Alternative Medicine Association celebrates its official launch
KUWAIT: The Kuwait Alternative Medicine Association (KAMA) held a ceremony to mark its official launch on Monday, after it was set up by ministry decree no 67/2015. The registration of memberships to this association was also announced.
Dr Ziben Al-Otaibi, Chairman of KAMA, said the founding of this association realized the dream of specialists in various fields of alternative medicine to have a group uniting them. “This is the first association of its kind in the Gulf region. I call upon public and private institutions that are related to alternative medicine to cooperate with us to find treatment solutions for people in need from Kuwait and outside the country,” he said during the ceremony.
Alternative medicine involves various techniques. “When treating a patient, we take into consideration his physical, psychological and behavioral condition. We don’t only treat the suffering part of his body, but we try to find the reason behind his illness through his brain, body and spirit, as all these make one complete system. We use natural treatments to return the original body equilibrium and natural energy to get well. The self-curing system of the body fixes the failure and beats the disease,” explained Otaibi.
Alternative medicine has become more popular recently around the world due to its unexpected results. “Demand of alternative medicine is increasing. In Korea for instance, alternative medicine treatment has gone up by 86 percent, in Germany by 80 percent, France 75 percent, Canada 70 percent, Switzerland by 49 percent, US 42 percent and in the United Kingdom by 40 percent. In China, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Finland, Sweden and Brazil, alternative medicine is merged with national healthcare. So the public health sectors in many countries have set alternative medicine as one of the main pillars of medical treatment,” he pointed out.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has 194 member countries including Kuwait. Due to the increasing use of alternative medicine, WHO set the first strategy for alternative medicine for 2002-2005, and developed it for 2014-2023. After setting this strategy, WHO assured that it’s time for cooperation between national healthcare and alternative medicine to fight chronic diseases. I call on authorities in charge to issue a law organizing alternative medicine and to add this service to medical insurance,” concluded Otaibi.