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• Never pick up a hitchhiker or offer a ride to a casual acquaintance.

What to Do If You Are Sexually Assaulted

Most experts say that fighting back and trying to run away are the best defenses against rape. A rapist is motivated by the need to overpower and control you; he wants you to be compliant. Fight back, scream, and try to run away if you are attacked.

Take the following steps if you have been raped:

• Report the rape immediately to the police or to a rape crisis center to increase the chances that the rapist will be caught. Most sexual offenders repeat their crime until they are caught.

• Preserve the physical evidence. Don’t shower or bathe, change clothes, brush your teeth, or wash or throw away any of your clothing until the police tell you that it’s OK to do so.

• Immediately go to a hospital emergency department, a rape crisis center, or your doctor’s office for medical treatment.

• Seek professional help to cope with your feelings.

• Don’t blame yourself.

7

Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Complementary and alternative medicine refers to healing approaches or philosophies that are generally not offered by conventional medical institutions or Western medical schools. People use these treatments in a variety of ways—alone or in combination with other alternative therapies, instead of conventional treatments, or, most often, in addition to conventional treatments.

If you are using an alternative therapy or are considering trying one, tell your medical doctor. Using an alternative therapy as a substitute for conventional therapy without receiving an accurate diagnosis from a doctor can be harmful to your health. In addition, combining some treatments can be dangerous. For example, some herbs can interact with prescription or over-the-counter medications. Although results from an increasing number of studies on alternative therapies are being published in mainstream medical literature, there remains a general lack of understanding about how conventional and alternative therapies function together. Ask your doctor for scientific information about the safety and effectiveness of a particular treatment you are considering, or consult a reliable source, such as the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, for guidance.

The complementary and alternative approaches discussed here are a few examples of the more popular treatments people are trying. These discussions are not endorsements by the American Medical Association of any treatments or therapies. The most widely used alternative treatments include herbal therapies and dietary supplements, acupuncture, mind-body therapies such as meditation, and manipulative therapies such as massage and chiropractic.

Alternative Medical Systems

Alternative medical systems are complete systems of medical theory and practice that have developed outside of conventional medicine. Some systems, such as homeopathy and naturopathy, evolved inside Western culture. Others, such as Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, developed in Eastern cultures. Other traditional medical systems exist in Native American, African, Middle Eastern, and South American and other cultures. Fragments of these medical systems still exist in the folk medicine practices of many of the people in these cultures, as well as those of many immigrants to the United States.

Homeopathy

Developed in Germany in the 1790s by a physician, homeopathy is based on the theory that “like cures like.” According to this theory, natural ingredients that produce certain symptoms in a healthy person can cure the same symptoms in a sick person when the substances are highly diluted and given in small doses. Homeopathic doctors believe that the more highly diluted the substance, the stronger the medicine. They consider medicines produced in this way to be safer, producing fewer side effects than conventional medicines. The homeopath takes into account the person’s personality and mental and emotional