What is alternative medicine?

Alternative medicine is a term that describes scientific, clinical, and medical treatments which substitute traditional treatment procedures. In fact, some people refer to it as complementary medication.

Alternative medicine consists of several remedies with various benefits that current medication methods simply can’t achieve. On the other hand, alternative medicine practices are somehow thought-out as unreliable since it’s not acceptable as a conventional or popular approach inside the clinical range. Well that only makes sense since everything has advantages and disadvantages.

There are numerous high-quality forms of alternative medicine that supports people in need for many years by now. Indeed, more than 50% of adults in the USA use alternative medicinal drugs. Up until the 21^st century, alternative medicine is still important in the healthcare industry without any sign of slowing down.

Examples of alternative medicine:

Acupuncture:

An extremely famous type of alternative medicine, acupuncture helps hundreds of thousands of American citizens. Acupuncture uses needles and electric stimulation. It is even used by certified physicians since it enhances how the patient cope with problems resulting from medicinal drugs. To illustrate, acupuncture can stimulate the central nervous system to release chemical substances into the muscular tissues and brain. In addition, these biochemical modifications stimulate the body’s natural restoration abilities and promote physical and emotional being. Research proves that acupuncture deals with headaches, osteoarthritis, asthma and many other illnesses. Moreover, acupuncture can assist relieve some signs and symptoms of cancer and side effects of most cancers’ treatment. Furthermore, acupuncture can help relief exhaustion, nausea, vomiting and pain.

Herbal Medicine:

Herbal medicine is all about the use of flowers, roots and leaves, and it’s applied to appoint the body’s natural recovery abilities. Actually, this technique assists patients suffering from conditions such as coronary heart issues, skin rashes, persistent fatigue, premenstrual cycle, weight problems and more. Billions of people around the world are currently using the herbal medicine remedy as their number one therapy.

Plants are rich in a variety of compounds. As a matter of fact, plants have many secondary metabolites that include aromatic materials such as phenols or their oxygen-substituted derivatives which include tannins. Without doubt, lots of these compounds have antioxidant properties. In addition, ethnobotanicals are important for pharmacological research and drug improvement. Not only they are beneficial for the direct use, but as starting materials for medicine synthesis or as models for pharmacologically energetic compounds.

Some examples of plants that have shown effective functions in treatments:

• Butterbur, a plant extract as effective as antihistamines in treating allergic rhinitis without the sedating side effects conventional drugs often cause.
• Chestnut seed extract appears to be safe and effective in short term treatment of chronic venous insufficiency.
• Peppermint oil relieves the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.

Chiropractic:

This one is more like a complementary medicine because of the wide recognition it receives. Chiropractic manual therapy continuous usage target is to develop strong bones and surrounding muscular tissues. Chiropractors often manipulate the spinal column with finger pressure to realign and make certain proper form regarding the backbone.

They focus on the direct relationship between nervous system and the backbone to lessen the pain within the lower back or neck. It also aids headaches, joint ache, and high blood pressure sufferers.

Other different complementary and alternative medicine:

These are therapies that people report beneficial, but are not exclusive:

• Music Therapy
• Aromatherapy
• Shiatsu
• Tai chi

Advantages of alternative medicine:

• One of the great benefits that alternative medicine can provide is that it heals the body by dealing directly with the reason behind the ache or sickness. Additionally, you’ll discover different ways to preserve your long-lasting overall health, so that you can look after your body often. Cancer patients endures a lot of pain which can lead to depression and anxiety, so alternative therapy can help reduce pain sometimes. By understanding and treating the disease, chiropractors and different alternative medicine experts can work on the root of the problem. On the other hand, medicinal drugs usually lean towards reducing the symptom that the disease or ache is inflicting, not really treating the cause.

• Alternative medicine therapy is a very good candidate for financial savings. Such medicine uses cheap treatment techniques, unlike expensive current treatments and medicinal drugs with high technology. Few alternative treatment options involve using only herbal components that are found in medicines and remedies, and those are quite simply available in kitchen, garden or out in the environment. For example, Yoga is a famous alternative medicine that can be done everywhere without the need for any unique gadget.

Disadvantages of alternative medicine:

• Many people consider that complementary treatment options are more secure than scientific treatments due to the fact that they are herbal. This isn’t always necessarily true. To clarify, wrong utilization of alternative medicine treatments and by someone who is unprofessional, can cause a damage to the body.
• Regarding the medical evidence, proof is still confined. Techniques that relief some people don’t work for everyone the same way. It’s not 100% a cure to each condition for every person.
• Alternative medicine, unlike traditional medicine who is made to work fast, is not practical in emergency instances.
• The sensitizing ability of several natural remedies may result in allergic symptoms and IgE-mediated medical signs.
• Mechanical injuries may occur following acupuncture leading to pneumothorax, cardiac tamponade, or spinal damage.
• Organ toxicity has been observed in numerous natural arrangements related to liver, kidneys, and the coronary heart.
• Some herbs might have cancerogenic properties.
• Some uncommon alternative medicine techniques aren’t easily reachable and they’re no longer relevant to all forms of diseases.
• Science rejects many forms of alternative medicines due to ineffectivity. In 2015, the National Health and Medical Research council of Australia launched a report where they reviewed 225 studies of homeopathy, the practice of treating sick people with small amounts of substances that cause similar symptoms in healthy people. Homeopathy can’t out perform placebo or function as well as any conventionally approved therapy.

In 1998, the journal of the American Medical Association published a theme issue on alternative medicine for common chronic medical conditions, the randomized controlled trials within it offers evidence that:

• Spinal manipulation does not improve tension-type headaches.
• Acupuncture don’t reduce pain caused by HIV-related peripheral neuropathy.
• The supplement cambogia, a fruit containing chemical substance called hydroxycitric acid (HCA) that has an impact on on appetite, doesn’t help with weight loss.

Conclusion:

Consequently, warning must be justified before the use of both traditional and unconventional techniques. Only if the benefit is proven and the aspect consequences are set up, should a given approach be under selection. Ask for referrals and references before taking possibilities as facts and gamble with your health.

References:

-hopkinsmedicine “acupuncture”

-boiseapexchiro “what advantages do I get when I use alternative medicine”

-Mahmoudi GA, Almasi V, Lorzadeh N, Khansari A. The reasons for using and not using alternative medicine in Khorramabad women, west of Iran. J Pak Med Assoc. 2015;65(6):623-625.

-Chophealth “benefits of alternative methods of patient care and treatment”

-Nytimes “labels like alternative medicine don’t matter, the science does”

-Everglades university “benefits alternative medicine”

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