Alternate Medicine

The term alternative medicine refers to the West a variety of treatment methods that are not based on the experimental method, one of the foundations of the scientific approach to the facts. They are based on centuries-old traditions sometimes or practices that emerged in the nineteenth century, but generally before the advent of evidence-based medicine (in English: Evidence-based medicine). The non-conventional medicines are therefore considered non-scientific.



Depending on the country, their traditions and their laws, they may be common (Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and England ...), tolerated (as in France and some Latin countries) or be banned. They are often preventive, and build on the relationship of trust with the patient, expressing a personal search and the search for a framework of care that is outside the frameworks of modern medicine.

Some techniques are used by doctors or paramedics, other allied health practitioners in various ("health practitioners" in Germany and Switzerland, under the control of the state), and others by practitioners whose quality of training is not subject to a state diploma and can hardly be assessed, are based on assumptions not validated experimentally. They develop as a complement or alternative to conventional medicine.

The non-conventional medicine are not recognized by much of science, particularly by those belonging to the contemporary skeptic movement.