The health system approach to the complementary and alternative medicine

The use of complementary and alternative medicine has remarkably increased in different societies across the world, such that the World Health Organization has emphasized in its recent approach the revival of traditional medicine in different regions of the world [1]. Throughout the history, in particular, in the past centuries, human beings have attempted to improve their health status to achieve the longstanding goal of increased longevity. To this end, different cultures and civilizations, based on their own attitudes, have offered different medical alternatives such as Iranian, Indian, Chinese, and Native American traditional medicine, and Yoga, as well as methods like homeopathy, osteopathy, and chiropractic. Iranian traditional medicine has received the attention of scientists and ordinary people for a long time, due to its rich resources and scientific background, and its compliance with the health teachings of Islam and the recommendations of the Prophet and the Imams (PBUT). The development of traditional medicine requires organizing this discipline, to centralize its education programs, and to base its curriculum content on scientific and well-documented evidence in order to properly justify scientific and academic societies about its use, and prevent possible abuses that occur in the field of complementary and alternative medicine. In line with this, the establishment of the secretariat of the council of traditional and complementary medicine training in the ministry of health, the herbal medicine headquarter, Journal of Research & Health Social Development & Health Promotion Research Center Vol. 5, No.1, Spring 2015 Pages: 1-2 Letter to Editor