The authors of this text believe that the advances of modern biomedicine have provided a sophisticated but somewhat mechanistic approach to health; an approach that is able to function well in emergencies, but that has fallen down in the more basic areas of maintaining and creating health. They suggest that, dazzled by the progress of science, we have lost touch with the simple remedies and body wisdom that were once a part of every household. This briefing aims to show that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has a central part to play in the future of health care. By looking into the past and reclaiming some of the more traditional views of health and disease, and by looking into the future and encouraging the application of appropriate scientific research into the body and its energy systems, it suggests that we can begin to re-introduce balance into a system that is spiraling rapidly out of control. The book also questions the usual assumption that CAM is unscientific by suggesting that there are many ways to measure success and failure, and that possibly a qualitative rather than a quantitative approach is needed to evaluate health.