ABSTRACT
The term ‘traditional medicine’ covers a wide range of therapies and practices which can vary across countries. In some cultures, the term ‘complementary medicine’ is used interchangeably with traditional medicine. The generic term ‘traditional and complementary medicine’ (T&CM) is used by the World Health Organization (WHO) to avoid geographical variation [1].1 T&CM denotes a broad set of healthcare practices that encompass all health systems, modalities and practices, and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period [2]. The use of the phrase ‘politically dominant’ in this defi nition denotes that an incompatibility exists between the holistic paradigm of T&CM and the paradigm of bio-medical (conventional) medicine (BM) [3]. Commonly used T&CM are listed in Table 41.1 [4]. Despite their epistemological differences, T&CM has long played a role in many of the world’s health systems, alongside BM, and has remained popular to this day [5].
