physics that
are inconsistent with the laws of physics, as in
energy medicine
• Biofields
• Energy medicines

16. Biofields
• Biofield therapies are intended to influence energy fields that, it is
purported, surround and penetrate the body. Writers such as noted
astrophysicist and advocate of skeptical thinking (Scientific
skepticism) Carl Sagan (1934-1996) have described the lack of
empirical evidence to support the existence of the putative energy
fields on which these therapies are predicated.
• Acupuncture is a component of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In
acupuncture, it is believed that a supernatural energy called qi flows
through the universe and through the body, and helps propel the
blood, blockage of which leads to disease.[ It is believed that
insertion of needles at various parts of the body determined by
astrological calculations can restore balance to the blocked flows, and
thereby cure disease.
• Chiropractic was developed in the belief that manipulating the spine
affects the flow of a supernatural vital energy and thereby affects
health and disease.
• In the western version of Japanese Reiki, the palms are placed on the
patient near Chakras, believed to be centers of supernatural energies,
in a belief that the supernatural energies can transferred from the
palms of the practitioner, to heal the patient

17. Biofields

18. Energy medicines
• Bioelectromagnetic-based therapies use
verifiable electromagnetic fields, such as
pulsed fields, alternating-current, or direct-
current fields in an unconventional
manner. Magnetic healing does not claim
existence of supernatural energies, but
asserts that magnets can be used to defy the
laws of physics to influence health and
disease

19. Bioelectromagnet

21. Holistic health and mind body
medicine
• Mind-body medicine takes a holistic approach to health
that explores the interconnection between the mind,
body, and spirit. It works under the premise that the mind
can affect "bodily functions and symptoms". Mind body
medicines includes healing claims made
in yoga, meditation, deep-breathing exercises, guided
imagery, hypnotherapy, progressive relaxation, qi gong,
and tai chi.
• Yoga, a method of traditional stretches, exercises, and
meditations in Hinduism, may also be classified as an
energy medicine insofar as its healing effects are believed
to be due to a healing "life energy" that is absorbed into
the body through the breath, and is thereby believed to
treat a wide variety of illnesses and complaints

22. Holistic health
and mind
body medicine

24. Herbal remedies and other
substances used
• Substance based practices use substances found in nature
such as herbs, foods, non-vitamin supplements and
megavitamins, and minerals, and includes traditional
herbal remedies with herbs specific to regions in which
the cultural practices arose.
• Herbalism, herbology, or herbal medicine, is use of plants
for medicinal purposes, and the study of such use. Plants
have been the basis for medical treatments through much
of human history, and such traditional medicine is still
widely practiced today.
• Nonvitamin supplements include fish oil, Omega-3 fatty
acid, glucosamine, Echinacea, flaxseed oil or pills,
and ginseng, when used under a claim to have healing
effects.[56]

25. Herbal
remedies
and other
substances
used

26. Body manipulation
• Manipulative and body-based practices feature
manipulation or movement of body parts, such
as is done
in bodywork and chiropractic manipulation.
• Osteopathic manipulative medicine, also known
as osteopathic manipulative treatment, is a core
set of techniques of osteopathy and osteopathic
medicine distinguishing these fields from
mainstream medicine.

27. Body manipulation

29. Christian laying of
hands, prayer intervention, and faith
healing