The term alternative medicine is generally used interchangeably with complementary medicine. I personally prefer the latter term since studies indicate that the great majority of people do not use treatments like acupuncture, massage, herbs, visualization, meditation, or dietary therapy to the exclusion of allopathic medicine, but rather to supplement it. Complementary approaches in general, are based on bringing the body back into homeostasis, or balance, so that the healing mechanisms of the body can function as nature intended.
— Joan Borysenko, A Woman's Book of Life