Working with Your Doctor Conventional medicine comprises the
orthodox treatments that Western doctors use as part of medical
care. They include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal
and biological therapies. These treatments are usually tested
using scientific research methods to prove their benefits and
possible side effects. Complementary - or alternative -
therapies are those which are not proven to the clinical
standards of Western medicine but which have been used, in some
cases, for millennia to relieve people's symptoms. Western
doctors have been reluctant to recommend complementary therapies
such as Shiatsu to their patients because they have not been
scientifically tested in large trials by Western medical
researchers. Although the situation is changing, more research
is still needed to evaluate all complementary therapies in order
to develop knowledge about the best way to use them. Shiatsu is
a Complementary Therapy Meanwhile, many complementary therapies,
including Shiatsu, are already bei