Introduction
Homeopathy is a type of alternative medicine. The beneficial effects of homeopathic medicines are controversial (1). Homeopathic medicines are based on the premise that like is cured by like. This premise states that a disease can be treated with a substance that causes the same signs and symptoms in a healthy individual.
The homeopathic medicine is prepared by diluting the substance multiple times. With every dilution, the solution is shaken to potentiate the medicine. The final dilution will have a very low concentration of the original substance.
The probability that a dose of the homeopathic medicine will contain a molecule of the original substance is low. This lack of effective molecules is the main argument that homeopathic medicines do not have a biological effect. But there are studies that do show a beneficial effect. This summary will discuss one meta-analysis study by Shang et al.
Summary
The study of Shang et al compared placebo-controlled trails of homeopathy and allopathy (2). The study consisted of a literature search for placebo-controlled homeopathic trials in a wide variety of databases. The authors found 110 eligible placebo controlled trials of homeopathy that they could use in this study. Furthermore, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register was used to identify placebo-controlled trials of conventional medicine. These conventional medicine trails were matched with the homeopathic trials for comparison. These pairs of trials were categorised by clinical topic.
The outcome of each trial was standardized to an odd’s ratio; a odd’s ratio below 1.0 indicated a beneficial effect. The qualities of the trials were assessed by thee factors: randomisation, masking and data analysis. The information abo...
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...e is not representative. Lastly, Shang et al wrote in their article that they performed a ‘comprehensive database search’, but there are other reviews that found far more trails (300-400).
I think that the critique of Thurneysen is valid, but he does not reject the fact that homeopathic medicine is less effective than conventional medicine. I do not believe in the effectiveness of the diltued homeopathic medicine itself. But I do believe that the homeopathic treatment will have beneficial effects. Research on homeopathy should be focused on the context effects, as Shang et al argues. I think that the homeopathic practitioner could be compared with a psychologist. Both practitioners influence the mental state of their patient and this will improve the health of the patient. The homeopathic medicine is a tool of the homeopath to alter the mental state of the patient.
Personal health is extremely important to everyone around the world. But it is especially important to citizens of the United States of America. Being one of the leading countries in Health technology and also in food and beverage leaves most people choosing between living a healthy lifestyle and indulging in the varieties of food we offer. Across the country, many people are living with pre-existing conditions, living in food deserts, living below the poverty line and a long list of other factors that either hinders them from eating healthy or force them to eat healthily. When trying to live a healthy lifestyle in this country not only does the promotion of prevention matter, but also the promotion of Career and job opportunities matter just as much. In the United States, Money equals Power and money also equal the opportunity to create and live a healthier lifestyle.
This systematic review conducted by Takeda A, Taylor SJC, Taylor RS, Khan F, Krum H, Underwood M, (2012) sourced twenty-five trials, and the overall number of people of the collective trials included was 5,942. Interventions were classified and assessed using the following headings.-
An ancient Chinese proverb proclaims, "Nature, time and patience are the three great doctors". Nowadays more and more people choose to be treated by methods that are not based on Western systematic techniques that are the knowledge and practice of medicine which is usual in the West. These methods are known as “Alternative medicine”, which consists of homeopathy, acupuncture, aromatherapy, chiropractic medicine and others. Chinese medicine is also gaining popularity among people. The alternative way of treatment has verified its efficiency and is methodically founded, but, unfortunately, has its little disadvantages and needs a scientific base. For that reason, the alternative medicine is not generally available in all countries, and people have to pay for their individual treatment. Whereas some people consider it an ambiguity and do not dare try it because they consider it might be quite dangerous or insecure, some others just think about it as nonsense and pay little or no attention to it. People who feel anxious or doubtful of it claim that if non-traditional medicine had really worked, then appropriate doctors would have used it. Nevertheless, since the early 1980s, the alternative medicine has become increasingly popular, and although it is not officially accepted by the medical base, some doctors do accept that such methods can be effective in treating some types of illnesses. Moreover, usual medicine has its boundaries, since some illnesses are untreatable and some others which are caused by mental troubles cannot be cured by its methods (Kowalski, 1998).
For argument 1, the premises do follow and support their conclusion. However, what I believe the weaknesses in this argument are is the fallacy of false dilemma, and the subjectivity of the claim itself. In the debate between homeopathy and scientific medicine, it is often you are given with two choices. These choices being A) it works or B) it does not. In the field of science I believe this to be true as well. In lecture we spoke about the fallacy of false dilemma being the offering of only two choices and not having any alternative. Why I believe this first argument exemplifies this is because while the aim of homeopathy is to work in conjunction with scientific medicine, the premise “It works for some people and not for others” does not provide an alternative. There is also the weight placed on personal experience, which was covered in Chapter 5. It is not as if personal experience is wrong (like we have covered), but more so that the reliability of personal experience might not be the best example to use in this case. It is similar to possibility as well. A rational thinker knows that this person’s claim is possible, but is it as possible as the chance of rain on an overcast day, or the sun not rising in the
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.
Homeopathy medicine is a self-healing alternative medicine developed in 1790 by German physician and chemist Samuel Hahnemann. Homeopathy medicine aims to treat the whole body and not just the symptoms. Homeopathy medicine was very popular throughout the united states during the early 1900 but began to die out after the civil war. Homeopathy medicine is approximately 200 years old, though it is believed to have originated in 400 B.C through Hippocrates. However, Samuel Hahnemann gave this medical practice a name in the late 1700s and developed three principles for Homeopathy medicine that still stands today. Homeopathy medicine was developed in the late 1700s, which saw a period of unhygienic and brutal medical techniques. Samuel a physician
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.
For many centuries, humanity has been on an eternal quest for cures and treatments for many chronic conditions. At the present time, conventional medicine is mostly performed by doctors and other health care professionals, with the extensive use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery or radiation treatments for disease treatment. Conversely, even though not as popular, complementary and alternative medicine and treatment options are slowly gaining popularity and becoming an addition to traditional medicine.
Introduction Clinical trials are a gateway to proven practical medical treatment, so it requires accuracy and validity of the outcomes. Placebo control trials are therefore employed in clinical trials as nearly half of academic physicians have answered in a questionnaire that they had used a placebo in their clinical trials (Sherman and Hickner, 2007). To have the higher scientific validity of results on the clinical trials requires that prospective, carefully selected subjects and endpoints, a control group, randomly allocated subjects into a treatment group and a control group, blinded both subject groups and investigators, sufficient sample size, and an approved independent ethics committee and monitoring by data safety and monitoring board to have stronger the scientific validity on the clinical trials (Brody, 1997). The use of placebos will enable more scientifically reliable outcomes. However, unnecessarily or ineffectiveness of placebo use is also claimed, therefore considering appropriate conditions and suitable cases would be needed for placebo use. .
Health psychology is a relatively new concept rapidly growing and could be defined as the biological and psychological influences affect ones behaviour also bringing in social influences of health and illness (MacDonald, 2013). Biological determinants consider genetic and biological factors of an illness whereas psychological determinants focus on the psychological factors such as why people behave the way they do when dealing with issues such as anxiety and stress. Models such as the Health Belief Model and Locus of Control were developed in attempt to try and explain psychological issues around a chronic illness such as breast cancer (Ogden, 2012). Sociological factors can cause an enormous amount of pressure for one to behave in a certain way for example gender roles in society and religious considerations when dealing with health beliefs. Health Beliefs can be defined as one’s own perception to their own personal health and illness and health behaviours (Ogden, 2012). There are also theories and models used to explain pain and coping with diagnosis such as Moos and Schaefer (1984) Crisis theory and Shontz (1975) cycle of grief people go through when being diagnosed with a serious illness.
Of all the controversies over medicine, alternative medicine is one of the biggest. Some say alternative medicine is not medicine at all because it hasn’t been scientifically proven or it is not part of the conventional teachings. Why are so many people seeking alternative medicines? Alternative treatments are not being recognized or considered enough for children with serious medical conditions. There are many different types of alternative medicine. Acupuncture, herbal supplements, medical marijuana, manipulative therapy, reflexology, and yoga are a few different types of alternative medicines. There are several reasons why the conventional medical community is often dismissive of alternatives. There has been little scientific research into such medicine, so there is very little evidence to support the claims of their supporters.
Herbal products are medicinal agents obtained from the plants. It’s all started 100 years ago by ancient people. Since synthetic medicine are not yet invented by that time, ancient people had invented medicine out of the plants. Through generations the original herbal medicine had been modified due to the new knowledge discovered and technologies invented.
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.
Chinese-American Charles Feng (2012) remarks in the peer-reviewed Journal of Young Investigators, that traditional medicine differs vastly in its philosophy from allopathic medicine, and the combination of traditional and allopathic medicine is more effective than either independent healthcare system (para. 17). The integration of traditional medicine causes doctors to become familiar with strong and weak facets of either system, and expand their understanding of their patient’s health and treatment (para.