It is expected that no individual would decide on treatment of any medical condition without consultation with and approval of qualified medical professionals. Efforts not part of mainstream Western medicine to improve a body's response to an illness. Some people prefer to call alternative medicine traditional medicine, because it dates to traditions that preceded modern medicine. Others prefer holistic medicine. Gradually, some alternative medicine is becoming recognized as having valid, clinically verifiable benefits.
Acupuncture is an example.
Prayer and faith are therapeutic. This does not mean all alternative treatments will prove valid, however. We list alternative medicine which AN patients have used, though this does not mean the treatments have proven validity. Anecdotally, alternative approaches may seem to work. However, it is difficult to evaluate such claims in the absence of broad studies, and anecdotal information is easily slanted one way or the other.