The Roots of Health - Realizing the Potential of Complementary Medicine

The advances of modern biomedicine have provided a sophisticated but somewhat mechanistic approach to healih. It is an approach which is able to function well in emergencies, but which has fallen down in the more basic areas of maintaining and creating health. Dazzled by the progress of science, we have lost touch with the simple remedies and body wisdom that were once a part of every household. This Briefing suggests that Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has a central part to play in the future of health care. Both by looking into the past and reclaiming some of the more tradifional views of health and disease, and by looking into the future and encouraging the application of appropriate scientific research into the body and its energy systems, we can begin to reintroduce balance into a system which is spiralling rapidly out of control. The Briefing also questions the usual assumption that CAM is unscientific, by suggesting that there are many ways to measure success and failure, and fhat a qualitative approach is an important aspect of the evaluation of health.