A drugless system of therapy, making use of physical forces such as air, light, water, heat, massage. Treatments are often diet- and nutrition-oriented with attention given to the patient's personal history and lifestyle. (From Cassileth, Alternative Medicine Handbook, 1998, p329)

The discipline concerned with using the combination of conventional ALLOPATHIC MEDICINE and ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE to address the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of health and illness.

Therapeutic practices which are not currently considered an integral part of conventional allopathic medical practice. They may lack biomedical explanations but as they become better researched some (PHYSICAL THERAPY MODALITIES; DIET; ACUPUNCTURE) become widely accepted whereas others (humors, radium therapy) quietly fade away, yet are important historical footnotes. Therapies are termed as Complementary when used in addition to conventional treatments and as Alternative when used instead of conventional treatment.