Alternative and Complementary Medicine

Health involves all aspects of our lives. The mind, body, spirit, and environment all interact to influence a person's sense of wellbeing. High-quality health care must support the whole person. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine. While some scientific evidence exists regarding some CAM therapies, for many there are important unanswered questions that might be answered through well-designed scientific studies. In this class, we will identify questions to pursue by reading and critiquing the primary scientific literature. The acceptance of these therapies is influenced by politics, history, personalities, and even their effectiveness. We will carefully evaluate some of these alternative therapies by examining their successes and failures. MCP, PRJ, PRS, QUA, REA, WRI