What Are Your Views On Complementary Medicine Vs Traditional Medicine?
Any views you may have concerning this subject are hugely appreciated!
Do you think complementary medicine keeps up well more effectively than traditional medicine? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both different forms of medicine?
I’ve got to do a presentation on ‘Complementary medicine VS traditional medicine’ so just trying to get as much feedback on the subject as possible!
Cheers X
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Conventional doctors do not necessarily study complementary medicine and can lose their license or be subject to law suits for treatments that go beyond their training. Many MDs have studied complementary medicine in detail by visiting cultures from around the world and reviewing history. When their findings are backed by carefully conducted medical studies to determine if there is a real benefit, the required dosage and lack of harm in peer reviewed clinical trials from any and all countries they may recommend supplements that are not required to undergo FDA approval because they are already available in meats, fruits and vegetables being consumed without harm. Certain procedures such as the use of colored lights and aromas may also be shown to be of benefit in clinical trials.
The advantages of complementary supplements and certain procedures may be that they are less invasive and have less harmful sides effects than prescription drugs and chemotherapy that have been approved by the FDA but have not established a long history of benefit without harm in the general population. Disadvantage of complementary supplements and procedures are that they may not be pure and of the same dose used in clinical trials and may not work as well as conventional therapy. They may just earn big bucks for unscrupulous purveyors not well regulated by the FDA. Clinical trials of new drugs is very expensive and the winners must also pay for the losers. It is unlikely that any company would spend millions of dollars to discover the benefits of tomatoes, because anyone can grow their own tomatoes. A drug company wants a new drug with a patent to protect their investment for many years, preferably a drug you must take daily for the rest of your life (Big Bucks!) even it it deals only with the symptoms and does not result in a cure of the underlying condition.
There’s a neat piece on this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujUQn0HhG…
The issue isn’t which is better so much as how we know which works. Modern medicine is tainted by corporate greed and academic fraud but this is only a tiny proportion of the knowledgebase. Complementary medicine is a term that implies a value that often can’t be proven. If it wasn’t for the value of the placebo effect, most such approaches would be seen as bare. The difference is that complementary approaches don’t have to be proven, don’t have to be fully researched and really, don’t even have to work. This isn’t to malign traditional knowledge or other cultures’ treatments that can be shown to have value. Traditional medicine seeks to do no harm and as such is heavily weighted to weighing risks and benefits. Complementary medicine has no such constraints.
Complementary med, covers a huge amount of ground… homoeopathy, reflexology, chiropractic, theraputic touch, magnets, acupuncture, etc, etc ad nauseum
I have looked at a few ‘complementary medicines’. I actually have read up a lot on the theory of Homoeopathy.
and… there is no evidence that much of it works, except as a placebo
obviously, some things are effective in certain circumstances, such as chiropractic may help with some back problems…. trouble is, that is used WAY beyond it’’s remit, and can actually exacerbate some problems
other therapies, such as TT have been proved as rubbish time and again… In the US there was a famous experiment by a 9 year old girl who showed that TT is basically smoke and mirrors.
so… you have to name the individual ‘comps’ before you can actually say “this is nonsense” or “this has some limited merit”
but, to sum it up…… the benefits to mankind from modern medicine outweigh any benefits from ‘comps’ by many, many, MANY orders of magnitude
The assumption that it’s a matter of complementary medicine versus traditional medicine comes from ignoring the meaning of ‘complementary’. If your teacher gave you that title, then I’d return it to them on the grounds of it being faulty.
Complementary medicine is meant to complement conventional treatments, not to replace them.
The reality is that traditional “Western” medicine is far more effective then “alternative” or “complimentary” medicine. I am not trying to bash complimentary medicine but if a person is having a heart attack, a psychotic break, or a subarachnoid haemorrhage they will want and need traditional medicine.
Major conditions don’t respond to complimentary medicine. Can it help with some things? Yes. A person with a very mild depression may respond to alternative treatments and that is great. But if a person has severe depression and is unable to take care of themselves traditional medicine has to be used. Even something like high cholesterol (Hypercholesterolemia) often needs medications. Weight loss, eating better, exercise, and other things certainly do lower cholesterol and that might be sufficient for some people. But a person can be as thin as a twig and have cholesterol higher than a 300 lbs man. That needs medications. A diabetic needs insulin and a person with parkinson’s needs l-dopa. If the drugs did not exist people would just die.
One thing many people who are very pro alternative and “natural” medicine talk about is insomnia. Using tea, exercise, yoga, relaxation techniques will not help a person with severe acute or chronic insomnia. Some things for some people require medications. And again this is not an attack on alternative treatments but they simply can do what modern medicine can do.
As for the pro’s and con’s for each-
Traditional “Western” medicine- more powerful medications and treatments for problems. Life saving capabilities with emergency medicine. People are able to live much longer and have a higher quality of life. Traditional medicine has antibiotics (many of which are natural) and other treatments in a dose that is therapeutic.
There typically are more risks with traditional medicine. Even a safe and very effective medication can have a rare side effect that can be very serious and life threatening. Pharmaceutical companies often act in illegal and immoral ways.
Alternative Medicine-
For the most part vitamins, “suppliments,” homeopathic treatments, and just about every thing else are not evaluated by agency’s like the American FDA and can be very unsafe. At least a drug must be thoroughly tested and will be regulated and monitored for problems. There is almost no control over other things. Alternative treatments do not have nearly the statistics and other data for successful treatment compared to traditional medicine. Also drug companies like Merck have done terrible things and have influenced politicians and many other things. But so has “alternative” medicine. There is a lot of money in supplements and the makers have tried (and succeeded) in blocking legislation which would put controls on supplements. So big Pharma might do bad things but they are not alone. It is wrong and incorrect to say drug companies are all greedy when so are the people who make Calcium. Homeopathy is not a treatment. It can’t be it is simple logic. If something is diluted so that nothing (or only a molecule or two) is left it can not possibly work because there is nothing in it. Many people using alternatives often overlook the very real risks from some of these supplements and can think they are treating a problem when the problem is actually getting worse on its own because the treatment will not help. Then the problem can be severe. I had a friend who really hated pharmaceuticals and when her tooth started to hurt she just took some supplement. It did not help and after a few days she came to see me, in horrible pain asking to have some of my pain medication (I have chronic pain and take opioids). She could have gone to a dentist but she did not and waited until things were bad enough that she asked me to break the law to give her pain killers. Things like that happen all of the time.
The pros are the fact that somethings do work and can help people with minor issues and sometimes there are no side effects.
The other thing is that many of the modern or western medications are natural. Morphine, Codeine, Valium, GHB, most hallucinogens, cocaine (sort of), nicotine, caffeine, penicillin, and Digoxin are just a few examples of substances naturally occurring. And most of them are actually addictive and abusable substances.