Alternative Healthcare

I will first start by giving a definition of alternative healthcare: this is a group of medical as well as healthcare systems, products and practices which are currently being considered as part of the convectional health care practices that exist. Often the alternative healthcare practices are based on knowledge or treatment methods which are not tested, untraditional and unscientific. There are instances where the alternative health care can be offered alongside scientific medicine and in such cases it is known as complementary alternative medicine. A variety of therapeutic practices as well as preventive health care can be classified under alternative healthcare these include naturopathy, homeopathy, herbal medicines and chiropractic. These practices are not in line with the medical methods which are accepted and they might even have no scientific explanation behind their effectiveness (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 2012).

I will go ahead and look at the categories of alternative healthcare practices. Alternative healthcare practices can be divided into five categories; these are first alternative medical systems which are based on systems practice and theory. Some of these systems developed in the western cultures are naturopathic and those developed in non western cultures are Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicines. The second category is mind-body interventions that employ techniques that are designed for enhancing the capacity of the mind in affecting the functions as well as symptoms of the body and they include mental healing, meditation and therapies using creative outlets like dance, art or music (U.S Department of health and human services,2012).The third category is therapies which are biologically based and they use substances got from nature like vitamins and herbs examples of such treatments include use of dietary supplements as well as herbal products. The fourth category is manipulative and body-based methods which involve the manipulation of some of one’s body parts and they are such as chiropractic manipulation and massage. Finally the fifth category is energy therapies. These therapies use energy fields and can be divided into two; biofield therapy an example is therapeutic touch and bioelectromagnetic therapies (Pietrangelo, Anne 2011).

Alternative healthcare has many benefits to the public despite this people have not fully embraced the concept of alternative medicine. Alternative healthcare is now slowly being accepted into the health professions that are mainstream. This is because people have begun appreciating the benefits that can be got from alternative medicine. Traditionally most insurance companies do not offer any cover for alternative medicine. This therefore calls for changes in the public policy when it comes to the allocations of alternative healthcare. I shall therefore make some proposals when it comes to changing the status quo in public policy pertaining to alternative healthcare. First of all I propose that insurance companies should as much as possible offer insurance that specifically covers some of the alternative healthcare practices. There is one insurance company American western Life Insurance Company is a good example of an insurance company which has tried to incorporate these alternative medicine practices in their policies ( Bausell, 2013).The insurance company provides a network of close to 300 providers that are found in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico who specialize in yoga, aromatherapy, naturopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic and many other practices also propose that the insurance companies reimburse clients that go through practices which are based on the alternative healthcare such as alternative therapy that is provided for heart diseases. Another public policy that I can propose is the support of research studies that focus on these alternative healthcare practices. Examples of research that should be funded is the treatment of cancer using shark cartilage as well as studying how effective bee pollen is when it comes to treatment of allergies. If the public policies that I have proposed are put into practice then alternative healthcare will be maximally used and who knows maybe it can actually be the answer to most of the health problems that have not yet been solved by the scientific medical practices.

Work cited

Bausell, Richards. Alternative” health practices.(2013).Retrieved April 11,2013 from http://skepdic.com/althelth.htmlBradford, Nikki. Alternative healthcare. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press, 1997. Print.

Larson, Christine A. Alternative medicine. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. Print.

Palumbo, Anthory. Naprapathy: the effective healthcare alternative. Chicago, Ill.: A. Palumbo, 2005. Print.

Pietrangelo, Anne.Natural choice directory. Paying for complementary and Alternative medicines.(2011).print

Raso, Jack, and Stephen Barrett. “Alternative” healthcare: a comprehensive guide : natural medicine, “hands-on” healing, spiritualism, occultism, and much more. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1994. Print.

U.S Department of Health and Human Services. What is Complementary and alternative Medicine? (2012).Retrieved April 11, 2013 from http://cim.ucdavis.edu/clubs/camsig/whatiscam.pdf