Reader's Digest Family Guide to Alternative Medicine

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oday's unorthodoxy, the Prince of Wales told a meeting of the British Medical Association (BMA) in 1982, is probably tomorrow's convention'. Few of those present at the time doubted that by 'today's unorthodoxy' he meant alternative or complementary medicine. It is difficult now to imagine the effect of his words on a medical profession that viewed alternative medicine with a scepticism amounting in somé quarters to outright scorn. For in less than 12 years a remarkable change of attitűdé has emerged not only among ordinary people but alsó among doctors and scientists. The medical establishment, for so long critical or downright dismissive of claims made by alternative practitioners, has become more neutral and open-minded. A year after Prince Charles's address - and almost certainly as a direct result of it - the BMA set up a scientific committee to 'consider the feasibility and possible methods of assessing the value of alternative therapies, whether used alone or to complement other treatments'. The committee produced a report listing the things that could account for the growing popularity of alternative therapies: • Alternative practitioners were generally able to offer patients more time, and were more prepared to listen than busy doctors, who could not stop to discuss problems in detail. • Patients felt that the therapists were more compassionate and concerned, providing care for the whole person rather than simply treating an illness. • Patients alsó like the use of touch as a way of Vissza