Whole medical systems are healing systems and beliefs that have evolved over time in different cultures and parts of the world sometimes known as CAM. These diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products are not currently considered part of conventional medicine. Complementary medicine is used together with conventional medicine. Alternative medicine is practiced in place of conventional medicine. Conventional medicine is medicine as practiced by holders of M.D. (medical doctor) or D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) degrees and by their allied health professionals. Some conventional medical practitioners also practice CAM.

In these present times there is much discussion and regulation as to what methods are allowed to be used to teat both human and animal illness. Yet it is through a societal collapse of memory that our culture seems  to have forgotten that modern medicine is a relatively  recent, commercial phenomena, it is a medicine born in the chemical laboratories of the Western world.

What is now labelled 'alternative medicine' in the media, is:

The healing by use of foods, herbs, water, fasting, prayer and other methods, as has been successfully practiced by healers for many thousands of years and still remains the principal form of healing in many parts of the world. These healing practices have grown out of the rich traditions in countries like China, India, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Japan, Africa, the Pacific isles, North and South America. Were it not for this so called 'alternative medicine,' the human race probably would not have survived to this point in time.