Question:
What Are Complementary and Alternative Therapies? "Complementary and alternative medicine covers a broad range of healing philosophies, approaches, and therapies," says the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), which was established in 1992 to study the booming field. According to NIH, alternative and complementary therapies can best be defined by what they are not - CAM methods are treatments and healthcare practices that are

not taught widely in medical schools,not generally used in hospitals, andnot usually reimbursed by medical insurance companies.

Answer: Right away when I realized that my lungs were not the strong organs I thought them to be, I realized that I needed to keep my wits about me, or die.

It was not so long ago, maybe a year and a half ago; it was just before I was diagnosed. I could not catch my breathe.

My condition was worsening.

My wife called the rescue squad for me and they put me on oxygen and took me to the hospital. They put me on a cart in the hospital with an oxygen tank, and left. Fifteen minutes later, my condition was noticeably worser, even with the oxygen. Even though I was laying flat on my back, I felt like I was on the verge of passing out.

Though I was lying right out in a hallway, I did not see any doctors or nurses for several minutes. I realized that I had not talked to a nurse since the rescue squad left. I could not move. I could not scream for help - I did not have the breath!

I could just wriggle an arm and whisper, "HELP", and then I would pass out and die.

At some point a security guard came by the hall, and saw me. A few minutes later hw got a nurse to see me - he had enough sense to keep clear of me himself, I might have been contagious or something; I sure looked sick.

The nurse took my pulse ox and ran off to find her co-workers that I was a new low and I could still talk! But before I passed out and died she came back with a bunch of nurses and nurses aides and they doubled my oxygen.

If I had been witless enough to lie there patiently, I would have waited for the rest of my life.

We, the consumers, should know that our care has not been subjected to rigorous review, but, instead, is care provided by folks like us, just doing their jobs. You can die from asthma, even if you do seek professional treatment, if you trust your health care providers to take care of you.