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The Alternative Medicine Debate

By: Hokatta Sutoon

For as long as one can remember, there has been a division between the type of medicine practiced in the West and that in the East. The last ten years, however, has seen this change.

Western medicine is primarily an anatomical science. If I poke this piece of the body, what happens? Alternative medicine is more geared towards the relationship of health and the mind and energy of a person. Previously scoffed at, the mind-body approach is gaining new acceptance.

But just what is alternative medicine? There is an ongoing debate. It even extends to the question of whether there actually is something that can be called alternative health care.

On one side of the dispute, you have medical professionals who believe anything that is not from the European medical model and evidence based is alternative medicine. For example, herbalism would fall under alternative medicine in their opinion.

In contrast, many western style medical professionals look to effectiveness. They argue that there is no alternative medicine. There is only medical approaches that work and those that don’t. If they work, they are not alternative regardless of where they come from.

Given the disputed approach, which one wins out? The answer has yet to be determined and is somewhat semantic when you think about it. For regular folk, however, alternative medicine is a viable health care treatment.

Looking at the States, people are becoming very receptive to both the idea of alternative medicine and its use. In fact, roughly fifty percent of all adults use it in one form or another.

Interestingly, the increased use of alternative approaches does not preclude most western treatment plans. Instead, patients usually supplement such treatment plans with alternative approaches.

The most prominent area for this approach is in pain management. Western medicine has a rather poor performance when it comes to pain management. Pills and drugs rarely do the trick, so many look to alternative approaches.

People prefer to self-medicate with alternative medicinal approaches. Less than twenty percent will consult with a licensed practitioner.

Women are far more likely to use alternative health options than men. No particular reason is known, but the biggest disparity seems to be in treatments that combine a mind-body element.

At the end of the day, the exact nature of alternative medicine is somewhat irrelevant. What is clear is people are becoming more receptive to its use as a mainstream solution. One must wonder if it can really be called alternative any more.

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