In severe pancreatitis, however, activated enzymes may travel back into the pancreas and digest it. We will talk more about pancreatitis in a little bit, but for now, consider alcohol. Regular consumption of alcohol inflames the pancreas. When the inflammation is severe, the smaller ducts of the pancreas are squeezed shut.
Any therapy that is typically excluded by conventional medicine, and that patients use instead of conventional medicine, is known as âalternative medicine.â Itâs a catch-all term that includes hundreds of old and new practices ranging from acupuncture to homeopathy to iridology.
Alternative medicine is a term that describes medical treatments that are used instead of traditional (mainstream) therapies. Some people also refer to it as âintegrative,â or âcomplementaryâ medicine. About 40% of adults in the United States say they use some form of alternative medicine. But exactly what types of therapies are considered alternative? The definition changes as doctors test and move more of them into the mainstream.