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Shelley Loskill
Mrs. DeBock
English 4
3 March 2016
Why People Choose Alternative Medicine
Alternative medicine refers to the practice of medicine outside of a traditional hospital or
doctors office. This could be a childs mother giving him or her chicken noodle soup as a
treatment of the common cold or an elder man with back problems visiting the chiropractor.
Alternative medicine can also be medical therapies such as herbal healing, acupuncture, or
religious rituals or brews. The use of alternative medicine continues to grow year after year in the
United States. The question as to why people choose alternative medicine has often surfaced in
many health care debates and news reports. Ones use of alternative medicine is determined by
the cost efficiency, ones personal preference and religious views, and ones circumstances
involving their health.
Alternative medicine does not have much of substantial scientific evidence that proves
effectiveness, however, chiropractic and acupuncture therapies, which are considered alternative
medicine, do have studies backing their effectiveness. Since there is proven medical research that
backs chiropractic and acupuncture therapies, most insurances will cover any visit to a type of
these therapies. Alternative medicine costs Americans roughly around $34 million a year and
continues to grow (Levine 96). Now that Americans are getting frustrated with medical bills

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and health insurance, more and more are turning to the alternative medicine practice with hopes
of having to pay a portion of the cost because of insurance policies.
Besides insurance playing a role in the cost, some people turn to alternative medicines for
personal reasons and religious beliefs. For example, many popular American churches that are
based off of African religions, use only herbal alternative medicines and practices because of the
belief that herbal healing has sacramental value and important spiritual power (AsamoahGyadu 71). Many Americans who practice Islam use herbal healing and many other alternative
medicine methods to treat fertility and other prenatal and postnatal problems for women. Some
Christian Evangel churchs apply herbal healing to massaging and body insertions with the hope
that God and this natural healing will help heal and fix their health problems. All of these
religions and others choose herbal techniques and alternative medicine approaches so that they
can practice their personal religions while feeling healed, religious, pure, and unsinful. This also
allows users of this practice to feel pride in their religion and successful when worshipping.
A persons health circumstances is an important factor when choosing alternative
medicinal approaches. An increase in the amount Americans who are elderly or are facing
terminal diseases, conditions, and cancers with no cures have now turned to alternative medicine.
These people are vulnerable to the reassurance that alternative medicine will comfort and ease
the pain of the dying process. Some people turn to alternative medicine because of other health
situations such as being morbidly obese and wanting a pain free and easy way to lose a certain
amount of weight or a working parent whose children are enrolled in school, wanting a fast and
simple cure to illness like the common cold, earaches, and strep throat. Others who turn to
alternative medicine do so because of bad experiences in hospitals and other medical offices and

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believe that herbal techniques and traditional medicines are safer than synthesized drugs or
complex and invasive procedures.
Those who choose alternative medicine do so based off of what they think or believe in.
Many factors play a huge role in choosing to turn to the field of alternative medicine that is based
off of traditional means and herbal healings. Ones use of alternative medicine is determined by
the cost efficiency, ones personal preference and religious views, and ones circumstances
involving their health.

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Works Cited
Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. "Therapeutic Strategies In African Religions: Health, Herbal
Medicines And Indigenous Christian Spirituality." Studies In World Christianity 20.1
(2014): 70-90. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2016
Lee, M., and Nancy Sprague. "Point: Alternative Medicine Is Unscientific, Unproven, And
Unsafe." Points Of View: Alternative Medicine (2015): 2.Points of View Reference
Center. Web. 17 Feb. 2016
Levine, Hallie. "Alternative Medicine: A USER's MANUAL." Health 29.10 (2015): 93-97. Alt
HealthWatch. Web. 18 Feb. 2016.
Lucas, Sandra, Saravana Kumar, and Matthew Leach. "Use Of Complementary And Alternative
Medicine In Children: Research Opportunities And Challenges In An Ever Growing
Field." Australian Journal Of Herbal Medicine27.4 (2015): 136-141. Alt HealthWatch.
Web. 18 Feb. 2016.