Alternative and Complementary Medicines in Medical Science

Abstract

Purpose: The process of incorporation and integration of complementary and alternative medicine (MAC) in the worlds of science and public health, between 1980 and 1999, is described. Development: It is through the massive utilization of MAC in the USA and in Europe that it became a subject for scientific research. Its incorporation has meant an effort of philosophic conceptualization and of inter- national scientific research that resembles the resolution of integration issues related to the globalization process. At first there was a passionate and subjective discussion of ideologies, concepts, world visions, life structures, in terms that were often distant from scientific objectivity and its methods. Consensuses were achieved through a return to scientific methods and research.Between 1980 and 1999, a body of knowledge on the use and characteristics of MAC was developed. It was ascertained that about 45% of people in developed countries have recourse to it and that it is taught in 80% of their universities. Governments have established organizations dedicated to set up and to finance their study. There is also a consensus among doctors on the fact that they should be acquainted with MAC in order to guide and inform patients on its utilization.