The terms “alternative,” “complementary,” and “integrative health” are often conflated, but they have different meanings. “Alternative therapies are used to describe health and medical treatments that rely on the body’s innate healing power,” says Tabatha Parker, ND, the director of education at the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine in La Jolla, California. “Such therapies, which are rooted in global healing traditions, are designed to promote health, prevent illness, and raise awareness of disease conditions without the use of conventional medications and interventions.” Though there are many therapies that fit into this category when used in isolation from conventional medicine, a few examples are acupuncture with a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, traditionally and culturally used herbs and supplements, and energy practices like reiki.

Previously, the common terminology was “complementary and alternative medicine,” and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other academic groups have shifted toward the use of “integrative” and “complementary health” approaches and therapies instead.

Parker considers “integrative health” a more modern terminology. “[It’s] inclusive of all providers and healing traditions that integrate science with holistic approaches,” she says. Integrative medicine focuses on treating the whole person with coordinated care across various conventional and complementary medicine providers.