Healthline, a resource for physical and mental wellness, recently interviewed Dr. Greg Lane, DACM, LAc, Pacific College’s Dean of Graduate Faculty, and Tara Scott, MD, medical director of integrative health at Summa Health in Ohio and CMO and founder of Revitalize Academy, on why complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices like acupuncture are becoming less ‘alternative’.
One major reason, according to Dr. Lane, is that CAM providers often take a more holistic and relationship-focused approach than Western biomedical practitioners: “Physicians are really good at getting microscopic information. They can look at specific viruses.” CAM providers, on the other hand, “pull the lens way back, allowing us to look at the whole person — mind, body, and spirit.”
Scott has found that her patients have often found that other treatments haven’t worked, or that they are seeking a more natural remedy to avoid side effects common with medication such as fatigue, loss of libido, insomnia, and fluctuations in weight. Though CAM isn’t a replacement for biomedicine in serious cases such as cancer, practices like yoga and meditation can reduce stress enough to help manage side effects.