Complementary and Alternative Medicine PDF
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Added on 2021-04-17
Complementary and Alternative Medicine PDF
Added on 2021-04-17
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Running Head: COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE1 History and Philosophy of Complementary and Alternative MedicineStudent Name: Student Number:
COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE2The aim of this paper is to come up with an explanation of concepts of holism and vitalism. The historical development of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and orthodox medicine will also be discussed in detail. Complementary and alternative medicine are practices that are not really a part of the normal medical care but comprises of practices such as massage and drinking green tea.Standard medical care is the common medication practiced by professionals in the field of health, holding a medical doctorate diploma or degree. This is also practiced by the herbal doctors and others who might have learnt through apprenticeship (Micozzi, 2014). Complementary forms of treatment are those that act to work alongside the standard medications and they include the acupuncture that is used to relieve pain in cancer treatment through insertionof needles. Other examples of complementary include minor cuts on the skin to relieve pain on swollen parts. Alternative medicine is that used in place of standard medication and include the administration of special diets in treatment of some diseases such as cancer and diabetes mellitus(Brooks, Pilgrim, & Rogers, 2012). Orthodox kind of medication is that in which doctors or other medical practitioners treat their patients using modern means such as western medicine, radiation, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), ultrasound and biomedicine.The theory of holism states that our body parts are in an intimate connection and they cannot exist without dependency on the whole. The word holism is comprised of two Greek words, holo and ism. Holo means whole while ism is the ability of nature to produce wholes from various organized groups, socially, economically, mentally, chemically, biologically and physically. Woods (2015) suggests that holism in medicine entails administering treatment to a patient’s whole being, mentally, socially and not only physical signs and symptoms of the disease. On the other hand, the theory of vitalism the states that living things and non-living
COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE3things are far different. Theory of origin of life depends largely on a force different from the usual chemical or physical forces. Life is viewed to result from a force unique to living things. Vitalism is not a common thing nowadays due to the study of more chemical and physical properties of living organisms. Complementary and alternative ways of medication have been widely practiced in the United Kingdom over a longer period of time. Complementary refers to the attempt to make use of the available ways in which the body can self-heal through natural healing processes to restorethe body’s normal state (Biro, 2012). The ancient Greeks had movements that focused on naturalways of recuperation and today much emphasis is on good and balanced diets and healthy lifestyles in order to restore health.Complementary therapy has grown immensely over time and has gotten formal from the previous primitive looking practices. Most of these practices were developed during the nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century the bridge between complementary and conventional medication widened were marred by conflicts (Ross, 2010). The ancient health movements are now part of the lifestyle in the modern world up from the bottom in the 1960s. The major fight has been against unhealthy diets, poor dieting programs and environmental degradation.Romans had their medical practices majorly herbal, prayer related and incantations. Romans had a heavy collection of herbal medicine from the Hippocratic paintings and writings that they had collected (Krug, Karus, Hermann, & Joos, 2016). Herbal medicine availability led to introduction of the centralized form of treatment in hospitals. Hydrotherapy is another form of complementary medication in which water was used both internally and externally to administer treatment but and this was seen in the spas and baths that were common in Rome.
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