Introduction
CAM stands for Complementary & Alternative Medicine. CAM is usually defined as covering all traditional, usually Eastern, systems of medicine as well as new therapies and treatments that are outside of the scope of the conventional Western medicine taught at medical schools and leading to the official title of Medical Doctor, MD. This classical definition of CAM is becoming increasingly obsolete as more and more medical schools start to incorporate CAM modalities into their teaching programs.

Discussion of CAM attracts many extreme reactions from contemptuous dismissal through to uncritical acceptance. Both of these extremes serve more as platforms for people’s ideological prejudices and pre-judgements rather than reflecting any real insight and understanding of the complexity of the issues involved. For this reason it may be helpful to clarify some of the key differences between CAM and conventional Western medicine.

Is There a Crisis in Healthcare?
The basic differences in orientation between CAM and conventional Western medicine are at the root of most of the confusion and disagreement about their relative effectiveness. Most CAM practices cannot begin to ‘compete’ with conventional Western medicine for the targeted relief of physical symptoms (though this is not true for CAM modalities such as Acupuncture), but then conventional Western medicine is perceived as lacking the personal focus, lifestyle awareness and practices that can serve to leverage the natural capabilities of the body to heal itself and to maintain higher levels of health in the first place. In particular it is notoriously weak in coping with the growing levels of stress related symptoms that account for the vast majority of visits to a doctor.

It is commonly recognized that anything up to 80% or more of patients seeing medical doctors have emotional issues underlying the physical symptoms that they present. Typically a doctor’s workload and training does not equip them to deal with the underlying emotional causes of problems. Faced with patients who are experiencing emotional problems and knowing that counseling support is either unavailable or might require an extended waiting period, doctors are under pressure to prescribe anti-depressants in order to manage the symptoms that are presented to them.

What is Integrative Medicine?
In the US and Western Europe the term ‘Integrative Medicine’ describes the growing practice of combining selected TM/CAM (Traditional Medicine/Complementary & Alternative Medicine) modalities with conventional Western medicine in private practices, clinics and hospitals.

This type of integration is not new. Outside of the West, in countries such as India, Tibet and China where Traditional Medicine has a strongly established basis of medical theory, practice and training within an unbroken tradition extending over hundreds if not thousands of years, Western medicine has been adopted as a supplement to and not as a replacement for Traditional Medicine. A similar situation is to be found in Vietnam and Korea. In Russia and the countries of the old USSR and Eastern Bloc techniques that would be considered to be Complementary Medicine in the West are fully integrated with conventional Western style medical training and practice. In particular there is a strong tradition of medical school research, training and licensed practice with biofield therapies such as Bio-energy. In Africa an estimated 80% of the population uses Traditional Medicine. Recently the South African government has formally recognized the pervasive role of Traditional Medicine in their society.