I was educated in biological science at a large, mainstream university in the United States. I have interacted with many “educated elites” in the sciences over the years. And I can tell you first hand that most people who believe there are other routes to healing the body other than just treating the symptoms of the diseases with large, lethal doses of prescription medications are viewed suspiciously, regarded as quacks, weird, uncivilized, backward, and dangerous to society and its advancements. You may be one of those people, but my hope is that as you read this, you too will have a change of mind.
There is a lot of talk in the media about eating healthy and about alternative ways to treat diseases, and even among some celebrities, there are some truly bizarre practices for the sake of weight loss and anti-aging. For example, the practice of taking tapeworm pills to lose weight or injecting bacterial toxins in the face to prevent wrinkles. Let me assure you that this is not my definition of what natural medicine is. For the sake of clarity, let me clear up the misconceptions and misunderstandings by taking the time to delineate the differences between alternative, complementary, and conventional medicines.
Conventional medicine
Also known as western, mainstream or allopathic medicine. Doctors who study in mainstream medical schools are awarded an MD or DO degree and are considered conventional doctors. Your family physician is most likely practicing conventional medicine. Its tenets are centered on the treatment of diseases and the symptoms of those diseases with the use of drugs, radiation, chemotherapy, surgery, and/or technological devices. It mainly treats symptoms of the disease without having to treat the root cause of the problem that produces the symptoms. It concentrates on treating diseases by focusing on individual body parts or organs, and the symptoms that result from the disease rather than treating the whole person. This means that it may try and treat the symptoms of the disease in an isolated way without regard to the mental and emotional states of the individual, or take into consideration the environment of the person because it sees the disease as a separate entity from the person. It is a “one size” fits all type of medicine. This means that a conventional practitioner will most likely treat multiple patients with the symptoms of asthma with the same medication without any regard to the type of asthma or the root causes of asthma, or the mental and emotional states of the patient, or his or her environment. It is no doubt the best approach to treating illnesses or injuries that require emergency medical care and should you find yourself needing this kind of help, there is no better way to treat these types of cases than the conventional approach.
However, when it comes to the prevention of sickness or disease, it is a poor choice. Most people only visit the hospital or the doctor’s office when there is a crisis of health, and most mainstream doctors do not hand out protocols to their patients, giving them instructions on how to eat right or practice healthy lifestyle principles. This is because most of our doctors are trained only to treat patients with synthetic medicine after the fact of illness. In addition, sad to say, but many of our doctors are engaging in some of the same unhealthy lifestyle practices such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, and eating poorly as many of the patients they treat. To prevent diseases and maintain long-term good health, you just cannot rely on your doctor to educate you…you must take your health in your hands.
Alternative medicine
Its tenets are centered on the treatment of diseases by attacking the root causes of the problem, not just the symptoms. It does not use a “one size” fits all type of approach to treating diseases like the conventional approach. Instead, it recognizes that each individual is unique with different circumstances and it works to attack the disease by treating the whole person in a holistic manner. In other words, it takes into consideration the spiritual, mental, and emotional states of the individual as well as his or her environment. The importance of this is even more apparent when you understand that two people can be given the same devastating diagnosis, yet one overcomes and the other succumbs to the illness because the human mind and spirit have a lot to do with whether a person lives or dies. But it falls short when it comes to treating illnesses or diseases that require emergency medical care and should never be used alone in such cases.
Complementary medicine
“Fills up or completes.” It utilizes treatments from both alternative and conventional medicines to treat the person. So it is a treatment that is done in conjunction with conventional medicine. For example, treating heart diseases and diabetes with lifestyle changes along with medication for a period of time is complementary medicine. It can be a very effective approach to battling diseases and is perhaps the best approach of the three types of medical approaches discussed in treating diseases.
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NATURAL HEALTH TO YOU 