Western vs Alternative Medicine

Alternative medicine is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices,and products that are not presently considered to be part of Western medicine.It is estimated that 2/3 of the world prefer to use alternative medicine, which come in many forms, among them:

• Aromatherapy
• Acupuncture
• Herbs
• Ayurveda

Perceived Benefits of Alternative Medicine

1. It is simple, natural and safe enough for the average person to follow.
2. You feel in control of yourself and well-being. Who needs a doctor to tell you to do this and that?
3. Negative effects of conventional medicine. Drugs just don’t seem to work as effective as they do sometimes (or have undesirable side effects), and though antibiotics have helped many people over the years, more resistant bugs are being created all the time. Sometimes, doctors are too busy or too authoritative. To top that you gotta pay through the nose for your medical bill.

However, most alternative medicines and their techniques are still not scientifically proven because:

• Trials are often statistically not valid because most practitioners are unwilling to divulge their secrets.
• All alternative medicines work the way they do because of a certain (or many) active ingredients, which is often hard to isolate and identify, and change with harvesting season and preparation methods.

Problems with Alternative Medicine

1. Delayed diagnosis. In actual fact, some herbs or treatments might be ineffective for some illnesses! Yet, staunch believers of alternative medicine literally “soldier on” until they have to turn back to Western medicine when the disease gets unbearable. By then, it’ll already be too late.
2. Quack Doctors. A great example here would be acupuncture. A well placed needle can result in healing of the disease and no side effects. But quack doctors, as they’re known, might push the needles in too deep, resulting in scarring, wounds, or worse, puncturing of internal organs. And, unlike Western doctors, you don’t have to graduate with a pHd to be called a Chinese/Thai/etc doctor. Basically you won’t know whether the therapist is any good or not; only through word of mouth (which might not be true).
3. It’s all about the faith. Alternative medicine might actually turn out to be more expensive than conventional therapy, or might not even work just as well. Yet, most people don’t seem to notice it.

Final Words

Try alternative medicine, if possible. Use them at your own risk. However, do not ever neglect to take your prescriptions. A tried, tested and scientifically proven method is often much safer than ones that have not been proven or have inconclusive tests.

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