As we move into the 21st century, we have made many advancements and advances in medicine due to new discoveries in chemistry, biology, and physics. Conventional medicine, our generally accepted system of medical knowledge, is practiced almost exclusively in the United States and abroad. With this system, doctors and other health professionals treat diseases with drugs, radiation, or surgery. Conventional medicine is also known as allopathic, conventional, modern, or Western medicine.
As a technically advanced society, we have prided ourselves on our achievements in science, but modern medicine has yet to solve our health problems. There are various diseases such as cancer, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, and a wide variety of serious and chronic diseases whose cure has been pending for many, many years. Those suffering from incurable diseases are questioning the true advancement of modern medicine and wondering, considering modern innovations in science, whether it has really progressed that much. We have daily experience of the wonders of medical science in the areas of nuclear and emergency medicine, immunology, surgery and medical testing, and certainly these systems are extremely important, but the prevention and treatment of real diseases for many chronic diseases are still there. eluding the moderns. medical establishment.
There has been a driving force behind alternative medicine for centuries, and the motivation has been to heal others. Although alternative medicine practitioners and their patients are reporting effective results, there are some people who propose that alternative medicine is fraudulent and that it is being practiced by insufficient people or with little or little education. This could certainly be true in some cases, but it has also been true of conventional physicians who had their licenses revoked due to negligence or incompetence.
If doctors were not sexist, then there would be no need to offer seminars on how to sensitively handle a woman’s pelvic exam in a “non-sexist way.” This type of mindset is one of the many reasons why women, especially men, are turning away from their doctors and seeking the help of alternative doctors. Michael P. Annavi, Ph.D., in his essay on allopathic authority, entitled Scraps from the Table of Allopathic Power, states that “the allopathic medical industry has created a process of invalidation that promotes the ideology that knowledge is real only if it is established within this tautological framework of European thought ”.
The difficulty in establishing the practices and rights of non-traditional health professionals has been thwarted over the past two centuries by advocates for the practice of scientifically validated medicine, by traditional medical societies and, of course, by practitioners. own doctors. This is nothing more than systematic prejudice and racism, especially in regards to Chinese and Indian practitioners of acupuncture and Ayurvedic medicine.
Larry Altshuler, MD, in his book Balanced Healing, states that many alternative healing methods are simply more effective than conventional treatments for certain conditions, and many treatments have fewer potential side effects and dangers. Throughout his book, Dr. Altshuler discusses natural treatments that he has used effectively on patients for many years. An advocate of preventive and natural medicine, Dr. Altshuler explains, for example, that there is a strong correlation between diabetes and obesity. As a truly alternative medical treatment, he first mentions that patients should completely avoid alcohol, which is very high in sugar. Second, he claims to eat a balanced diet, low in refined sugars, fats, and animal products, and high in plant fiber. Third, it recommends the vitamins, nutrients, and herbs needed for supplementation. Finally, he recommends acupuncture treatments.
In the documentary, The True Story of the Bridge on the River Kwai, Otto C. Schwarth, an American prisoner of war, forced to work on the Burma-Thailand railway during World War II, described how hundreds of thousands of POWs The British and Americans, sick and dying from various diseases, were treated by a handful of doctors. In his interview, Mr. Schwarth, then in his eighties, recalled: “Americans were always grateful to the Dutch physician Henry Hecking. Dr. Hecking was born and raised in Indonesia by his grandmother, who was a herbalist. He was our savior, actually, because he knew all the local herbs, our group ended up having the lowest death rate on the list.
Michael Wayne, Ph.D., author of Quantum Integral Medicine, explains in his interview with Acupuncture Today: This biomedicine (conventional medicine) has been based on a model of linear determination and reductionism, approaches that see the world in black and white. terms. This approach has gotten us into a lot of trouble, not only with his approach to the human body, but also with his approach to solving the world’s problems. He is very cause and effect oriented and always seeks to find the ultimate cause that created the dilemma (paragraph 3). Modern medical science has denied the larger picture of health and healing, induced by corporate influence and speculation. We are currently seeing the results of such corruption and greed, such as the war in the Middle East in an attempt to monopolize oil reserves, global warming coupled with the melting of the polar ice caps, and global economic collapse.
It has also become amusing for some physicians to criticize natural medicine and its practitioners. In an interview with an orthopedic surgeon in Fresno, CA (who preferred to keep his name anonymous), he revealed that chiropractors are known, in the conservative medical world, as “pseudo-physicians.” At the beginning of the 20th century, the medical establishment fought the profession of chiropractor, saying that due to the public welfare and protection, these types of alternative doctors should not be licensed. We found that it was actually due to financial self-interest rather than public welfare, or as chiropractors claim, “the ermine gloves of altruism often hide the metal cuffs of greed” (Whorton 138). Plainly speaking, the medical profession does not want to share its financial benefits with other healers. Hippocrates was also considered a heretic or “charlatan” of his time because the medical thinking of his day was that illness and recovery were caused or influenced by gods and demons. Hippocrates (born 460 BC) is considered the father of Western allopathic medicine. He is credited with a breakthrough in the systematic study of clinical medicine, summarizing the medical knowledge of previous schools and prescribing practices for physicians.
20th century medicine has made incredible strides in discovery, including nuclear technology for diagnosis and treatment. Although conventional medicine has made a great scientific breakthrough, many people still suffer from debilitating chronic diseases and incurable diseases. Allopathic medicine has a hundred years of research and discovery, but it does not appear to be generating valuable and affordable solutions as we move into the 21st century. The cost of medical treatment is staggeringly high, especially for diagnostic tests and hospital visits. Doctors are concerned not only with their own financial progress, but with keeping those who do not consider themselves worthy of a medical or MD degree at bay. In ancient China, a doctor was not paid for his services if a person fell ill. They were only compensated for keeping clients healthy through advice on diet, nutrition and exercise. They prescribed herbal medicines, not only for illnesses but also for preventive health, so it was the healthy who supported the Chinese practitioner and not the sick. Unfortunately, in our modern society, it is the sick who provide the doctor with a healthy income.
It is necessary to incorporate a new model of understanding in medicine to the existing allopathic model. Due to the increasing popularity and efficacy of Alternative Medicine, physicians may eventually be given their rightful place in medical society. The incorporation of alternative medical practices into the existing model of conventional Western medicine, including the training of new physicians, is now called Complementary Medicine. To solve our health problems, this modern paradigm of treatment in medicine must be promoted. This can only truly emerge when prejudice, self-interest, greed and discrimination are discarded and diverse medical knowledge is promoted and shared, not only among university-trained scientists and physicians, but also among alternative practitioners, philosophers, metaphysicians, and other intellectuals in society. as well as. By integrating alternative medicine with conventional medicine, we hope to see a model that focuses on health and healing, rather than disease and financial gain. As more states license NDs (Naturopathic Physicians), seeing them should be as common as visiting your allopathic physician. This could become the new ideal for medicine and health in the 21st century and beyond. We also look forward to the day when labels like healer or pseudo-doctor disappear along with other biased subjective judgments.
Until a century ago, common people thought that it was impossible to fly, but after discovering the natural laws of aerodynamics, we can routinely fly into outer space. In his film, Galileo, Bertolt Brecht historically describes the life of Galileo Galilei. In the seventeenth century, Galileo, at the risk of persecution and death, proved by studying cosmology and using the basis of mathematics, that the sun was the center of the heavens and not the earth. In the same way, using natural ideals and the foundations of medical knowledge, we will begin to make new and future discoveries in health and healing.