The term alternative medicine first came into widespread use in the 1970s, usually to distinguish specific traditional remedies and forms of medicine drawn from eastern cultures from conventional medical science. That said, the roots of many of the treatments associated with complementary medicine are much older, and some are even prehistoric. Before the Age of the Enlightenment made medical science a distinct discipline, medicine was studied alongside other pursuits, such as astronomy and alchemy, for example. As such, it has always been around in some form or other in folk traditions.