The word medicine conjures up images of brown glass bottles filled with pills, nasty-
In actual fact, medicine can be defined as a substance or science of treating illness.
So how does complementary and alternative medicine fit into all this?
Well, conventional or orthodox medicine as we know it in the western world is relatively new. It is known as conventional as it is the one that we use by convention. Acts that maybe two hundred years ago would have been considered sheer miracles are performed all over the world now on a daily basis. Modern medicine has prolonged the lives of many people, reduced pain and suffering and led us to a greater understanding of how our bodies work on a scientific level.
However, we need to consider whether our psychology towards illness has shifted.
Do we place too much faith in the surgeon’s knife, or those brown glass bottles filled with pills?
Reductionist by nature, conventional medicine reduces and removes pathogens. Diseased body parts are taken away and standard remedies are often prescribed uniformly to reduce or remove the suffering caused by the symptoms of a medical problem rather than getting down to the basic root cause – be it physical, psychological or emotional.
It could be argued that conventional medicine does not trust the body to open up to its own innate healing mechanisms.
We are often scared when we find out that we have something wrong with us. Many people accept the first blanket solution that they are offered. In truth, everybody will experience disease differently and what works for one individual will offer little benefit to another.
While we should never avoid going to see a qualified medical professional if we fear something is wrong, maybe we should consider alternative methods of treating and viewing illness.
Complementary and alternative medicine commonly addresses the patient as an individual. Used correctly, they can often be just as powerful as conventional medicine. Globally, complementary and alternative medicine is used on an incredibly large scale, compared to conventional medicine.
It is interesting to note that the pharmaceutical industry has spawned from nature. Active ingredients found in nature were isolated, synthesised and manufactured into early prescription drugs.
Many of the treatments that we consider alternative actually pre-
The trouble is that to allow complementary and alternative medical practices to become more widely accepted by the conventional, or orthodox, society it needs to be researched and results need to be proved by using a scientific model.
Complementary and alternative medicine is often ridiculed and seen as invalid as it works on a different paradigm to conventional medicine.
A square peg, round hole situation is upon us.The two will never fit unless we begin to change our attitudes toward what we regard as medicine.
Blurred parameters exist between psychology, complementary, alternative and conventional medicine. Each contains elements of the other and for us to truly understand medicine; we need to allow a synergy to develop between them instead of making them compete for validity.
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