One of the most important problems of any society is how a person can organize measures to preserve their own health. A well-designed healthcare structure assumes that everyone can use various technologies, methods, and practices for prevention and treatment. The medical system cannot be a “police system”: everyone should have the right to choose and understand correctly what is absolutely acceptable for treatment, and what is acceptable or harmful to health. The development of personalized medicine offers a wide range of measures aimed at improving the health of the entire body. The principle of “treating the patient, not the disease,” has become practical today. This has generated a wave of public interest in non-traditional treatment options for their country. In this regard, various holistic and private wellness technologies and practices that complement the official medical system are gaining more and more momentum. In traditional medicine, the culture of health has always been and still is a part of the general human culture and includes education, way of thinking, emotional state, diet, preventive support for a healthy mind and body. Official medicine, in turn, builds an individual program for maintaining physical and mental health, taking into account heredity and predisposition to diseases. Complementary medicine combines traditional and officially recognized approaches. And although it has not yet received worldwide official status, its methods, based on previous experience in the practical application of therapeutic and prophylactic agents, are rapidly gaining popularity. According to WHO estimates, more than 100 million Europeans use KM services, one fifth of whom are its regular customers. Today, complementary medicine centers are actively operating and — most importantly — are in constant contact with official medical organizations, they are widespread in many large cities of developed countries. In particular, the oldest and largest of them are The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the USA and The Institute for Complementary and Natural Medicine in England. The approaches of the institutions are quite diverse and include such methods, practices and wellness systems as, for example, herbalism, hypnotherapy, yoga, Ayurveda, Qigong, Mongolian, Tibetan, Japanese traditional medicine and much more. In addition to methods established in cultural traditions, the KM registry includes innovative medical technologies that, for various reasons, are only gathering their evidence base.: These are bioresonance diagnostics and therapy, mono- and multimodal technologies, magnetic therapy, registration of background and induced radiation of biological objects, and others. Such technologies involve the use of various devices that can affect the functioning of the body, from correcting biological rhythms and removing toxins to treating serious diseases. Completely new areas of complementary medicine deserve special attention, such as gelotherapy (where the healing properties of laughter are studied) and various types of art therapy (bibliotherapy, isotherapy, music therapy, drama therapy, doll therapy, sand therapy, etc.). Such methods mainly have a psychoemotional effect and can serve as an expressive release. However, some complementary medicine technologies and methods are not universally recognized and accepted by healthcare. For example, in Russia, magnetic therapy procedures are recognized at the state level and are used in hospitals, while in the United States they have a controversial status (the FDA prohibits the sale of magnetic devices as medical). Very often, instead of the term “complementary” (additional), the term “alternative” (opposing) is mistakenly used. But do not confuse them: complementary medicine is considered together with official approaches, while alternative medicine is considered instead of standard generally accepted procedures.

Studies have shown that 46% of doctors surveyed “experience psychological stress” if they see a patient’s desire to seek help from CM specialists. Why such a skeptical attitude? The fact is, scientists say, that complementary medicine methods can have a variety of consequences, since there is not enough information about the safety of using a particular technology. Many doctors consider most of the referrals to be theoretically unfounded, pseudoscientific, and their effectiveness unproven. So, some people directly separate evidence-based medicine and complementary medicine. There is also a risk that a person, resorting to non-traditional methods of treatment, may avoid contacting professionals or do it later than necessary. Doctors’ own lack of information about the means and methods of CM, their effectiveness and safety also plays a role. Although some people are of the opinion that there is no evidence, this does not mean that there is none. Scientists are looking for scientific justification of complementary medicine methodologies. Within the framework of the Cochrane Collaboration (Cochrane), special programs have been allocated since 1996, designed to solve the problems of complementary medicine from the standpoint of evidence-based medicine. To date, the volume of KM data collected by Cochrane includes 1,211 reviews. As a result of the conducted biochemical, physiological and psychological studies, a number of positive effects have been proven in relation to some CM methods. For example, yoga and meditation can reduce stress and alleviate symptoms of depression, qigong practice can have a positive effect on insomnia, obesity and back pain, and nanoscale magnets can reduce or completely eliminate cancerous tumors. There are a lot of similar studies showing the beneficial effects of complementary methods on human physical and mental health, but information about the molecular mechanisms underlying such a healing effect remains at the level of hypotheses. In addition, a large number of medical colleges have begun to train their students on CM issues: they have created educational programs in a number of sections, and introduced postgraduate education courses. Training in acupuncture, naturopathy, chiropractic, osteopathy and other areas of complementary medicine has appeared all over the world. Only specially trained people with professional medical education and postgraduate training have the right to use the methods. Modern standards of official medicine suggest the predominant use of pharmacological agents, sometimes expensive, with negative side effects, and sometimes without medicinal properties at all. Therefore, people’s interest in KM approaches is understandable: the means and methods presented here are mainly drug-free therapeutic and preventive technologies and drugs of natural origin. Another advantage of KM is that the procedures can be cheaper and have fewer side effects than standard treatment. Today, the boundaries between conventional and complementary medicine are blurring. And it is an exclusive human right to take advantage of all existing opportunities to prolong life, heal diseases, and maintain oneself in a healthy and harmonious state.