Worldwide, only an estimated ten to thirty percent of human health care is delivered by conventional, biomedically oriented practitioners ("Fields of Practice"). The remaining seventy to ninety percent ranges from self-care according to folk principles, to care given in an organized health care system based on alternative therapies ("Fields of Practic"). Many cultures have folk medicine traditions that include the

Homeopathy, despite the American Medical Association's characterization of it as a pseudo science, is a popular alternative that is drawing increased attention. Founded in the eighteenth century by German physician Samuel Hahnemann, it is based on the idea "like cures like" (Kees); that micro-doses of substances, known in large amounts to cause illness, can treat that illness by stimulating the body's own natural defenses and curative powers. In some respects, treatment with homeopathic medicines, nontoxic compounds derived from plants, animals and minerals, is akin to immunization or allergy treatments in which similar substances are introduced into the body to bolster immunity.

Chiropractic science is concerned with investigating the relationship between the human body's structure (primarily of the spine) and function (primarily of the nervous system) to restore and preserve health. Chiropractic medicine applies such knowledge to diagnosing and treating structural dysfunctions that can affect the nervous system. Chiropractic physicians use manual procedures and interventions, not surgical or chemotherapeutic ones. More than 55,000 licensed chiropractors are practicing in the United States (Krizmanic). Chiropractic specialty areas are pertinent to other medical specialties, such as radiology, orthopedics, neurology, and sports medicine. Current chiropractic research focuses on back and musculoskeletal pain and reliability studies.

Relaxation techniques like meditation and biofeedback--which teach patients to control heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and other involuntary functions through concentration--have also given respectability to alternative medicine and are routinely taught to patients and medical students. The basic premise of mind-body medicine is that the power of the mind can be used to help heal the body by improving the person's attitude and also, as recent research has shown, by direct effects on the immune, endocrine, and nervous systems (Epiro and Walsh). Although many of the biochemical and physiological mechanisms remain to be identified, an increasing body of evidence is showing that the healthy mind is indeed capable of mobilizing the immune system-and that the troubled mind can dampen the functioning of the immune system and contribute to physical disease.

Thomas Roselle, a licensed chiropractor and acupuncturist who runs an alternative-care practice in Falls Church, Va., states, "Traditional medicine shines in crisis intervention, but where it fails at times is in day-to-day-care. We see a lot of different things where traditional medicine has failed to do anything about it. Too often the question of why the body is broken down isn't asked" (Krizmanic). Acceptance of alternative medicine by the medical establishment will not occur until research has proven i

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