title: Role of alternate medicines in total health care.
abstract: Medical therapies of various kinds practiced round the world have the role of reestablishing a homeostatic balance in an individual. Both the scientific community and populace at large take it for granted that Western (or as it is called, Modern) medicine is scientific while traditional medicine as unscientific and purely empirical, while the first idea may be partly true, the second attitude is completely false. The choice of a medical technology-be it modern medicine, Ayurveda, acupuncture or any other natural or man-made technology-should rest with the society depending on the technology's efficacy for the particular disease in question, its immediate availability, cost effectiveness, psychosocial acceptance etc. several countries in Europe have kept their doors open for different medical technological choices to their population. In India, an attempt is made to provide support through reimbursement-to complimentary technologies in medical therapeutics.Western medicine is export-oriented, expensive and socially foreign to the majority of our patients. It is unavoidable and extremely useful in critically ill patients. However, for a large variety of chronic disorders, complimentary medical technologies are both inexpensive and patient oriented. It is necessary to judiciously blend modern medicine with ancient technologies so that an effective medical umbrella is provided to our heterogenous population.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Division, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras - 600 036, India .
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Sreenivasan