Alternative medicine, also known as alternative therapies, lies outside the realm of conventional medicine. Alternative therapy is an intervention that: is not reimbursable by
             most health insurance providers in the United States, is not well supported by scientific tests establishing safety and effectiveness, and is not taught by most medical schools in the United States. They are also called adjunctive, unconventional, or unorthodox therapies. There are many general areas of alternative medicine. This paper will outline just five of those general areas, and give examples of each. One area of alternative therapy is alternative
             systems of medical practice. One example of this kind of alternative therapy is acupuncture.
             Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese method of relieving pain and treating a variety of diseases by inserting needles into various parts of the body. Insertion of the needles produces a momentary pinching feeling. This feeling quickly disappears and may be replaced by occasional tingling or a sense of numbness, heaviness, or soreness while the needles are in place. Acupuncture is used to relieve pain and to treat various conditions, including arthritis, asthma, migraine, ulcers, eye diseases, and some mental illnesses. Another example of alternative systems of medical practice is Ayurveda. This is a traditional Hindu system of improving health by using herbs, diet, meditation, massage, and yoga to stimulate the body to make its own natural drugs. Strictly speaking, it is not a treatment. Rather, it is an entire medical system whose goal is the prevention of disease through the proper balance of three "irreducible principles" at work in the body. Ayurveda medicine encompasses a wide range of treatments and lifestyle measures, including dietary recommendations, massage, medicinal herbs, and the meditation and breathing techniques of yoga. It is designed to bring a persons "tridosha", or basic metabolic type, into bal...