So what is complementary alternative medicine, affectionately called CAM? Nobody seems to know. On the one hand, the Institute of Medicine defines it as follows: "Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is a broad domain of resources that encompasses health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period. CAM includes such resources perceived by their users as associated with positive health outcomes. Boundaries within CAM and between the CAM domain and the domain of the dominant system are not always sharp or fixed."

I am not sure that helps. The bottom line is CAM is what you make of it. It varies between people, religions, cities and countries. In some countries, CAM programs are run by medical physicians. In the United States, CAM has traditionally been independent of Medical Doctors. Many Naturopathic Physicians obtain degrees for Alternative Medicine via web based programs. The question is simply how one can decide if their CAM practitioner is well trained and understands the complementary nature of traditional medicine and alternative therapies.

Modern medicine has needed to embrace and understand the nature of alternative therapies and for most of the 20th century has failed to do so. Recently, academic medical centers have begun incorporating alternative therapies into their healthcare delivery systems.

My simple advice is to only use those CAM Centers affiliated with Medical Schools and Hospitals, such as the University of Maryland’s Center. This may help weed out alternative therapies that really have no basis in science or medicine – colon cleansing enemas comes to mind!