Examining the Role of Traditional Medicine in Modern Healthcare

Traditional medicine plays a vital role in health care, which is based on scientific researches, rigorous experiments and clinical practices (World Health Organization, 2000). With the growth of chronic diseases, ageing and the diversity pathogenic factors, the medical environment, and conditions have changed. In recent decades, modern scientific medicine was developed in the Western world, such as Europe and the United States, which considered complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as normal treatment. Alternative healthcare aim to treat physical and mental illness, using methods such as acupuncture, homeopathy and herbal medicine (ibid). Singh and Ernst (2009) state that alternative medicine has limited efficacy for certain ailments,

First of all, according to the survey of the most popular alternative medicine, it shows that spine manipulation and massage is the most commonly used treatments (NHIS, 2007). In fact, massage and chiropractic are a relaxation treatment, which contained calm music, warm the muscles and release pressure through smooth touch, and people may sleep in comfortable. For example, the spine is the backbone of the human being. However back pain is a numerous aliment between social workers, which is difficult to treat with any modality, especially an invasive traditional medicine. It is reasonable for most workers to find a masseur to releasing pressure, and the chiropractic might be beneficial for the backaches. Secondly, Safety is important to all health treatments. CAM as an increasing number of professions achieved legal backing and voluntary regulation. In fact, United Kingdom has accepted alternative medicine with public-sector hospitals (WHO, 2001). Moreover, the National Center for complementary and alternative medicine (NCCAM) re-examining CAM has formed an important part of health care, and make it closer to the medical system(NCCAM, 2014). Meanwhile, the Complementary and Natural Health Care Council (CNHC) and Health Professions’ Council (HPC) supported professional advice and safety evidence to healthcare practitioners and patients (Wangler, 2011). For instance, it is required a quality acupuncturist should take training at least 1500 hours, and recertify every two years in American(American Academy of Medical Acupuncture,xxxx). Furthermore, it will be an effective communication when patients take CAM treatment, which in order to respect the patient’s autonomy, ensure that patient is provided with clear treatment goals, reasonable timelines, and careful monitoring. In addition, although traditional medicine could cure many diseases by a