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Core 1: Health priorities in Australia
What role do health care facilities and services play in achieving better health for all Australians?
Alternative health care approaches
Australians spend over $1 billion on therapies, services and products that are categorised as alternative or complementary therapies.
Many of these techniques have a long history of use throughout the world. Traditional medicine refers to the ways of protecting and restoring health that existed before the arrival of modern medicine. Many alternative therapies have developed from these traditional practices. Some alternative therapies are also referred to as complementary therapies, as they do not discard modern medicine in the treatment regime. The therapies are used in conjunction with modern medicine to treat a variety of illnesses and conditions, e.g. acupuncture and osteopathy.
Whilst there is no question that modern medicine has saved lives and is necessary in emergency situations, there is a much greater community interest in and use of a range of alternative health care approaches. Many health insurance companies now provide health cover for some alternative health care services.
Despite growing popularity, some alternative health care approaches appear to have little scientific proof that they work. For this reason many medical practitioners oppose these approaches. Consumers may also be susceptible to unproven, fraudulently marketed alternative health care products and treatments. This may mean that valuable time and money is wasted on treatments before traditional methods are sought.
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such as cancer, HIV/AIDS
etc may be susceptible to false or fraudulent
health-related claims.
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