In Western culture, the term alternative medicine refers to any healing practice "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine",^[1] or "that which has not been shown consistently to be effective."^[2] Alternative medicine is often based on the belief that a particular health regimen has efficacious effects even while there isn't a body of evidence to support such a belief under the rigorous standards of evidence based medicine. In practice, alternative medicine encompasses therapies with a historical or cultural, rather than a scientific, basis. Commonly cited examples include naturopathy, chiropractic, herbalism, traditional Chinese medicine, Unani, Ayurveda, meditation, yoga, biofeedback, hypnosis, homeopathy, acupuncture, and diet-based therapies, in addition to a range of other practices.^[3] It is frequently grouped with complementary medicine, which generally refers to the same interventions when used in conjunction with mainstream techniques,^[4][5][6] under the umbrella term complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM. Some significant researchers in alternative medicine oppose this grouping, preferring to emphasize differences of approach, but nevertheless use the term CAM, which has become standard.^[7][8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_medicine