Dissatisfaction with conventional medicine The majority of alternative medicine users appear to be doing so largely because "they find these health care alternatives to be more congruent with their own values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations toward health and life." In particular, subjects reported a holistic orientation to health, a transforming experience that changed their view on life... identification with a number of groups committed to environmentalism, feminism, Psychology, spirituality and personal growth, or that they were suffering from a variety of common and minor ailments - notably anxiety, back problems, and chronic pain.