Complementary and alternative medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine: time for critical engagement.

Practice outside of mainstream or conventional medicine has always been an important part of public healthcare in some countries, particularly in the developing world. Recently the use of complementary-alternative medicine (CAM) has grown in popularity worldwide. Western studies showed that 42% of Americans, 52% of Australians, and between 20% and 65% of Europeans use some form of CAM.1-5 However, the CAM community has long been struggling to agree on the definition of CAM. A wordy definition of CAM is provided by the Cochrane Collaboration – “A broad domain of healing resources that encompasses all health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period”.6 The authors wrote that “CAM includes all such practices and ideas self-defined by their users as preventing or treating illness or promoting health and well-being. Boundaries within CAM and between the CAM domain and that of the dominant system are not always sharp or fixed.”6 CAM practices may play one or more of the following roles: (1) contributing to a common whole; (2) satisfying a demand not met by conventional practices; (3) diversifying the conceptual framework of medicine; or (4) any combination thereof.