Medicine (Latin medicus, “physician”), is the art and science of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease and injury. Its goals are to help people live longer, happier, more active lives with less suffering and disability.

Conventional Medicine

One of the greatest challenges to humanity's existence is disease. This has been true since the beginning of time until now. Only during the last 100 years has medicine developed weapons to fight disease effectively. Modern medicine also known as conventional medicine came about through the years of research, scientific studies and verification. The discovery of vaccines, newer drugs, advanced surgical procedures, new medical instruments, and the understanding of sanitation and nutrition increased the life expectancy of men.

Conventional medicine practitioners use clues to identify, or diagnose, a specific disease or injury. Medical history is check for past symptoms or diseases, perform a physical examination, and check the results of various tests. Diagnosis is done based upon established patterns of symptoms and the best known conventional treatment is given. Conventional medicine treatments are supposed to cure a disease. But at times they are palliative—that is, they relieve symptoms but do not reverse the underlying disease.

Limitations of Conventional Medicine

In conventional medicine, diagnosing disease and choosing the best treatment requires scientific knowledge and technical skills. Often time, practitioners of conventional medicine must apply these abilities in imaginative ways. The same disease may present very different symptoms in two patients, and a treatment that cures one patient may not work on another.

One of the tenets of modern or conventional medicine is that “we must diagnose accurately before we can treat.” While diagnosing is organized around the Theory of Diseases, which believes that a person becomes sick because he or she contracts a disease. This model subjects the physician to view disease as an independent entity which can be fully understood without regard to the person it afflicts or the environment in which it occurs. Conventional medicine is treatment of diseases, not of people. Some drugs employed in conventional medicine are designed to prevent the body cells from performing its function that has become hyperactive. Because of the chemical nature of these drugs, this often time create side effects and some may be fatal.

A Harvard study showed that about 180,000 Americans were killed in hospitals by their doctors every year. The study showed that the cause of deaths were the wrongful administration of drugs because of inability to identify special characteristics of the person for whom the drugs were prescribed

Alternative Medicine

Conventional medicine is unsurpassed in diagnosing diseases and injuries. Conventional medicine’s technological superiority is highly effective in diagnosing and providing cure to infections and treatment to major injuries. However, conventional medicine is not fully effective in treating chronic diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, allergies, cancer and others. This is where alternative medicine comes in.

Alternative medicine is another form of medical treatment not fully accepted by conventional medicine or mainstream medicine. Alternative medicine lacks the scientific proof of safety and effectiveness as conventional medicine requires. Alternative medicine are based on traditional experiences, folkloric beliefs and little or unconfirmed scientific research.

Alternative medicine is focused on improving the quality of life for people especially with chronic illness; disease prevention; and treatments for conditions that conventional medicine cannot adequately control. Alternative medicine is used in treating arthritis, chronic pain, allergies, cancer, heart disease, and depression. The cornerstone of alternative medicine is the idea that the mind influences the health of the body.

Alternative medicine systems approach sickness as a dynamic event in the life of an individual. Disease results as a problem of balance and relationship, a disharmony between the sick person and his or her environment. Diseases are diagnosed and treated based from the persons’ general condition, both physical, spiritual and mental in consideration of the context when the illness occurs.

Alternative medicine includes chiropractic, naturopathy, herbal medicines, acupuncture, holistic medicine, and homeopathy. Other alternative medicine treatments include aromatherapy, inhaling oils from aromatic plants; massage techniques, including Rolfing and reflexology; biofeedback; iridology, in which the eye is used to diagnose certain diseases; and meditation. Some alternative medicine approaches, including chiropractic manipulation and acupuncture, have gained greater acceptance in conventional medicine. A 1997 NIH report gave acupuncture limited endorsement for certain medical uses.

The popularity of alternative medicine has brought a growing concern about health fraud and quackery. Medical organizations both in the world of conventional and alternative medicine, emphasized the importance of receiving conventional medical diagnosis, and exploring the standard conventional treatments before considering alternative medicine.

 

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