Alternative medicine Alternative medicine is defined loosely as a set of products, practices, and theories that are believed or perceived by their users to have the healing effects of medicine, but whose effectiveness has not been established using scientific methods, or whose theory and practice is not part of biomedicine, or whose theories or practices are directly contradicted by scientific evidence or scientific principles used in biomedicine. "Biomedicine" or "medicine" is that part of medical science that applies principles of biology, physiology, molecular biology, biophysics, and other natural sciences to clinical practice, using scientific methods to establish the effectiveness of that practice. Unlike medicine, an alternative product or practice does not originate from using scientific methods, but may instead be based on hearsay, religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural energies, pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, or other unscientific sources.
alternative medicine alternative medicine is defined loosely as a set of products practices and theories that are believed or perceived by their users to have the healing effects of medicine but whose effectiveness has not been established using scientific methods or whose theory and practice is not part of biomedicine or whose theories or practices are directly contradicted by scientific evidence or scientific principles used in biomedicine "biomedicine" or "medicine" is that part of medical science that applies principles of biology physiology molecular biology biophysics and other natural sciences to clinical practice using scientific methods to establish the effectiveness of that practice unlike medicine an alternative product or practice does not originate from using scientific methods but may instead be based on hearsay religion tradition superstition belief in supernatural energies pseudoscience errors in reasoning propaganda fraud or other unscientific sources