"The advances of modern biomedicine have provided a sophisticated but somewhat mechanistic approach to health... This briefing suggests that Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has a central part to play in the future of health care. Both by looking into the past and reclaiming some of the more traditional views of health and disease, and by looking into the future and encouraging the application of appropriate scientific research into the body with its energy systems, we can begin to reintroduce balance into a system which is rapidly spiraling out of control. The briefing also questions the usual assumption that CAM is unscientific, by suggesting that there are many ways to measure success and failure, and that a qualitative approach is an important aspect of the evaluation of health."--From book jacket.