Alternative Health

Alternative Health

ABSTRACT Medical intervention is a continuous quest for health care management Whether conventional , complementary or alternative medicine , the aim of health care provider is to give relief to pain or to cure illness of their patients temporarily or permanently . Alternative medicine is a practice of medicine that prevents or treats disease or ailments without the use of drugs or undergoing diagnostic procedures . It includes chiropractic , acupuncture , yoga , use of medicinal plants , homeopathy meditation , massage and anything that requires self awareness and belief that the body can heal itself

. The use of alternative medicine is fast growing despite the result of many clinical studies showing its side effects and adverse reactions especially when combined with other procedure . It is therefore important that health care seekers should inform their health care provider of their present condition and current treatment to prevent unfavorable interaction of different treatment modality

DISCUSSION

The world of medicine faces a continuous challenge on how to uplift the level of health care in the country . There are organizations that spend a lot of money to provide the best drug that can cure certain illness Several funding companies are searching for the best medication Clinical trials are continuously conducting studies for the drug development . A variety of medical methods have been accepted by medical practice due to many scientific explanations for their effectiveness and most often than not , these procedures cost a lot of money . However absence of side effects and adverse reactions is not an assurance . There are also incidents of unsatisfied medical treatment outcome . Medical lawsuits are becoming rampant nowadays resulting to decline in conventional health visits . In accordance , several health care methods are becoming more accepted as a way of battling ailments . These factors add to the popularity of alternative medicine Although many people in less developed countries have used alternative medicine , it has not proven to cause 100 therapeutic effect . Many medical literatures have been discussing alternative medicine with complementary medicine . It should be remembered that alternative medicine is a practice used in place of conventional medicine while complementary medicine is an alternative medicine with concurrent use of conventional medicine . Conventional medicine is medicine practiced by professionals such as Doctor of Medicine , Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and other allied health professionals like physical therapist psychologist and registered nurse . It is also known as Western medicine orthodox , biomedicine or regular medicine

In a study conducted by Barnes and colleagues (2002 , the use of complementary and alternative medicine among adults in United States has been revealed . They collected data from the noninstitutionalized population using a computer-assisted personal interview among adults age 18 and above . They found out that 60 of the adults were using some form of complementary and alternative medicine . The most commonly used therapies were use of prayer for health , natural products , deep breathing exercises , meditation , chiropractic care , yoga , massage and diet-based therapies . Ernst (2000 ) revealed in his research the 9 to 65 prevalence of use of complementary /alternative medicine . The given form for...