TRADITIONAL AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE FREQUENTLY APPLIED IN MUSCULOSKELETAL DISEASES

Traditional and complementary medicine is not considered as a part of conventional medicine but it is defined as practices and products in various fields of medicine and health care system. Traditional and complementary medicine practices have been increasing all over the world and in our country since the 1990s. According to the World Health Organization 2000 data, the frequency of traditional and complementary medicine is 80% in Africa, 70% in Canada, 48% in Australia, 42% in the US, 38% in Belgium and 49% in France. In our country, due to the low number of studies the frequency of traditional and complementary medical practices was reported to be 42-70%. The Ministry of Health issued the "Regulation on Traditional and Complementary Medicine " in the Official Gazette on 27 October 2014. With this regulation, teaching and application methods of complementary treatment methods and who can apply the treatment subjects were clarified. Treatment authority was given to physicians, and to dentists and pharmacists to practice in the field of their own. Regulations include acupuncture, ozone, mesotherapy, prolotherapy, hypnosis, hirudotherapy, reflexology, homeopathy, phytotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic, maggot practices, apitherapy, cup and music therapy methods. In our country, most application reasons are musculoskeletal pain and rheumatologic diseases. This is followed by cancer, neurological diseases and chronic diseases. In this review, the most commonly used methods in musculoskeletal system diseases are mentioned. Each physician can choose a different treatment based on his or her approach. However, because of the low quality of scientific studies and insufficient randomized controlled studies, evidence-based suggestions can not be made. Nonetheless, there is a discussion of the effects of traditional and complementary medicine practices on various systems and symptoms, as well as studies on the mechanisms of these effects