Interest in herbal and other alternative therapies (also called complementary therapies) has escalated in many industrialised countries since the 1970s. The reasons are complex but probably include an increasing scepticism about science, and a public that is less willing to accept the truth of statements by ‘experts’ including medical practitioners. Periodic national health surveys in Australia from 1977 to 1990 show progressive increases in the number of consultations with alternative therapists. At the same time numerous doctors and others involved in health care have highlighted problems with medical knowledge, for example the limited perspective which drives certain treatment approaches. Recognition that other perspectives may have something valuable to offer is evident among practitioners and trainees of mainstream Western medicine.

A recent survey in Britain showed that 80% of doctors want to include some form of alternative medicine in their practices; and a recent study of Australian fourth year medical students found that an overwhelming majority of 92% were keen to study alternative medicine as part of their degree. The students were most interested in meditation, nutritional medicine, acupuncture, naturopathy, Chinese herbal medicine, homeopathy, hypnosis and the ancient Indian treatment, ayurvedic.

A criticism commonly made about alternative therapies is the lack of solid scientific evidence about their effectiveness and safety, a problem compounded by the lack of quality control in the manufacture of some substances. These therapies have, for the most part, not been submitted to the sort of evaluation of efficacy (double-blind trial) required in recent decades for drugs used in orthodox medicine. While some alternative therapies have stood the test of time, having been used for centuries in some countries, careful long-term studies of risks and benefits tend to be lacking or only recently initiated. Ironically, while orthodox medicine is becoming more open to alternative approaches, alternative medicine is now being submitted to increased scientific scrutiny. As evidence of this, the manufacture of herbal medicines in Australia has been governed by an act of federal parliament since 1993 and the Australian government recently established a Traditional Medicine Evaluation Committee within the federal Department of Health.

Many of the alternative therapies share a common philosophy that life-giving energies and substances help maintain the human body in good health and balance. Ill-health is regarded as the result of a loss of balance caused by a sub-optimal lifestyle or an accumulation of toxic substances, including the products of infectious disease. To correct disturbances to the body’s balance, or to maintain the existing equilibrium, the alternative therapies adopt a holistic treatment approach that emphasises the patient rather than a problem organism or toxin. The focus is on an individual’s ability to overcome disease with the help of substances that clean and strengthen the body, rather than on the disease-destroying abilities of particular pharmaceuticals.

It is sometimes assumed that because herbal products and nutritional supplements are of natural origins they are therefore free from serious ill-effects. Unfortunately this is not always so. All herbal and nutritional supplements should be used cautiously and monitored regularly by a skilled practitioner, because adverse effects can occur—just as they can with orthodox medicines.

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