Traditional and Complementary Medicine Methods

Abstract

World Health Organization describes traditional and complementary medicine as “the sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health, as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illnesses”. The use of traditional and complementary medicine has a long history. As a result of increasing life expectancy of people, chronic and malignant diseases increases. Because of health care workers can not allocate enough time and the reasons such as avoiding the side effects of drugs, patients have increased interest in traditional and complementary medicine methods. It is predicted that the use of these methods will increase even more over time. To protect people from the harmful effects of these methods and to prevent unauthorized use, a variety of arrangements have been made in Turkey and in the world. For this reason, on October 27, 2014 "Regulations of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practices" was published. In this regulation, 15 methods are accepted and their usage areas are expressed. These are phytotherapy, mesotherapy, maggot therapy, prolotherapy, cupping therapy, music therapy, hypnotherapy, homeopathy, hirudotherapy, ozone therapy, osteopathy, reflexology, acupuncture, apitherapy and chiropractic. Generally, patients do not tell their physician that they are using one of these methods. No matter what causes people to use these methods, if they use them unconsciously; diagnosis of diseases may be delayed, side effects may occur, or patients may be damaged by persons who are not authorized to perform these methods. For this reason, physicians should be aware of the tendencies of their patients and protect them from misuse by increasing their awareness.