Basic Principles of Complementary/ Alternative Therapies
JUST AS MAINSTREAM MEDICINE has a honestly consistent approach to illness, so does al-ternative medicine. Most prevalent in alternative medicine are the six naturopathic principles. In one form or another, these principles are revisited again and again throughout Section Two of this text. The following principles are described by Dr. Catherine Downey and excerpted from her chapter on naturopathic medicine.
1. The Healing Power of Nature (Vis medicatix naturae)
The body has the inherent ability to establish, maintain and restore health. The healing process is ordered and intelligent: nature heals through the response of the life force. The physician’s role is to facilitate and augment this process, to act to identify and remove obstacles to health and recovery, and to support the creation of a healthy internal and external environment. In small, give the body the appropriate tools and it will heal itself.
2. Treat the Whole Person (The multifactorial nature of health and disease)
Health and disease are conditions of the whole organism, involving a complex interaction of physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, and social factors. The physician must treat the whole person by taking all of these factors into account. The harmonious functioning of all aspects of the individual is essential to recovery from and prevention of disease and requires a personalized and comprehensive approach to diagnosis and treatment.
3. First Do No Harm (Primum no nocere)
Illness is a purposeful process of the organism. The process of healing includes the generation of symptoms, which are, in fact, an expression of the life force attempting to heal itself. Therapeutic actions should be complementary to and synergistic with this healing process. The physician’s actions can support or antagonize the actions of the vis mediatrix naturae; therefore methods designed to suppress symptoms without removing underlying causes are considered harmful and are avoided or minimized. Therapeutic actions are applied in an ordered fashion congruent with the internal order of the organism.
4. Identify and Treat the Cause (Tolle causam)
Illness does not occur without cause. Underlying causes of disease must be learned and removed or treated before a person can recover completely from illness. Symptoms are expressions of the body’s attempt to heal, but they are not the cause of disease; therefore naturopathic medicine addresses itself promptly to the underlying causes of disease, rather than symptoms. Causes may occur on many levels, including physical, mental-emotional, and spiritual. The physician must evaluate fundamental underlying causes on all levels, directing treatment at root cause rather than at symptomatic expression.
5. Prevention (Prevention is the best “cure”)
The ultimate goal of naturopathic medicine is prevention. This is accomplished through education and promotion of lifestyle habits that make excellent health. The physician assesses risk factors and hereditary susceptibility to disease and makes appropriate interventions to avoid further harm and risk to the patient. The emphasis is on building health rather than on fighting disease. Because it is hard to be healthy in an unhealthy world, it is the responsibility of both the physician and patient to make a healthier environment in which to live.
6. The Physician as Teacher (Docere)
Beyond an accurate diagnosis and appropriate prescription, the physician must work to make a health-sensitive, interpersonal relationship with the patient. A cooperative doctor-patient relationship has inherent therapeutic value. The physician’s major role is to educate and encourage the patient to take responsibility for health. The physician is a catalyst for healthful change, empowering and motivating the patient to assume responsibility. It is the patient, not the doctor, who ultimately makes or accomplishes healing. The physician must strive to inspire hope as well as understanding. Physicans must also make a commitment to their personal and spiritual development in order to be excellent teachers.
alternative medicine
http://www.articlesbase.com/alternative-medicine-articles/alternative-medicine-89952.html
Alternative medicine?
What types of alternative care are available? How do you feel about traditional medicine versus alternative modalities of treatment?
i really reckon that you should take traditional medicine… i once took alternatives for my sinus infection… i had to go to the hospital and i was in a colma for two weeks… take what the doctors proscribed.
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Complementary and alternative medicine works to both prevent and treat disease in conjunction with traditional medicine.
Many, many pathologies can be prevented or treated with proper diet and lifestyle changes and there are many natural and herbal remedies that will treat disease better and with less side effects than "traditional medicine". But, there are times and conditions when the only thing one can do is to take pharmaceutical meds to treat certain pathologies.
The two schools of medicine work together and neither is able to completely do without the other.
By the way, no one has ever gone into a coma from a sinus infection.
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naturopath
I go to a fantastic natural doctor, he saved my life and I went to 20+ doctors who sat around saying there was nothing incorrect with me and I was just imagining feeling sick and come to find out I had a severe vitamin deficiency that they should have found then there was another time that one prescribed a medicine that they knew I was deathly allergic to. Natural doctors go to school just as long as a regular doctor does and they can run all the same tests, they just can’t prescribe medicine. I know from my experience 9 out of 10 regular doctors don’t care about people they only care about prescribing meds. that don’t even solve a problems only mask them, but some people do need medicine. People reckon their doctors care and some doctors do but most are just waiting for the 15 mins to run out on the clock and they don’t even know your name. Natural doctors treat the whole body instead of just one part which Hippocrates the father of medicine strongly believed in. So unless you want to be on meds. I would recommend going to a natural doctor who will not place you into a statistic and really sit down with you and listen and help you. Plus natural herbs really do work as well or better than perception meds. without the terrible side effects. Once I was going to a regular doctor that everyone recommend was so fantastic and come to find out he got his medical degree down in the Caribbean at a medical school that does not require a bachelors degree, so you never know what your getting with a regular doctor.
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Regular doctors just aren’t trained properly any more. The $billion dollar drug company’s finance the medical schools. So they dictate what is to be taught. So they teach to take all these pills for everything instead fo finding the cause for the problem and curing it. If doctors cured all that are sick they and the $Billion dollar drug company’s would be out of business,
Example, The Drs. give Antibiotics for everything. Antibiotics do nothing for fungus infection for example it feeds the fungus.
The Holistic medicine finds out just what is incorrect or caused the problem then treats it accordingly. They cure allot that drs. don’t even know there is a cure for.
Drs. do have their place like Broken bones, cancer etc.
Do your home work and learn.
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Alt med doesn’t work. It fails clinical trials continuously, and is based on magical thinking rather than science. This is why it’s not mainstream.
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(To really answer your question)
1. Chiropractic
2. Homeopathic
3. Naturopathic
4. Acupuncture,
5. Massage therapist
6. Chinese medicine
7. Many other varied techniques.
Many accepted medical therapies were considered "alternate" until quite recently (including exercise and diet control until quite recently – imagine that!)
Health will never come in a bottle of pills, and standard medicine has many shortcomings and hundreds of thousands die every year in the US due to medical mistakes and to drug interactions, so any blanket dismissal of alternate medicine by MD supporters is certainly the pot calling the kettle black.
Read up yourself and learn what’s right for you. Try it and choose what you reckon, but I never place all my eggs in one basket. Best luck.
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