Alternative medicine has been defined as \u201cMedical therapies not regarded as orthodox by the medical profession, such as herbalism, homeopathy, and acupuncture.\u201d But while those practices may have been filtered out from the mainstream of modern Western medicine, they have not been consigned to either history or obsolescence. And some people might argue that the very fact of their endurance \u2014 herbs have been applied as medicine since before we could even write about them, acupuncture is at least 2000 years old, and homeopathy began around the time our Constitution was signed \u2014\u00a0might render them worthy of re-consideration. I am one of those people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My journey into \u201cmedical therapies not regarded as\u00a0orthodox\u201d began in the mid-1960s through yoga, raw foods, and chiropractic. About a decade later, I applied acupressure while continuing to visit my primary care doctor whenever anything needed fixing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n