Page 93 - Cultural Competence in Health Education

Complementary and Alternative Medicine 71

Traditional and folk medicine have gained recognition among health educators
because of these educators ’ interest in culturally competent health care. Conducting
further studies on these forms of medicine is important for the growth of the health
education profession.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
also uses the term integrative medicine, which it defi nes as a combination of conven-
tional medical practices and CAM therapies. Integrative medicine systems promote

the equal importance and scientific value of mainstream and alternative healing mech-
anisms. An example of integrative medicine is the simultaneous use of massage
therapy and conventional medications to alleviate low - back pain (NCCAM, 2007a).
No current data exist on the number of practitioners and customers of integrative med-
icine. According to the American Association of Integrative Medicine (2006), addi-
tional research in this area is greatly needed. Health educators ought to contribute
toward the understanding of this new fi eld by becoming actively involved in research
exploring the number of people using this modality, their reasons for such use, and
their experiences with it.
These conceptual terms were clarified and differentiated in 2002 by the National

Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This differentiation is an attempt
to provide a clear basis for the understanding of CAM and other modalities among
health practitioners.
Pinzon - P é rez (2005) has advocated for a broader understanding of these concepts
and the use of more inclusive terms such as holistic, complementary, alternative, and
integrative healing. Currently, the focus on medical practices denoted in terms such as
complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine narrows the scope of these prac-
tices and limits their applications to the field of medicine. There is a need to expand

the focus of these terms to embrace healing and thus to make them more applicable in

fields such as health education and allied health professions. Health education publica-
tions such as book chapters, journal articles, and conference proceedings on holistic
and integrative healing are needed.
Patterson and Graf (2000) have described the relevance of integrating comple-
mentary and alternative medicine into the health education curriculum. Chng, Neill,
and Fogle (2003) have advocated for conducting research on CAM and integrative
medicine among college student populations and for exploring the application of these
terms in the field of health education.

Holistic health describes practices oriented toward integration of the body, the
mind, the spirit, and the environment. Holistic health should be an important domain
in the fi eld of health education because this discipline ought to view health in a com-
prehensive manner.
Integrative medicine or healing refers to a multidisciplinary process that has resulted
in benefits such as improved clinical outcomes, reduction in hospital days, decreased hos-

pitalizations, decreased pharmacological costs, and fewer outpatient surgeries ( Sarnat &
Winterstein, 2004). Integrative healing is comprehensive and multisectorial.

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