Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Why is Western Medicine so afraid of Alternatives?
I have begun to look at Modern Medicine, like it is a cocky self assured and arrogant teenager. Doesn't want to hear what it doesn't know or desire to know, doesn't respect anything that hasn't come from itself - unless it is by virtue of some worshiphood in which the arrogance can concede that someone has indeed proven worthy of being considered. In this way, it is easy for me to see that the Cocky Teenager is missing out on many important factors and pieces of information, completely relevant but being all but disregarded, in favour of ego. As an individual who values personal freedoms, and the right to think and feel for myself, I have no issue taking full consideration into subjects and aspects that that cocky teenager is not willing to. I cannot form a complete and well reasoned conclusion without all pieces of paradoxical information. And I urge you to do the same. Consider the world and your surroundings with an open mind, not the closed one that today's society so desperately seeks to hold us to. Consider all of the Alternative Methods of healing as having a valid place in a society that values the right to choose one's own healing. Consider the right of every human being and animal to find a CURE to what ails them, not just some perpetual form of medicating and controlling an undercurrent of poor health and disease. We have the right to great health, in both body, mind and soul. And this will only ever be achieved when we cast off our old predisposed notions and ideas, and open our minds and our eyes to the truths that will help us lead happier healthy existences.
"The greatest paradox in medicine is unfolding. Never in human history had we experienced the explosive advancement in medical technology as much as now. Concurrently, never had we experienced the greatest exodus away from modern medicine back to natural medicine.
In cutting-edge laboratories across the globe, medical researchers are preparing us for the future - cloning, stem cell therapy, genetic manipulation, nanotechnology, and transplants. In the real world outside the laboratory, the overwhelming trend is the integration of traditional medicine, defined by its cause and effect approach, pharmaceuticals and invasive techniques, with other ancient, old-fashioned and unconventional healing practices that often defy logic and analysis.
The future of medicine, it seems, is not only in the high-tech laboratories and the surgical suites but also on the massage tables, aromatherapy rooms, health food store, and behind the therapist's closed door.
Natural Medicine ( also known as Complementary and Alternative medicine or CAM) is older in history than traditional or conventional medicine. It has been used successfully since inception of human history. Medical care in 1800 was mostly provided by botanical healers and midwives. In fact, modern medicine has its roots from CAM, taking and analyzing what works in CAM and refining it. Many drugs of today come from plant origins, such as digitalis. Only 200 years ago, there were only 200 graduates of US Medical Schools, and another 300 or thereabouts from Europe.
The American Medical Association was formed in the mid 1850s to advance medical science, and it promptly erect a strong an impenetrable barrier to any "non- approved" treatments. Members associating themselves with natural healing were severely criticized. It is interesting to note only 100 years ago, over 12% of the licensed physicians were alternative medical doctors which at the time were classified as homeopaths or eclectic physicians.
Those practicing natural medicine up to the 1980s were quickly labeled "quacks". The acceptance by mainstream medicine started in 1993 when Dr. Eisenberg published an article was accepted for publication in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (328:246-252, Jan 28, 1993) sparked a national trend. In 1998, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) devoted an entire issue to alternative therapies. This further confirms that CAM is here to stay. Today, these "quacks" are professors of major medical schools, and are re-labeled "visionaries". How time have changed!"
Read More: http://www.drlam.com/opinion/natural_medicine.asp
"The greatest paradox in medicine is unfolding. Never in human history had we experienced the explosive advancement in medical technology as much as now. Concurrently, never had we experienced the greatest exodus away from modern medicine back to natural medicine.
In cutting-edge laboratories across the globe, medical researchers are preparing us for the future - cloning, stem cell therapy, genetic manipulation, nanotechnology, and transplants. In the real world outside the laboratory, the overwhelming trend is the integration of traditional medicine, defined by its cause and effect approach, pharmaceuticals and invasive techniques, with other ancient, old-fashioned and unconventional healing practices that often defy logic and analysis.
The future of medicine, it seems, is not only in the high-tech laboratories and the surgical suites but also on the massage tables, aromatherapy rooms, health food store, and behind the therapist's closed door.
Natural Medicine ( also known as Complementary and Alternative medicine or CAM) is older in history than traditional or conventional medicine. It has been used successfully since inception of human history. Medical care in 1800 was mostly provided by botanical healers and midwives. In fact, modern medicine has its roots from CAM, taking and analyzing what works in CAM and refining it. Many drugs of today come from plant origins, such as digitalis. Only 200 years ago, there were only 200 graduates of US Medical Schools, and another 300 or thereabouts from Europe.
The American Medical Association was formed in the mid 1850s to advance medical science, and it promptly erect a strong an impenetrable barrier to any "non- approved" treatments. Members associating themselves with natural healing were severely criticized. It is interesting to note only 100 years ago, over 12% of the licensed physicians were alternative medical doctors which at the time were classified as homeopaths or eclectic physicians.
Those practicing natural medicine up to the 1980s were quickly labeled "quacks". The acceptance by mainstream medicine started in 1993 when Dr. Eisenberg published an article was accepted for publication in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (328:246-252, Jan 28, 1993) sparked a national trend. In 1998, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) devoted an entire issue to alternative therapies. This further confirms that CAM is here to stay. Today, these "quacks" are professors of major medical schools, and are re-labeled "visionaries". How time have changed!"
Read More: http://www.drlam.com/opinion/natural_medicine.asp