1 Introduction to the complementary concept of healthcare Steven

Trying to construct a definition that covers a large heterogeneous group of complementary and alternative therapies is difficult. Many therapies are well known whereas others may be exotic, mysterious or even dangerous. Some relaxation techniques, massage therapies, special diets and self-help groups could be considered to be lifestyle choices rather than true therapeutic interventions, although it could be argued that an enhanced feeling of well-being is sufficient to warrant the inclusion of a procedure in the latter. Support for the complementary notion of healthcare is far from universal. Saks rejects the term complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) because, in his view, it ‘excludes therapies such as homoeopathy which in their purest form are based on philosophies that fundamentally conflict with medical orthodoxy’.1 He opts for the term ‘alternative medicine’ and defines it thus: