Alternative medicine can be defined as any health care remedy or system not generally accepted in modern biomedicine or therapies that are offered in place of or as substitutes for conventional therapies.
Allopathic medicine is the term used to refer to mainstream medical practice.
The therapies increasing the most included herbal medicine, massage, megavitamins, self-help groups, folk remedies, energy healing, and homeopathy. The users of alternative medicine tend to be more educated, have poorer health status and have a more holistic orientation to health. They use alternative medicine not so much as a result of being dissatisfied with conventional medicine but largely because they find these health care alternatives to be more congruent with their own values and beliefs toward health and life. Chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy and acupuncture were the most frequently used. Most pediatricians surveyed also expressed an interest in learning more about alternative therapies through continuing medical education courses.