Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Essays

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When one immediately thinks of healthcare, traditional medicine with medical doctors and surgeons come to mind. However, there are plenty of complementary and alternative medical techniques and professionals that attribute to healthcare. Many of these alternative medicine techniques offer a more natural route for those that prefer it, or may try it as an option before deciding surgery is there only option. Some of these techniques have been labeled a little “hocus-pocus-y” because they are often the route less traveled and are developed from other countries’ religious or spiritual beliefs. Sometimes, these techniques are just as beneficial, or more, than surgery or medicine so we must not rule out alternative medicine but simply perform more research to educate ourselves instead of blindly making decisions for our health. If the general population did more research, they would find that traditional medicine today has been developed from spiritual and alternative medicine techniques. When one looks at religious, spiritual and cultural beliefs in medicine, there is an overwhelming amount of variety. Depending on the country it derives from as well as the time/year it was developed can help determine how evolved the medicine is as well as who leader was at the time. Instead of basing medicine strictly from science and theories that have been tested and retested, medicine is influenced by the religion and beliefs of the country. For example, in China the belief of yin and yang strongly influences medical beliefs. Holtz states, “…it is believed that the mother loses a significant amount of yang during the delivery of a baby and must preserve any yang left so that yin would not be too strong. Therefore, a new mother must stay indoors for an entire month … All of those activities are considered yin, and the practices is believed to help promote yang and maintain yin-yang balance. If the new mother failed to follow those practices, her yang could not be restored and her yin would be too strong, which is believed to cause joint pain, lower back pain, loose teeth, and headaches later in her life” (Holtz, 2008). When we look at the Chinese culture and this belief, it is evident how much their culture influences their medical techniques. However, Holtz also states, “Religious and cultural beliefs also influence the practice and use of traditional medical healings” (Holtz, 2008). Many medical techniques developed by the cultural beliefs, are still used today or have piqued a researcher’s interest to study and develop it further so that it can treat more symptoms or a symptom more thorough. Complementary and Alternative Medicine is a more non –traditional form of medicine that may not be the go to protocol when a physician assess a symptom. Holtz states, “According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2003) and the United States National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
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