Posts Tagged ‘Conventional’
Conventional Medicines vs. Alternative Medicines – A Quick Comparison
The term “conventional medicine” refers to medicine practiced by medical doctors and doctors of osteopath. Alternative medicine is a system of theory and practice used by many individual cultures around the world. There are several differences in conventional and alternative medicines, but there are some practitioners that use them together.
Promoting Good Health
The emphasis in alternative medicine is good health and prevention of disease. With alternative medicine, an individual is using natural remedies to build up the immune system to fight off infection and diseases. Each person is treated as an individual. Then, a specialized treatment is used for their needs. Through extensive questioning and diagnostic tools, the practitioner works to determine the cause of health problems. If there are underlying factors influencing your health, they will work to find the problem. Instead of using the same treatment on everyone with a common symptom, they try to find the hidden cause and treat it.
Different Methods
There are several different kinds of alternative medicines: homeopath, osteopath, chiropractic, herbal medicine, massage and acupuncture. Alternative medicine practitioners usually have a quality education with degree-level exams and monitored evaluation. Other therapies not as common are reflexology and aromatherapy, which use less invasive methods. These are more independent practitioners sometimes using methods developed on their own.
The purpose is to stimulate the body’s healing process. Instead of trying to rid the body of a disease or symptom, the whole body is treated, and the cause is addressed. That is why a whole regimen is sometimes prescribed. This could be dietary changes, exercises, and an herbal remedy. By treating the cause, you have more chance of a complete cure. In most cases, these treatments are not as costly as conventional medicines.
Widely Used
A Brief Comparison of Homeopathy and Conventional Medicine
All throughout man’s civilization, medicine has played a very vital role in maintaining the health of people. In fact, shamans and medical figures were oftentimes occupying relatively high and significant positions in most ancient societies. Up to now, people still put so much premium on medical professions. From crude concoctions to intensive medical procedures today, there is no doubt that man has developed his knowledge of medicine and medical treatments. However, the recent decades have seen mainstream regression towards more traditional and less invasive forms of medicine. One of them is homeopathy.
To delineate the differences between Homeopathy and Conventional Medicine, we must look into the main differences between the two according to:
I. Main Principles
Homeopathy
The main contention of homeopathy is that the treatment for an ill person is the same substance that can elicit symptoms of the disease to an otherwise healthy person. In this approach, both the physical and psychological states of the person are important in the selection of appropriate treatments.
Conventional Medicine
The main thesis of conventional medicine is that treatment can only be done to a person with disease. Otherwise, the person is healthy and requires no medical attention.
II. Main philosophy
Homeopathy
In essence, homeopathy is a vitalist philosophy which regards diseases, disorders and sicknesses as products of disturbances in the life force or the vital force. Such disturbances are the host of symptoms that distinguish one disease from another. In this type of approach, it is believed that the life force has the capacity to adapt to both internal and external causes. This phenomenon is more popularly known as the law of susceptibility. These further states that a negative state of mind could attract miasms or hypothetical diseases. These miasms could enter the body and produce the symptoms of a particular disease. Apart from this law, there are other central philosophies to which homeopathy adheres to such as like cures like, the principle of single remedy and the principle of minimal dosage.
A Look at Alternative Medicine and Conventional Medicine
Alternative medicine and alternative therapies are therapeutic practices, which are currently not considered as an integral part of conventional medicine. Conventional medicine is the current mainstream medical system of diagnosis and treatment of disease.
However, an increasing desire for wellness, in response to today’s stressful lifestyle and rising incidences of cancer, disease and illness, has led to the rising demand for alternative medicine and therapies. It is true that many people are becoming disenchanted with conventional medicine’s drugs and the approach to healing.
What is the difference between conventional medicine and alternative medicine? In general, conventional medicine tends to focus on the disease and employs techniques to treat it. It views the body as a war zone where battles against invading organisms are fought, and won or lost. It focuses more on techniques, technology, chemical reactions that can be measured, statistically proven and documented. Treatment is on the part of the body that is displaying the symptoms of the illness or disease.
On the other hand, alternative medicine tends to be “holistic”, where an individual’s health is considered as a whole and treatment not just focused on the symptoms. Alternative medicine employ “natural” methods to aid the healing powers of the body to return to a state of health. Treatment is holistic; that is it takes into account every aspect of a patient and not just on the health symptoms that he or she is experiencing.
Contrary to popular belief, alternative medicine has a history longer than conventional medicine. Much of alternative medicine is derived from ancient healing techniques. For instance, the use of herbs is practiced all over the world since a long time ago; whether in India as ayurvedic medicine, in China as traditional Chinese medicine or used as aromatherapy which can be traced back to ancient Egyptian times.
Nutrition vs. Conventional Medicine
Be My Friend – www.myspace.com Nutrition by Natalie Nutrition vs. Conventional Medicine Take A Pill Americans are constantly being bombarded by pharmaceutical commercials with the message of take a pill. High cholesterol, acid reflux, depression, insomnia, allergies, irritable bowel syndrome, shaking leg syndrome, social anxiety disorder, ADHD, GERDs, sexual dysfunction,; it doesn’t matter what’s wrong w/ you, big Pharma has a pill that’s right for you. In this video Natalie discusses the different between the conventional medicine approach of just taking a pill to a preventative approach of health; nutrition. This video discusses the three most profitable classes of drugs; Statins (Drug prescribed for high cholesterol), Proton Pump Inhibitors (drugs prescribed for heart burn, upset stomach or acid reflux disorder) and Antidepressants, prescribed for depression. Common Statin drugs include Lovastatin, Simvastatin, Atorvastatin, Fluvastatin, Pravastatin and Rosuvastatin. Common Proton Pump Inhibitors include, Aciphex, Prevacid, Nexium, Prilosec, Protonix, Zegerid and omeprazole. Common Antidepressants include Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, Paxil, Luvox, Effexor, Cymbalta and Wellbutrin. This video talks about common side effects of these three classes of drugs. There may be more to your health than simply taking a pill. Please visit Natalie’s website at www.nutritionbynatalie.com This video was produced by Psychetruth http www.youtube.com www.livevideo.com ©Copyright 2007 Zoe …
Integrating Alternative Medicine and Conventional Medicine
Until recently, there has been a battle between proponents of alternative medicine and believers in conventional medicine. It seemed that to back
one was to deny the other. This is no longer the case. An increasingly knowledgeable public is aiming for health and wellness, a more general term that recognises that both conventional medicine and alternative medicine have something to offer. These two fields now create a whole new medical approach.
What is conventional medicine?
Conventional medicine is used to describe the services that treat the symptoms of a disease or illness with prescribed medications and surgeries. Conventional medicine treats the ailing part of the body but may not address the underlying causes of the illness or disease. This area of medicine is what is practiced in hospitals and most doctor’s offices in the Western world. Backed by the FDA and multiple scientific studies, conventional medicine is highly regulated for the benefit of the patient.
What is alternative medicine?
An alternative form of treatment to conventional medicine, alternative medicine attempts to treat the patient as a whole – the mind, spirit, and body – to prevent diseases and illnesses from occurring and creating a better overall quality of life rather than just a body free of symptoms. Because it acknowledges that the patient’s physical health is directly affected by state of mind and spiritual health, alternative medicine offers preventative
treatments that are often relaxing and non-invasive.
Can conventional medicine co-exist with alternative medicine?
Increasingly, more and more people would like to believe so and are introducing alternative therapies, such as massage therapy and energy balancing, into their daily lives. When sick, these people may still go back to their western allopathic medicine for speedy recovery.
