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Natural therapies

Natural therapies are part of a broad range of complementary and alternative medicines and therapies (CAM). Natural therapies include supplements (vitamins, minerals and fish oils), herbal medicine (tea, tablets and liquids) and nutrition. CAM also includes things like relaxation, mindfulness, meditation, aromatherapy, acupuncture and yoga.

Many people use natural therapies to improve their physical health and emotional wellbeing. A recent study showed that over a 12 month period, 75% of adults in Australia used at least one type of CAM. Another study showed that about 63% of people used a CAM practitioner and 48% used vitamin or mineral supplements.

In 2020, people in Australia spent about $5.6 billion on complementary medicines and therapies to help manage chronic disease and improve health and wellbeing. But, despite the high use of CAM, a large women’s health survey showed that more than 70% of women in Australia know little about the safety and effectiveness of natural therapies.

Learn more about natural therapies, including supplements (vitamins, minerals and fish oil) and herbal medicine used to treat health conditions. We’ll also cover the safety and effectiveness of natural therapies to help you make informed decisions.

Read more about how natural therapies can be used to treat symptoms of menopause, endometriosis, PCOS and anxiety.

Supplements

Your body needs many vit­a­mins and min­er­als to stay healthy. It’s rec­om­mend­ed you meet your rec­om­mend­ed dietary intake by eat­ing a well-bal­anced diet. But there may be times when you need sup­ple­ments to get the nutri­ents you need. For exam­ple, if you: eat a veg­e­tar­i­an or veg­an diet are preg­nant or breast­feed­ing are unwell have a health con­di­tion are over 70 years old. 
Vitamins and pills

Safety of natural therapies

Nat­ur­al ther­a­pies are often con­sid­ered safe and harm­less because they are ​‘nat­ur­al’. But, as with phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal med­i­cines, there can be risks and unwant­ed side effects when you use nat­ur­al ther­a­pies. Some nat­ur­al ther­a­pies affect pre­scribed med­i­cines, which may impact your health. For these rea­sons, nat­ur­al ther­a­pies should only be pre­scribed by a qual­i­fied health prac­ti­tion­er who is trained in their use. If you are using nat­ur­al ther­a­pies, it’s impor­tant to tell your doc­tor so they keep it in mind when pre­scrib­ing medicines.

Effectiveness of natural therapies

There is some dis­agree­ment about the effec­tive­ness of nat­ur­al ther­a­pies when com­pared to con­ven­tion­al med­i­cine. While the use of some nat­ur­al ther­a­pies are sup­port­ed by sci­en­tif­ic research, oth­ers need more stud­ies to prove their effectiveness. 

How to find a qualified health practitioner

Com­ple­men­tary and alter­na­tive med­i­cines should be pre­scribed by a qual­i­fied health prac­ti­tion­er trained in their use. Con­tact these organ­i­sa­tions for more infor­ma­tion: Aus­tralian Nat­ur­al Ther­a­pists Asso­ci­a­tion (ANTA)Australian Tra­di­tion­al Med­i­cine Soci­ety (ATMS)Naturopaths & Herbal­ists Asso­ci­a­tion of Aus­tralia (NHAA)

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This con­tent has been reviewed by a group of med­ical sub­ject mat­ter experts, in accor­dance with Jean Hailes pol­i­cy.

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