Alternative therapies have been called many things including holistic medicine, unconventional treatments, non-traditional approaches and folk medicine. The fact that there are several names describing them only emphasizes the confusion that exists about them. In defining alternative therapies it may be easier to define them by what they are not rather than what they are . The common link with all these therapies is that they don't view health using the philosophy supported by modern western medicine. In a nutshell, modern medicine believes that all illnesses have a cause and treatment requires attacking that cause.
Modern medicine is based on science and the scientific process.
In fact, modern medicine and the discipline of science evolved hand in hand. Alternative therapies follow a variety of philosophies. Some believe that illness is a result of blocks in the energy flow of the body. Others believe that nutritional status or spirituality ore closely connected to health. Many alternative therapies can be traced back to the early times of Babylonia, Egypt, China, Greece and Rome.