Today many people in the UK and US choose to be treated by methods that are not based on Western scientific methods, i.e. the science and practice of medicine which is standard in the West. These methods are known as Alternative medicine or Complementary medicine. Alternative medicine covers numerous branches that includes homeopathy, acupuncture, osteopathy, aromatherapy, chiropractic medicine, hypnosis, meditation, tai chi, yoga, botanical and herbal supplements (DiSogra, Robert M). Similarly, Chinese medicine is also increasingly popular in many regions of the world. According to data from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), about 38 percent of U.S. adults and about 12 percent of children are using some …show more content…
Conventional medicine is becoming increasingly popular with the general public and many healthcare practitioners and specialists have expressed concerns with their efficacy in treatment. For example, acupuncture is popular and is available in many academic medical centers. Some people recognize it as a useful treatment without regard to whether its treatment has scientific backing. In essence, further scientific studies are required to prove that it is safe for people to use. Its availability should not constitute evidence of effectiveness. As Angell, Marcia, and Jerome P. Kassirer stated, “What most sets alternative medicine apart, in our view, is that it has not been scientifically tested”. Therefore, the scientific community generally acknowledges that this is a failing that needs to be improved. In order to learn about ongoing studies on alternative medicine such as homeopathy, therapeutic touch, and herbal medicines have not been scientifically tested and …show more content…
Most physicians in Egypt now adhere to the practice of evidence-based medicine and guidelines for diagnosis and therapy coming from the American and European medical societies. (mustefa). This, then, is the main problem I have with alternative medicine, that in general its interventions haven 't been subject to rigorous study.( Herbal medicines need more extensive research to provide a greater understanding of how they work and to allow a prediction of how to take herbal medicines safely. The industry needs to set guidelines regarding adulteration and contamination. Manufacturers providing ineffective, toxic or incorrectly labelled medicines are not only damaging the industry, they are also endangering the health and well-being of their
An ancient Chinese proverb proclaims, "Nature, time and patience are the three great doctors". Nowadays more and more people choose to be treated by methods that are not based on Western systematic techniques that are the knowledge and practice of medicine which is usual in the West. These methods are known as “Alternative medicine”, which consists of homeopathy, acupuncture, aromatherapy, chiropractic medicine and others. Chinese medicine is also gaining popularity among people. The alternative way of treatment has verified its efficiency and is methodically founded, but, unfortunately, has its little disadvantages and needs a scientific base. For that reason, the alternative medicine is not generally available in all countries, and people have to pay for their individual treatment. Whereas some people consider it an ambiguity and do not dare try it because they consider it might be quite dangerous or insecure, some others just think about it as nonsense and pay little or no attention to it. People who feel anxious or doubtful of it claim that if non-traditional medicine had really worked, then appropriate doctors would have used it. Nevertheless, since the early 1980s, the alternative medicine has become increasingly popular, and although it is not officially accepted by the medical base, some doctors do accept that such methods can be effective in treating some types of illnesses. Moreover, usual medicine has its boundaries, since some illnesses are untreatable and some others which are caused by mental troubles cannot be cured by its methods (Kowalski, 1998).
In today’s world, many people assume that the latest medical technology and treatments are always the best option. However, all over the world, different techniques for curing diseases and aliments are being used. These methods fall under the category of complementary and alternative medicine.
Nowadays, complementary alternative medicine is very popular in the United States. It is widely used by adults and children. National health statistic reports done in 2007 shows that 38.3% of adults and 11.8% of children use some form of alternative medicine (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). But why is this happening? Why is it becoming so popular? Why are more people turning to it? Many times, this is because conventional medicine has not work and they want to try an alternative. That is the case of the author of this paper.
There are many different uses of alternative medicine and that can be used in a variety of situations. Some people may be skeptical of alternative medicine since they are not aware of the facts and statistics. By homeopathy becoming more popular people will not be as skeptical. “Despite the successes of many alternative therapies, the phrase "alternative medicine" has not acquired a completely respectable air. To many, especially doctors trained in conventional medicine, "alternative therapies" seem unscientific and dangerous” (Badertscher). As the author shows that although alternative medicine may seem skeptical to people, there are many reasons to prove that alternative medicine is an overall better solution. Badertscher also explains the many benefits to his view of alternative medicine of seeking to work with the body 's own natural healing processes” (Badertscher). For example, a person may suffer from chronic back pain may decide to go to a chiropractor instead of using medication such as oxycodone. In this Badertscher shows the benefit that using the body’s natural healing does and that it puts the person in control of their
For many centuries, humanity has been on an eternal quest for cures and treatments for many chronic conditions. At the present time, conventional medicine is mostly performed by doctors and other health care professionals, with the extensive use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery or radiation treatments for disease treatment. Conversely, even though not as popular, complementary and alternative medicine and treatment options are slowly gaining popularity and becoming an addition to traditional medicine.
When acupuncture was created, some of the medical concepts it employed were relatively new; there were not many falsified stories for it to build off from. In fact, "acupuncture is said to have been theorized... by Shen Nung, the father of Chinese medicine, who also documented his theories on the heart, circulation, and pulse over 400 years before Europeans had any concept about them" (1). Since then, Europeans and Asians alike have encountered centuries of medical dilemmas and successes. Over time, hypotheses emerge and are either disproved or continue to live on as part of scientific discourse and medical practice. For this reason, most old-fashioned treatments no longer hold true when compared to methods cultivated within the great wealth of knowledge attributed to medicine today – not because we are smarter now or are more civilized, but because the field of medicine has accumulated so much more experience and has improved methods to be "less wrong" countless times. So, why has acup...
These alternative treatments include acupuncture, meditation, and therapy among many others.There is growing evidence that the desire for alternative medicine is expanding because people undergoing procedures in today’s health care system has had unmet needs as well as feelings of being uncared for (Acari & Flanagan, 2015). Alternative medicine is able to provide patients with treatments that provide relief for hard to cure problems such as back pain, neck pain, and arthritis. Many of these alternative treatments have been shown to be successful for various problems. The use of complimentary and alternative medicine as well as the open ended communication that holistic nursing provides is gaining popularity from patients who are fed up with traditional care and hospital
Ross defines and differentiates between the terms healing and curing. She recognizes the fact that healing and curing are very intertwined and it can be hard to distinguish between the two terms. There are differences between the definitions in scholarly and general settings. She references an ethnographic study of healing versus curing conducted by anthropologists Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart in 1999 with native groups in New Guinea. The results of the study looked at how energy used by the different types of tribal healers to either cure or heal a patient. Eastern medicine focuses on how energy interacts with the healing process in connection within the mind. Whereas Western medicine is focused on the mind and the body separately. The practice is considered a holistic approach to finding cures. According to Ross (2013), healing is more a therapeutic process targeting the whole body and specific illness including emotional, mental, and social aspects in the treatment. The act of curing is a pragmatic approach that focuses on removing the problem all together. The life experiences of a person playing into how well certain treatments will heal or cure what is ailing them. These aspects can not be defined with textbook definitions. The interaction that the healing process has with energy is a variable in the success rate. Uncontrolled emotions can have a greater impact on the inside the body than a person can realize. The exploration of energy interaction within the body can be used for greater analysis of health care systems. (21-22). Are Western healthcare facilities purposely “curing” patients just so that they return are few years later? Is Western Medicine built upon a negative feedback loop? The terminolo...
There has been a growing trend over the past few years in health care using Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) or also known as Eastern medicine. The new and emerging type of health care has been around for thousands of years, but in recent years have been more accepting in Western culture. CAM is described as, “a wide range of practices, technologies and treatments not traditionally associated with the medical professions or medical curriculum” (Solomon & Adams, 2015). There are many different types of CAM health care. Some of the more popular practices include acupuncture, massage therapy, aromatherapy, reflexology, chiropractic and herbal remedies. Each of these therapies are used in different ways to help with the overall
Even with all today’s advances in medicine, 30% of adults and 12% of children use healthcare outside of the conventional or mainstream medicine. When non-mainstream medicine is used in place of conventional medicine it is known as alternative. When non-mainstream medicine is used with conventional medicine it is known as complementary. A combination of conventional and complementary is known as integrative medicine. Complementary and alternative medicine, also known as CAM, is the use of medical products and practices that are not part of standard medical care. It is most commonly used by people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by an event. Symptoms usually include behavior
Complementary and alternative therapies are relatively new and essential options in health care, they help to increase the quality of life of patients and provide them with numerous possibilities to ensure growth of their health, beyond current medicine. Recently, these therapies, such as massage therapy and acupuncture, have become more prevalent in research. Consequently, their substitution with standard medicine in the healthcare system has been supported by the literature. The literature that supports these methods has explored why complementary therapies are needed, the different and distinct features of each therapy, and they also examine the education and knowledge those implementing the services must have. To accurately analyze if complementary and alternative therapies are valuable to the health care system, this paper will aim to learn why they are becoming predominant and why nurses should use these therapies’ to assist in improving the health of individuals. To determine the main attributes of these therapies, a variety of resources that extensively discuss complementary and alternative therapies will be examined and the paper will also examine the benefits and weaknesses they have on improving health. Lastly, this paper will aim to determine if these services should be implemented by nurses as alternative options for their patients, as nurses should have substantial knowledge pertaining to implementing these therapies.
Over the centuries, several treatment methods have been utilized by humans for remedy diseases when they caught. Two of them are modern medicine and traditional medicine. Traditional medicine, which is also called alternative treatment, is older than modern medicine. This effective treatment had been used for many centuries before modern medicine was found. On the contrary, modern medicine has been used since the 1900’s (Lyons). In this system, drugs’ tests are carefully done in the safe laboratories, and their side effects are identified before they are given to the patient. Moreover, the effects of the pills are written on the leaflets which are found in the drug packages to warn the patients for these effects. However, sometimes the side effects are not blocked, so people have to take another pill to get better. It makes people take more chemicals into their bodies. Even traditional medicine, give its place to the modern medicine when its beginning times, it is used efficaciously like modern medicine at the present time. In course of time, people will gain reliance on traditional medicine again, since alternative medicine is more efficient and powerful in order to get better and soothe the diseases than modern medicine. In fact, in traditional medicine, there are fewer drugs, side effects, holistic therapy that people can be availed.
The study of Shang et al compared placebo-controlled trails of homeopathy and allopathy (2). The study consisted of a literature search for placebo-controlled homeopathic trials in a wide variety of databases. The authors found 110 eligible placebo controlled trials of homeopathy that they could use in this study. Furthermore, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register was used to identify placebo-controlled trials of conventional medicine. These conventional medicine trails were matched with the homeopathic trials for comparison. These pairs of trials were categorised by clinical topic.
Modern medicine mixes chemicals and does extensive testing, while herbal remedies come from naturally grown herbs. For every argument there is two sides, herbal remedies lack dosage instructions, regulations, and may interact with current medication, as well as modern medicines also have improved treatments. With improvements made on information and studies of herbal remedies, they would prevail over modern
Over the centuries, ancients made use of several treatment methods. Two of them are modern medicine and traditional medicine. Alternative medicine is older than modern one. That effective therapy has used for many centuries on the patience when modern medicine has not occurred in the world. Because it has improved in China, it can be called Traditional Chinese Medicine. In contrast, modern medicine has been in used since 1900’s. In this system, drugs’ testes are done in safety laboratories with care and nicety, and their side effects are located before they are given to the patient. However, sometimes the side effects are not blocked so, people have to take another pill to get better. It makes people to take more chemicals into their bodies. Further, modern medicine has splendid efficacy on the fatal diseases. Even, alternative medicine which people’s ancestors utilized stayed in the background when modern medicine has just found, it works at the present time efficaciously. ****** Therefore, using alternative medicine is more helpful to get better than modern medicine because there are fewer drugs, side effects; there is placebo effect and holistic therapy.