A Quick Comparison of Conventional Medicines and Alternative Medicines

The term "conventional medicine" refers to medicine practiced by medical doctors and doctors of osteopath. Alternative medicine is a system of theory and practice used by many individual cultures around the world. There are several differences in conventional and alternative medicines, but there are some practitioners that use them together.

Promoting Good Health

The emphasis in alternative medicine is good health and prevention of disease. With alternative medicine, an individual is using natural remedies to build up the immune system to fight off infection and diseases. Each person is treated as an individual. Then, a specialized treatment is used for their needs. Through extensive questioning and diagnostic tools, the practitioner works to determine the cause of health problems. If there are underlying factors influencing your health, they will work to find the problem. Instead of using the same treatment on everyone with a common symptom, they try to find the hidden cause and treat it.

Different Methods

There are several different kinds of alternative medicines: homeopath, osteopath, chiropractic, herbal medicine, massage and acupuncture. Alternative medicine practitioners usually have a quality education with degree-level exams and monitored evaluation. Other therapies not as common are reflexology and aromatherapy, which use less invasive methods. These are more independent practitioners sometimes using methods developed on their own.

The purpose is to stimulate the body's healing process. Instead of trying to rid the body of a disease or symptom, the whole body is treated, and the cause is addressed. That is why a whole regimen is sometimes prescribed. This could be dietary changes, exercises, and an herbal remedy. By treating the cause, you have more chance of a complete cure. In most cases, these treatments are not as costly as conventional medicines.

Widely Used

Many companies offer alternative medicine in their healthcare packages. In recent years, Americans have spent billions of dollars on unconventional medicine, doctor's visits, and herbal remedies. As a result, many drug stores and chain stores are stocking natural remedies.

Conventional Treatments

In conventional medicine, the symptoms are attacked aggressively with surgery and drugs. Instead of the whole body being considered at one time, each organ is attended separately. Medical schools are divided into organ specific departments where the organs are learned about separately, and are not taught as being related to each other. This works fine for emergency and trauma treatments, but does not promote better health over all.

The treatments used in conventional medicine are the result of scientific research and successful results. Many doctors are convinced that these are the best for their patients. But in most cases, they will treat everyone with the same treatment when they could have different factors affecting their health. Many doctors specialize in one area and only know that one field well.

Using Both Methods

Some doctors use alternative medicine in a complimentary manner along with their conventional treatments. Several medical schools and renowned hospitals are offering courses and clinics using alternative medicines. This is also common in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Most people assume that only the latest high-tech treatments will be affective, but sometimes these are not as tried and proven as the old time remedies passed down over the years. The best thing to do is gather as much information as you can before you make a judgment. Many times people are skeptical or fearful because they do not know the facts.

Being Prepared

Though our bodies are very resilient and have the amazing ability to heal their selves, there are times that we will need help. It is best to be informed about both conventional and alternative medicines when the time comes to make a choice.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Alternative - Conventional Medicine or Majon's Health and Beauty directory.

Allopathic Medicine - Its Pros & Cons and a Comparison With Alternative Medicine

Known by several different designations such as "Western modern medicine," "Conventional Medicine" and allopathic medicine," these all refer to the scientific, evidence-based and highly technical body of medical knowledge in Western and European nations. Alternative medicine, from the standpoint of allopathic medicine, is everything else not considered by the American Medical Association to be of little or no use. Both have strengths and weaknesses and in many cases, complement each other despite differences in philosophy, culture and objectives.

The Pros of Allopathic Medicine, the Weaknesses of Alternative Medicine

The strength of allopathic medicine comes in this knowledge and that the modalities, therapies and procedures, recognized as efficacious, have been subjected to strict scientific testing and experimentation. This lends to the highly predictable results found in the treatment and advanced knowledge-base of biological processes - an area which is stressed far less in alternative medicine.

The unprecedented scientific knowledge and the rigid testing of the procedures used, the medical system certainly cannot be beat. For this reason, the allopathic physician is regarded the authority in health care. He has been through extensive training through years of medical school and is under strict guidelines from which he is not allowed to deviate. Alternative medicine tends to be far more individually methodical.

When it comes to emergency situations, especially those which would be otherwise fatal, allopathic medicine, again, holds the highest awards for excellence. No doubt there is not a single modality in alternative medicine that can come close to the effectiveness and life-saving attributes of Western conventional medicine. Those having experienced severe, life-threatening accidents, illnesses and diseases couldn't be found in better hands.

The Cons of Allopathic Medicine - the Strengths of Alternative Medicine

Unlike many of the modalities found in alternative medicines, allopathic medicine comes in several areas. First and foremost, it is a profitable industry, where most of the modalities in alternative medicine tend to be non-profit in nature. The for-profit model has major drawbacks in that the system thrives on illness and disease without which there would be no business. The details here would warrant the writing of a book, let alone an article.

Treatment and therapies, though quite effective, are highly specialized, standardized and departmentalized. It tends to be impersonal, with little or no contact between the patient and the physician outside of the ailment itself. The patient here receives the treatment which he has little say other than to consent to it or not. Little to no explanation outside of patient instructions are given and the patient takes the physician's word on faith, in most cases.

In alternative medicine, treatment is far more individualized, less standardized and the patient participates in his treatment, making it far more personal.

Allopathic medicine, due to both the profit factor and extremely high operating costs, tends to be very expensive, leaving low-income patients with inferior care. Allopathic medicine concerns itself with symptomatic treatment rather than causal, giving rise to another huge empire - the pharmaceutical industry, which is also a for-profit business. Similar to the average Western grocery store which sells more foodstuffs that are generally not the best for health, our pharmacies are jam-packed with medications aimed at relieving symptoms rather than curing the ailment on the level of its cause.

Allopathic medicine (for which this term accurately depicts as being concerned with symptoms rather than causes,) the medical giant has also been deemed a "sick-care" system due to observations noted above. Allopathic medicine generally lacks in areas many modalities in alternative medicine tends to cover, chiefly in the prevention of ill-health and that they are far more concerned with the causes of ailments, less on the treatment for symptoms and that many of the modalities in alternative medicine considers the whole being and not just the biological, making them far more holistic than allopathic medicine.

Daniel Euergetes is working hard to helping you rise above mediocrity and reach more satisfactory and more fulfilling planes in living. One of the ways this is done is through education and appropriate resources.

For the health arena, Daniel invites you to check out your alternatives by visiting http://alternativehealthsolutionsmd.com. Here you will find vast resources and answers to your questions about your health options.

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