Alternative medicine refers to various branches of medical science that make use of natural healing. Alternative medicines like acupuncture, homeopathy, Ayurveda, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, Reiki, pranic healing, etc. are practiced and preferred by people for various treatments all over the world.
 

Alternative medicine is now labeled as complementary. Alternative medicine is different from conventional or mainstream or western medicine in a lot of ways. Alternative medicines and conventional medicines differ entirely in their method of diagnosis and treatment. While alternative medicines offer healing, scientific data showing evidence for treatment is lacking. In the modern era, people are interested in combining conventional medicines with alternative medicines in treatment to get better results.
 

Pranic healing, Reiki, and meditation are mind-based natural practices that make no use of any substance or even natural medicines. They are mainly used in the treatment of stress-related disorders. Alternative medicine addresses the healing of the person as a whole—including body, mind, and soul—while conventional medicine is more concerned with the treatment of the physical body.
 

Alternative medicines have their own fundamental principles. For example, alternative medicines used in homeopathy and Ayurveda mainly use natural substances for healing the body. They place more stress on prevention rather than on healing the diseases. This is in contrast to conventional medicine, which is mainly designed to alleviate health problems.

Since most of the alternative medicines are natural, they are safer than conventional medicines. Alternative medicines consider disharmony in the body, mind, and soul as the chief reason for illness. Alternative medicine treatments work at the root cause of the problems, like making the body strong enough for healing it of diseases. While conventional medicines opine that infections are caused by virus, bacteria, or other pathogens, alternative medicines opine that a weak immune system is the cause of infections.
 

Many alternative medicines like Ayurveda and homeopathy make use of natural products in manufacturing the medicines. Alternatively, conventional medicines make use of chemicals and synthetic products for suppressing the disease. Alternative medicines like homeopathy and naturopathy treatments do not believe in suppressing the disease process by medicines. Rather, they help the body to detoxify naturally with the help of diet and natural herbs. Alternative medicines adopt a different approach in diagnosing and healing the disease as compared to conventional medicine. The concept of detoxification is mainly found in the treatment of alternative medicines like Ayurveda, which considers toxic elements as the causative factors of many diseases. Due to lack of scientific evidence, homeopathic and other alternative medicines are still labeled as a sham or placebo. It is important to know that they use natural products for healing the human body.