INTRODUCTION
Currently, a lot of people have other kind of medicine different from the traditional. This kind of medicine is named: Alternative Medicine. This practice gives some alternatives to care and diagnose the health with elements not tested scientifically and not learned in medicine schools.
This practice has replaced the traditional medicine with a broad category of treatment system with different cost and possibilities of treatments.
KIND OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
There are different kinds of alternative medicine, the most recognized are:
- Herb Treatment: This practice includes medicinal plants through which prevents and treats diseases, some kind of medicinal plants are: Horse Tail, Dandelion, Rosemary, Marygold, Chamomile, Abes Vulgaris.
- Acupuncture: This practice is on Eastern Technical Millennian, it has as objetive to get the harmony of the human energy.
It uses different metallic needles very fine inserted in specific places of the human body.
- Homeopathy: This practice is a therapeutic method that uses organic substances, minerals and plants to simulate the body’s inmune defenses.
It consists of giving the ill patient low doses of the substance that in high doses of the substance in healthy patients cause disease. The effect is the opposite between giving low or high doses to ill or healthy patients.
- Aromatherapy: This practice consists in inhaling the perfumes either directly or in essence of flowers or plants.
BENEFITS
- It uses natural products
- Some practices and products not only help to solve a single illness in a person, they can help to heal several illnesses.
- Some methods do not need surgical interventions
DISADVANTAGES
- It is high cost.
- This kind of medicine is not well studied.
- The different methods are not applicable to all kind of diseases.
- It is a psychological help more than a real treatment.
- Sometimes it causes damages to the health more than curing it.
- Some herbs are harmful to health
IS IT GOOD OR BAD TO USE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Several studies show the reality of alternative medicine, some of them indicate risks associated to the non correct use of methods and products. Other practices indicate benefits to the health only for some people.
Factor such as: The use of non-controlled substances, wrong practices and lack of scientific studies demonstrate the ineffectiveness of alternative medicine.
Examples of studies
- Vitamins E and C do not change cancer risks, long term study
- University of Central Florida students use Wii and Yoga to help Alzheimer’s patients.
- The Health Professions Council (HPC) has made a formal recommendation to the Secretary of State for health advising that Medical Herbalists, Acupuncturists and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners should be regulated.
CONCLUSION
We can not be sure that Alternative Medicine is effective according to some studies made. Maybe it is better to use traditional medicine, which is safer and more effective.
