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More handpicked essays just for you.
Advantages and disadvantages of traditional and modern medicine
compare modern medicine with traditional
comparing and contrasting eastern and western medicine
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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.
Western Medicine focuses on the biological p...
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...
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is quite complex and can be difficult for some people to comprehend. This is because TCM is based, at least in part, on the Daoist belief that we live in a universe in which everything is interconnected. What happens to one part of the body affects every other part of the body. The mind and body are not viewed separately, but as part of an energetic system. Similarly, organs and organ systems are viewed as interconnected structures that work together to keep the body
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is becoming a more and more accepted form of complementary medicine in the UK. It is thought that about one million adults in Britain have had acupuncture and that a million herbal prescriptions are written every year. Even as little as ten years ago, TCM was still thought of as a border treatment and one would have been hard pressed to find a practitioner outside of London. Since then, complementary or alternative medicine has been flourishing, and Chinese medical centers have been opening on streets all around the country. “The Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine (RCHM), the self-regulating body which embodies practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine, has seen its membership grow by on average 30% per year to about 350 members at present” (Chinese Cures for British Ills, n.d.).
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).
Diseases and their treatments changed and shaped the modern world. The Tang Dynasty of Ancient China had great value to the medicinal fields and led the way for medical technology and advancements that are used today by standardizing the supreme methods, procedures, and treatments during this time period; therefore, they made it less complicated for people to learn and teach how to practice medicine. Areas of medicine that were greatly improved and exceptionally recorded during the Tang Dynasty were symptomatology, etiology, surgery, orthopedics, and traumatology.
Acupuncture, ayurveda, chiropractice, homeopathy, meditation, osteopathy, and yoga are just a few of the many types of medicine practiced all over the world. According to the western establishment, all these forms of medicine are called alternative medicines. However, some of the aforementioned techniques have been in continuous use for over six thousand years, predating western medicine by over four thousand years. Yet, still many M.D.'s reject alternative forms of medicine. One of the buzzwords in medicine in recent years has been "holistic medicine". Physicians are becoming more aware of the need to treat the whole patient rather than just certain symptoms. Due to this realization, a small percentage of doctors are turning to ancient forms of medicine as a guide to alternative treatments. As alternative forms of medicine emerge in the western world, Christian scientists need to determine the moral, religious, and scientific validity of such techniques in order to gain a more holistic approach to medicine.
The main focus point of all these treatments is to treat the body as an entire entity, not just one ailment at a time. Eastern medicine is built on the belief of healing someone from the inside out, not just treating a single symptom or ailment. Treatments include education about exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle intervention. Using these techniques is a way to provide not only relief but, to treat, cure and prevent an ailment from reoccurring. The goal is for the body to maintain a state of homeostasis. Eastern medicine is not as commercialized as Western medicine, but that doesn’t mean it is ineffective. You may be surprised to learn that the earliest Western drug therapy for smallpox occurred in 1796 but, China had developed and used this remedy 200 years prior. Doctors from Russia and Turkey were sent to China to learn small pox inoculation from the Chinese ! I have talked a lot about Eastern medicine and the benefits that come with it, now let’s take a look at Western medicine
TCM, or Traditional Chinese Medicine, can be traced as far back as 1000 BC, where stone acupuncture needles were believed to be used. Texts from that period also talked of Yin and Yang and other concepts. The first written work on TCM is titled the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, Huangdi Newijing (Gascoigne 11). This book was written in 300 BC, but entries date back to the early 2700’s BC. The book is still used in universities of Chinese Medicine around the world and is often called the bible of TCM. Today, TCM is still thriving in China and all of Asia. In recent years, information on TCM has become available to people in the United States. The United States has several schools of TCM, and it is now much easier to buy the necessary supplies needed for correct practice of TCM (Gascoigne 11-7).
Chinese medicine has a tradition dating back thousands of years, but in recent years it has changed drastically. The influences of Western medicine, Communist ideology, and other government policies have been the force behind this evolution. Since 1950, Chinese medicine has been standardized and transformed into a mostly state-run program that integrates both traditional Chinese medicine and the more scientific, modern style of Western medicine. During this transition, traditional Chinese medicine struggled to find its place in the new Communist society. Today, multiple medical techniques have been blended together which allow the Chinese to receive top-notch healthcare, while retaining their culture and tradition.
Additionally as interest in Chinese medicine raises in the west due to increasing desire to positive effects of non-western medicine worldwide and incorporate them into FDA approved medical treatments, understanding the foundations of it becomes important from a practical point of view. Because of this I think it is warranted to overview some of the basic history, ideological foundations and diagnostic techniques that shaped this interesting part of Chinese culture and provide my response to what I think it says about china as a whole(although I will not go into major detail about treatment themselves, such as herbology).
Traditional Chinese Medicine: An Introduction [NCCAM Backgrounder]. (n.d.).National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine [NCCAM] - nccam.nih.gov Home Page. Retrieved December 11, 2011, from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/chinesemed.htm
The 20th-century was a time period where Western Medicine underwent many triumphs and tragedies. Along with the development of life saving technologies and vaccines, came violation of people’s trust and abuse of professional power. One event that stands out significantly occurred in the mid 20th-century, not only changed Western medicine forever, but affected many other parts of the world, as well. An immortal line of cells was discovered. This meant that these specific cells would never die, could be studied in great detail, and used in various experiments that couldn’t be done with living human beings. These cells were called HeLa and are still referred to as such today, and have been involved in the development of the polio vaccine and other
Chinese medicine has been around for over 2,000 years and originated in Eastern Asia. At first it was very superstitious, since all original practitioners were Tribal shamans and holy men, who practiced the “Way of long Life”, this method evolved into what is used today. (Schoenbeck 2034). They used herbal concoctions, special diets, and martial arts to keep themselves and others in good health. The shamans shared their practices, and the type of medicine quickly spread all throughout China. The methods were soon adopted into everyday life of villagers and in the more populated, less rural areas. These practices were not only medicinal, but also were also used as ways to deal with religious and mythical means.The way the practices were very different and unconventional. The medical practices developed through observation, not by scientific measures (Williams 14). All their researching was by trial and error, not by experimentation. The practitioners went directly to the procedure, and did not test their hypothe...
When you are sick you take medicine, but there are many remedies for the same problems. The use of herbal remedies traces back to the Chinese in the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well by a compiled book in China written back more than 2,000 years ago (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). Modern medicine has roots that are more recent in the development and production of synthesize drugs (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). The old generations took herbal remedies to improve their health, but now as time and people, progressed modern medicine comes on top. Herbal and modern medicines have good and bad points, but one has qualities that are more effective.
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.