How truly effective is alternative medicine?!
Question: There must still be some underlying science if it does have any positive effects on health
Answers: There must still be some underlying science if it does have any positive effects on health
How effective is western/allopathic medicine?
If its so fantastic why does it fall short when treating chronic conditions?
How many people with Asthma, Hypertension etc. can go to their allopath and get prescribed a course of treatment which permanently cures there condition?
If western medicine is so good why do all these people need repeat prescriptions?
Why are they not cured out right?
Allopathic medicine is fantastic at some things but not everything. I wish it could acknowledge its shortfalls.
In regards to life saving, in the last 100 years health and life expecancy have improved mostly because of better living conditions, better nutrition and improved sanitation.
Have us live in the filthy conditions of 100 years ago with the poor diet of the time but continue to give us the best allopathic care. See what effect this would have on life expectancy and infant mortality.
If you cannot find the answers in science then perhaps the science model needs to change.
It's only called alternative because west medicos didn't invent/discover it.
Alternative medicine is any form of therapy used outside of and in place of conventional medicine. This can be anything from magnet therapy to massage therapy.
They all have varying amounts of research that either support or reject their effectiveness. Therfore, you would have to be more specific on what type of alternative medicine and what type of ailment.
Alternative medicine has a broad range of subject. First, there's the unproven medicine. Simply put, this medicine has been tested probably numerous times, but has failed to produce the desired results. However, the medicine/procedure may have helped a couple of patients with significantly different conditions.
Also in the alternative medicine category is the unorthodox medicines. These include everything from cutting the achilles tendon to lengthen it to using animal sacrifice to heal epileptic children of eastern traditions. While you may laugh at the idea of animalistic rituals used as healing, but there have been many incidences where a family has refused treatment from mental illnesses because they believed their animal sacrifice and unorthodox methods were better.
There is a book titled "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" where a girl from Vietnam/Cambodia, can't remember which one, is diagnosed with epilepsy in a California clininc. The doctors try to work with the patient, but the girl's parents do not give her her medicine, do not come in for check-ups, and eventually, child services comes in to take the girl. Only after many heated discussions of how the girl does worse on her medication, and how their treatment with animal sacrifice, ritualistic dance, and other unorthodox treatment methods, does the girl get better. According to the patient and her parents, she has actually been inhabited by a spirit and no medicine or treatment will let the spirit escape unless the girl and the spirit want to escape. It's a really interesting book.
In understanding how it works? Applying it? Studies are being done everyday on the effectiveness. Are you referring to confirmation that the alternative treatment is working??
The basic difference is that those who typically practice alternative medicine see the impact versus needing a scientific explanation from the AMA, NIH or such of the impact. I truly do not need to know that if st. john's wort, or any other herb applied directly to a bunny's eyeball will lead to it's eventual blindness or if it is injected repeatedly that it will cause cancer. Also, I prefer to take my advice from a source that is not likely to be profiting from the treatment plan I'm being rushed to consider!
I always doubted alternative medicines but I have found first hand natural ways to help problems I've had. For instance with acne, I use to suffer from extreme cystic acne when I found out its because of excess male hormones so after trying doctor's medicines I tried a herb called saw palmetto and never looked back! It is used to treat prostate cancer and has been PROVEN in studies to reduce testosterone so thats why it solved my acne.
Of course I have also tried things that didnt really work, its all a matter of trying things out, READING, and finding what works for you.
Good luck!
I have a counter question: how truly effective is allopathic medicine (and the corporate culture it exists in conjunction with)? Are people healthier now than than prior to modern medicine?
The term Alternative Medicine covers a LOT of ground and includes everything from chinese medicine, ayervedic medicine, accupunture/accupressure, homeopathy and much more so you can't say whether it's effective or not without specifying. However that said, ALL of those things have been around thousands of years and so-called "modern medicine" is the new kid on the block. Modern medicine doesn't have such a stellar record of efficacy yet all these others have lasted for the long haul. In my personal opinion alternative medicine is at least as good as modern medicine and usually better because it's not introducing into your body man made chemicals that cause more side effects and problems than they solve. Since moderen medicine is designed to treat symptoms rather than conditions it's not very useful.
Personally, I have an incurable disease. Endometriosis. There are narcotic pain killers, hormone therapies and surgeries currently used as treatment. And I'm talking some women have 28 surgeries, and still live in chronic pain and excessive bleeding everyday of their lives.
Almost three years ago, when I was 26, my doctor suggested a hysterectomy to help improve my symptoms since I had stopped responding to the prescriptions. Well, I figured I had nothing to loose by trying alternative methods at that point since the team of doctors I had for 10 years couldn't save my uterus. I started drinking the herbal teas and eating organic, along with yoga, message therapy, healing crystals and aromatherapy. I haven't taken so much as a baby aspirin since that conversation about the hysterectomy.
And I'm 10 weeks pregnant. Something that I've been told for more than a decade that I needed to accept would probably never happen.
In my case, alternative medicine was the only thing that worked to improve my health.
noni is a wonderfull aternative medicine.it improve immune ability , then your normal medicine work like anything which was not previously working and suit to your body. I was suffering from tonsillitis and medicine doctor suggested , was temporarly curing , and after that the same position. my friend suggested noni and i am happy to say that 30% disease is cured , taking noni for 15 days. I hope my diabities also will control with this fruit juice. DAULAT BHATIA