More commonly referred to as complementary medicine (also as additional medicine, integrative medicine, and natural health), this includes myriad medical practices and perceptions that have expert systems knowledge and technique and often require periods of training, whether formal or informal. The United States National Institute of Health defines alternative medicine “as those treatments and healthcare practices not taught widely in medical schools, not generally used in hospitals, and not usually reimbursed by medical insurance companies.” In one way or another, alternative medicine is defined in opposition to what is referred to as the “dominant” system in the United States— biomedicine. Nonetheless, recent surveys in the United States show that Americans appear to be favoring “alternative” medicines in greater proportion to “biomedical” practitioners and healthcare.

Common complementary health choices include osteopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture, ayurveda, bio-feedback, homeopathy, naturopathy and traditional Chinese medicine.

Many people also would see several massage techniques (body work, manual healing methods), herbal medicines, aromatherapy spiritual healing, bio-electromagnetic application, diet/nutrition/lifestyle changes, various mind/ body interventions and perhaps all varieties of folk medicine as alternative medicines. The distinguishing feature of alternative medicine is a holistic conceptual framework that sees all aspects of the body (anatomy nervous system, vascular systems, musculature, and so forth) as an integrated system or structure, itself interrelated with the body’s physical, social and cultural environments, or in some cases with spiritual aspects of a person and of health.

Alternative health approaches are said to consider the “whole person,” whereas biomedicine is a medical approach that seeks specific etiologies for specific diseases.

Similarly, alternative healthcare approaches are also thought to place an equal importance on the illness experience as well as the physical pathology of the disease. Biomedicine is said to be concerned only with abnormalities in the structure and function of body organs and systems, while alternative medicines include the lived experience of physical and physiological abnormalities when diagnosing disease and considering therapeutic interventions.

The coexistence of alternative healthcare with biomedicine illustrates a dynamic “medical pluralism” in the United States. This medical pluralism represents a desire on the part of the American public for approaches to healthcare other than biomedicine, efforts towards the professionalization of several complementary medicines, and the historical impact of the complex relations of healthcare provisions with social structure (class, gender, race). In spite of the dominance of biomedicine, medical pluralism is the norm, historically anchored in a milieu of healthcare fads, technological developments, social movements and changing opinion regarding the efficacy of biomedicine. The revitalization of midwifery and home births in recent decades is an example of the coming together of these various elements that inform a changing desire for alternative medicines. The professionalization of alternative medicines indexes a medical system in the United States organized within a capitalist economy and offered to the American public as “consumer medicine.” With professionalization, alternative medicines become insurance options.

Social class, ethnic groups and the greater numbers of migrants and immigrant groups, and gender issues related to health and healthcare are all important factors in a dynamic medical pluralism in the United States. Finally, as with folk medicine, discontentment with modern life, dominated by technological advances, fragmented by alienation and the dissolution of community life, has encouraged some to seek alternative medicines because they are believed to be natural therapies that have descended from primordial traditions and practices.