Traditional and Alternative Approaches to Health and Well-being

Traditional medical systems provide holistic mind-body conceptions of health, illness preventions, and cures; they are closely linked to the prevailing worldview of the culture within which they exist. Practitioners of alternative medicine diverge epistemologically from conventional medicine's beliefs that the root causes of illness and thus cures can be identified by anyone asking theory-derived questions of objectively collected data, and applying scientific methods. Conventional medicine's literature labels a diverse body of medical, health care, wellness, and well-being beliefs, products, and practices originating outside the Western evidence-based system as complementary and alternative medicine. To interpret sometimes conflicting information and ideas encountered when seeking to promote health and well-being through environmental design, it is important to determine the paradigm under which any knowledge is considered "fact." The most widely held worldview regarding health within much of the developed world underpins evidence-based practice.