Natural & Conventional Medicine - The Differences
Conventional medicine is based primarily on the concept that diseases are
caused by harmful organisms such as bacteria, viruses, or rogue cells (eg
cancer cells). Treatment aims to either kill these organisms or to oppose
the resulting symptoms with drugs.
Natural
medicine considers the whole person, in the quest to treat the underlying
tendencies to ill health. The practitioner will consider all the physical
and mental symptoms being experienced, the stresses that exist (personal,
family, environmental, occupational, etc) and how you react to them,
together with diet, personal and family medical history.
This story
from Pulitzer Prize winner and microbiologist, Rene Dubos, illustrates the
different approaches:-
“In the
crime-ridden frontier town, the hero, single handed, blasts out the
desperados who were running rampant through the settlement. The story ends
on a happy note, because it appears that peace has been restored. But in
reality the death of the villains does not solve the fundamental problem,
for the rotten social conditions which had opened the town to the desperados
will soon allow others to come in, unless something is done to correct the
primary source of the trouble. The hero moves out of town, without doing
anything to solve this far more complex problem; in fact he has no weapon to
deal with it and he is not even aware of it’s existence.”
In
Dubo’s story, the gang is not the problem, but a symptom, an opportunist. To
get rid of the problem in the long term, you would have to change the
conditions in the town. So it is with our bodies – to assume you can truly
cure a person by killing a bacteria or virus, is like assuming that you can
solve the problem of crime by killing a single criminal!
Naturopathy &
Homeopathy
Naturopathy
is an umbrella term for many natural therapies, which include herbal
medicine, homoeopathy, massage, nutrition and iridology. The philosophy of
naturopathy is based on stimulating the body’s own innate healing abilities
with natural remedies, providing an environment which supports recovery from
illness. To achieve this, medications used are either herbal or homoeopathic
preparations, together with diet and lifestyle changes. As the study of
homoeopathy is a separate and highly specialised practice and qualification
in it’s own right, there is a tendency for practitioners to concentrate
either on Homoeopathy or Herbal medicine. As a result, under current
Australian conditions, a practitioner trained broadly in all areas will be
referred to as a Naturopath, whereas a practitioner with specialty training
in Homoeopathy will be known as a Homoeopath and a practitioner trained
solely in herbal medicine will be known as a Herbalist.
Homeopathic
and herbal medicines are quite different. Herbal preparations are made from
plants, and are called tinctures or fluid extracts. They are usually dark in
colour and have a strong and sometimes bitter taste. Homeopathic medicines
come in the form of drops or small white pills, which have a slightly sweet
taste. The medicines have been diluted and potentised from the source
material, which means they are non-toxic and have no colour and minor taste.
Adverse Drug
Reactions
-
The
total number of adverse reactions to drugs in Australia in the 1999-2000
year (those resulting in hospital admission and those that did not) was
400,000 (Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 83, Sept 2002, 774)
-
The
report of adverse reactions from natural medicine to the Australian
Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee (ADRAC) average 23 per year
(Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 83, June 2002, 516-7)
-
There
are 140,000 hospital admissions in Australia every year because of
misused pharmaceutical drugs (Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 83, Sept
2002, 774)
-
25% of
Australian hospital admissions are for iatrogenic (medically induced) or
drug related diseases (Current Therapeutics, July 2000, 76-79)
-
Every
year in Australia, 14,000 people die from medical errors in hospitals.
(These figures from 1995) ((The Australian, March 15, 1999, 17)
-
Only
10-20% of all standard medical procedures have been validated by
controlled clinical trials (Complementary Medicine, July/August 2002,
33-35)
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