In the Wall Street Journal article linked below, Deepak Chopra explains how mainstream acceptance of what is now considered “alternative” medicine could revolutionize U.S. healthcare.

In mid-February, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences will convene a "Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public." This could be a watershed in the evolution of integrative medicine, a holistic approach to health care that uses the best of conventional and alternative therapies.

Many “alternative” therapies are now scientifically documented to be not only medically effective, but also cost effective. To make affordable health care available to the 45 million Americans who do not have health insurance, it is important to address the real and fundamental causes of health and illness, and provide incentives for healthy ways of living rather than just drugs and surgery.

Heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer and obesity account for 75 percent of health-care costs, and all of these are largely preventable and even reversible by changing diet and lifestyle.