So-called alternative medicine is a field of products and treatments outside of official healthcare systems.
It is different from complementary medicine in that its practitioners claim to have cures or at least effective treatments for a wide variety of ailments, meaning that a person who uses them does not need any concurrent treatment.
In contrast, complementary treatments are used alongside those recommended by doctors; their purpose is only to ease symptoms.
While some people swear by herbal remedies and other unconventional practices, many healthcare experts warn that there can be many risks associated with them.
One of the most common and controversial forms of non-traditional treatment is known as homeopathy.
This practice dates back to the late 18th century, when it was developed by a German physician named Samuel Hahnemann.
His theory was that disorders can be treated with substances that would provoke their symptoms in a healthy person.
For example, he thought a type of bark that causes some of the symptoms of malaria, such as fever and joint pain, could be used to treat the disease.
His current followers draw their supposedly healing substances from a wide variety of sources, including plants, animals, minerals, and synthetic materials.
To minimize the risks of taking so many chemicals, practitioners will dilute each one many times over.
This is achieved by adding water, alcohol, or sugar to the original substance, shaking it, adding more, and repeating the process however many times is considered necessary.
Fortunately for clients of these practitioners, these substances are generally diluted enough to avoid toxic side effects.
However, this safety measure is actually the source of much of homeopathy's criticism.
Studies have shown that the materials given to patients under this system are usually too diluted to have any medical effects at all.
In fact, they may be chemically indistinguishable from the diulent - that is, the water or alcohol mixed in with them.
Any supposed benefits, critics say, is caused by a placebo effect.
Some defenders of the practice meet this criticism by asking what harm there can be in patients taking what is essentially sugar water.
The main concern is that people who have been persuaded to put their faith in these practitioners will not use medicine that could actually treat their conditions.
This will allow their conditions to progress, potentially to the point of being fatal.
When this occurs, it can be considered a form of malpractice.
To learn more, contact Chicago medical malpractice attorneys Friedman & Bonebrake.