The National Institutes of Health says it generally is defined in the United States as those treatments and health-care practices that are not taught widely in medical schools, not generally used in hospitals, and not usually reimbursed by medical insurance companies. Most often these therapies have not undergone rigorous scientific analysis.
Alternative medicine is a term that, until recently, was used for all unconventional therapies.
It is still the term most commonly used today. We at the Arthritis Foundation believe this approach is too narrow, because it doesn't take advantage of the proven benefits of conventional medicine. Complementary medicine better describes the Arthritis Foundation's approach to unconventional therapies. Complementary therapies are used along with or in support of mainstream Western medicine. We will use the term complementary medicine throughout this section, because any treatments you try we would like you to use along with your conventional medical treatments.