The Balancing Act: Homeopathic Remedies and Allopathic Medicine
Modern medicine has eradicated diseases such as smallpox, polio, and malaria in many parts of the world, preventing many deaths. Yet, with many emerging alternative practices, the American society is slowly becoming more reliant on alternative medicines with little scientific evidence. However, one alternative practice, homeopathy, is slowly becoming accepted by many physicians. Now that homeopathy is sanctioned by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), many physicians and scientists believe that this practice is as effective as allopathic medicine. Even with the acceptance by the FDA, there are still low amounts of prescription medicine based on homeopathy and many homeopathic remedies are not used in hospitals. This creates a question: If many physicians suggest the use of homeopathic medicines, does that actually mean it works; can they be equivalently compared to allopathic medicines? Although homeopathic medicines are considered as alternative medicines, approval by the Federal Drug Administration allows homeopathic medicine to be used in equivalence to over-the-counter allopathic medicine.
Chiefly, allopathic medicine refers to the practice of conventional medicine that uses health care practices in order to restore health by preventing and treating illnesses. However, the name of allopathic medicine derives from a different origin than conventional medicine. Allopathic medicine and allopathy are both terms first developed by Samuel Hahnemann for use as synonyms for conventional medicine. This was a result of Hahnemann becoming infuriated by mainstream medicine at that time; for example, blood leeching and bloodletting, which often caused infections that led...
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... placebo” . In response to this claim by Egger, Rutten claims that no one knows what the exact mechanism is for homeopathy and that many studies have shown homeopathy to be effective to treat upper- respiratory issues (Rutten). This argument exemplifies issues that are caused by alternative medicines that compete with conventional medicines.
The aggregate of homeopathy and allopathy is certainly of a delineated world. There is a constant balancing act between the two subjects; the weight of evidence is always balancing the scales of time. Through real studies and pure evidence, humans will see if homeopathic medicine is indeed effective and practical to be used in more advanced illnesses. As evidence shows, homeopathic remedies do not meet the standards to be used actively as prescription medicine; they meet the standards to be used as over-the-counter drugs.
Ross defines and differentiates between the terms healing and curing. She recognizes the fact that healing and curing are very intertwined and it can be hard to distinguish between the two terms. There are differences between the definitions in scholarly and general settings. She references an ethnographic study of healing versus curing conducted by anthropologists Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart in 1999 with native groups in New Guinea. The results of the study looked at how energy used by the different types of tribal healers to either cure or heal a patient. Eastern medicine focuses on how energy interacts with the healing process in connection within the mind. Whereas Western medicine is focused on the mind and the body separately. The practice is considered a holistic approach to finding cures. According to Ross (2013), healing is more a therapeutic process targeting the whole body and specific illness including emotional, mental, and social aspects in the treatment. The act of curing is a pragmatic approach that focuses on removing the problem all together. The life experiences of a person playing into how well certain treatments will heal or cure what is ailing them. These aspects can not be defined with textbook definitions. The interaction that the healing process has with energy is a variable in the success rate. Uncontrolled emotions can have a greater impact on the inside the body than a person can realize. The exploration of energy interaction within the body can be used for greater analysis of health care systems. (21-22). Are Western healthcare facilities purposely “curing” patients just so that they return are few years later? Is Western Medicine built upon a negative feedback loop? The terminolo...
Even with all today’s advances in medicine, 30% of adults and 12% of children use healthcare outside of the conventional or mainstream medicine. When non-mainstream medicine is used in place of conventional medicine it is known as alternative. When non-mainstream medicine is used with conventional medicine it is known as complementary. A combination of conventional and complementary is known as integrative medicine. Complementary and alternative medicine, also known as CAM, is the use of medical products and practices that are not part of standard medical care. It is most commonly used by people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by an event. Symptoms usually include behavior
If the placebo effect is used on common conditions that are associated with the over the counter drugs, people will most likely stop damaging their livers just because they have a headache, fever, feeling sore, and even as pain relievers. There has been a study on cough medicines being related to the placebo effect. “The major benefit of cough medicines for treatment of cough associated with common cold is related to the placebo effect rather than the pharmacological effect of an active ingredient” (Freeman). The researches have finally concluded that, “the idea is developed that a sweet taste may modulate cough at the level of the nucleus tractus solitaries, possibly by influencing the production of endogenous opioids.” In this study it is shown that the medicines effectiveness for the cough was around the same effectiveness as the ones with the placebo effect. Some key factors that help the results of the placebo effect become effective in this study are “the healer-patient interaction, cultural beliefs about traditional treatments, the environment in which the medicine is administered, the properties of the medicine such as taste, color and smell, advertising and claims made about the efficacy of the medicine, the brand name of the medicine,
Constantine Hering who introduced homeopathy medicine into the United States in 1835. Homeopathy practice was widely popular in Europe and America. By 1900, there were “22 homeopathic medical schools, 100 homeopathic hospitals and over 1000 homeopathy pharmacies in the united states” (Synovitz & Larson, pg. 128). Homeopathy was very popular in the 1900s until its decline during and after the civil war. Due to the rise of technology advancement and pharmaceutical companies promoting drugs and surgeries, the popularity of homeopathy began to decline. People were more inclined to use allopathic medicine due to its more pronounce effectiveness. The major event that led to the decline of homeopathy was the American Medical Association (AMA). Due to the decline of homeopathy doctors to join the AMA, the AMA started persecuting the homeopaths physician beginning in 1914. The AMA proposed “uniform standards of medical education and assumed the power of accreditation” (Homeopathy, Slide 17). Due to this action, the AMA would not accredit homeopathy education, and eventually it was nonexistent. However, Homeopathy medicine has been making a comeback since 1980s. Today, there are many physicians practicing homeopathy medicine worldwide. According to the text, “there are more than 6000 German and 5000 French practitioners. In Great Britain, homeopathy is part of the medical and health care system” (Synovitz & Larson,
Nowadays, complementary alternative medicine is very popular in the United States. It is widely used by adults and children. National health statistic reports done in 2007 shows that 38.3% of adults and 11.8% of children use some form of alternative medicine (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). But why is this happening? Why is it becoming so popular? Why are more people turning to it? Many times, this is because conventional medicine has not work and they want to try an alternative. That is the case of the author of this paper.
The famous spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi said, "Homeopathy cures a greater percentage of cases than any other method of treatment. Homeopathy is the latest, most refined method of treating patients economically and non-violently” (Malik). However, Homeopathy is only one of the many natural forms of treatment that patients are utilizing in an effort to avoid conventional medicine. A clinic practice model that combines conventional medicine with Naturopathic, Complementary and other forms of alternative medicine all in one setting, is the new health paradigm called Integrative Medicine. With the public’s growing concern of being over-medicated by costly and sometimes violent conventional medicine, I am going to explain the movement towards
Homeopathy is natural form of medicine that has been around for over two hundred years. Homeopathy works by treating a symptom with the “principle of similars”.“We should imitate nature...a drug with power to provoke another, artificial disease, as similar as possible, and the former disease will be cured: fight like with like.” (Hahnerman) Homeopathy works by treating a symptom with the “principle of similars”. This means to give a substance that will elicit a healing response. Over the past couple of years, it has been discovered that conventional medicine has serious side effects which can harm a person’s health. Homeopathy was found to be a solution to this problem and can have many positive effects on a person’s health and their lifestyle.
Herbal medicine is the extraction of herbs or plants which have a medicinal value in treating illnesses and diseases (Brody 1). A herb is known as a plant that does not have a woody stem and usually dies back at the end of each growing season. It is also known as a "natural" drug because they are derived from nature. This is unlike pharmaceutical drugs, which are synthesized from chemicals.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine (WM) differ from each other in many ways. TCM favors a holistic approach, views the universe and body philosophically and develops inductive tools and methods to guide restoring the total balance of the body. In Chinese medicine, the correct balance between Yin and Yang make up the vital energy, Qi, an essential life-sustaining substance of which all things are made. Some Traditional remedies include herbal medicines, acupuncture, massage and moxibustion, an herbal heat therapy. Western medicine is closely linked to the scientific method and emphasizes biochemical processes causes disease, its treatment and health. This form of treatment views all medical phenomena as cause-effect sequences and relies on drugs, radiation and surgery to alleviate symptoms and cure diseases. As you see, the two types of medicine are completely challenged differently depending on the doctor, the diagnosis, and the treatment options. All of these are completely different when compared with each other.
The famous spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi said, "Homeopathy cures a greater percentage of cases than any other method of treatment. Homeopathy is the latest, most refined method of treating patients economically and non-violently” (Malik). However, Homeopathy is only one of the many natural forms of treatment that patients are utilizing in an effort to avoid conventional medicine. A clinic practice model that combines conventional medicine with Naturopathic, Complementary and other forms of alternative medicine all in one setting, is the new health paradigm called Integrative Medicine. With the public’s growing concern of being over-medicated by costly and sometimes violent conventional medicine,
In today’s world, many people assume that the latest medical technology and treatments are always the best option. However, all over the world, different techniques for curing diseases and aliments are being used. These methods fall under the category of complementary and alternative medicine.
Legitimacy and justifying placebo use in clinical trials. Employing placebo in clinical trials can improve the quality of the study results. Firstly, a placebo group employment enables to evaluate efficacy of blind, randomised subject control medical treatment avoiding assessment bias. Secondly, it can be reduce the number of patients to conduct since outcomes in different states, these are treatment group and placebo group can be compared which makes the difference clearer whether the results are beneficial or harmful. Thirdly, placebo can be used in addition to normal treatment of patients, where results will show genuine results as beneficial or harmful conditional change....
Every year, approximately 230, 000 to 400. 00 deaths are caused by iatrogenic deaths ( in other words, these are deaths caused by wrong medical treatments). Two of the prominent yet some what contrasting types of medicine are, Ayurveda, the Indian traditional medicine, and Modern (aka western) medicine. Both of these have their own processes and methods of healing, which over the years have created their own followers. While Ayurveda addresses the root causes of the disease through identifying the imbalances in the elements, called “Doshas”, it also emphasizes on a spiritual lifestyle which for most people in today's world is a sea change. On the other hand, western medicine addresses the symptoms and provides instant albeit temporary relief for suffering. Needless to say there are more followers of the western medicine due to its immediate impact on subsiding the pain. Out of lack of awareness to the significance of traditional medicine, especially Ayurveda, many doctors and researchers are against the use of Ayurvedic and traditional medicines, which limits the potential of curing certain ailments of patients without additional side effects.
Modern medicine mixes chemicals and does extensive testing, while herbal remedies come from naturally grown herbs. For every argument there is two sides, herbal remedies lack dosage instructions, regulations, and may interact with current medication, as well as modern medicines also have improved treatments. With improvements made on information and studies of herbal remedies, they would prevail over modern
Over the centuries, ancients made use of several treatment methods. Two of them are modern medicine and traditional medicine. Alternative medicine is older than modern one. That effective therapy has used for many centuries on the patience when modern medicine has not occurred in the world. Because it has improved in China, it can be called Traditional Chinese Medicine. In contrast, modern medicine has been in used since 1900’s. In this system, drugs’ testes are done in safety laboratories with care and nicety, and their side effects are located before they are given to the patient. However, sometimes the side effects are not blocked so, people have to take another pill to get better. It makes people to take more chemicals into their bodies. Further, modern medicine has splendid efficacy on the fatal diseases. Even, alternative medicine which people’s ancestors utilized stayed in the background when modern medicine has just found, it works at the present time efficaciously. ****** Therefore, using alternative medicine is more helpful to get better than modern medicine because there are fewer drugs, side effects; there is placebo effect and holistic therapy.