PUBLIC MARKS from adfunk with tag "alternative medicine"

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is an umbrella term for alternative medicine, complementary medicine, and integrative medicine. Alternative medicine describes practices used in place of conventional medical treatments. Complementary medicine describes practices used in conjunction and cooperation with conventional medicine. While integrative medicine is viewed as the best of complementary medicine by its advocates. CAM has been described as comprising “a diverse group of treatments, ranging from symptomatic interventions to be used in conjunction with traditional therapies—therapeutic touch or meditation—to unique treatments meant to replace conventional chemotherapy or surgery. CAM includes complex and longstanding fields of study, such as acupuncture, ayurvedic medicine, and homeopathy, but can also be as straightforward as taking a specific dietary supplement to lower blood pressure or blood lipid concentrations.”

Millions of people with chest pain enter emergency room limbo, spending up to 24 hours waiting for tests to tell if a heart attack really is brewing or if it’s something less dire. But a new computerized heart scan - CT Angiography - may start easing the wait, giving doctors a faster picture of clogged arteries to help determine who can go home - within just four hours - and who needs more care. Currently, an electrocardiogram, or EKG, is used to catch a heart attack in progress, or an artery so unstable that one’s imminent. But at least half the time, early tests are inconclusive and patients are admitted to the hospital for repeat EKGs, blood tests and other checks that can last 24 hours - and eventually rule out a heart attack two-thirds of the time. Patient anxiety aside, the tab for all that testing surpasses US$10 billion annually.