Abstract
The article raises the issue of growing interest in alternative medicine and its legitimacy in the current world which is dominated by the scientific paradigm. One of the factors is the negative unwanted effects of modern medicine and new demands and needs of patients today (e.g. need for ecologic and sustainable treatment).
Holistic approach to health and disease, patient empowerment and the category of meaning as a part of human suffering, treatment and recovery are the main pull-factors of alternative medicine in the Western societies.