Though practitioners and regulators of modern systems tend to denigrate methods of alternative medicine, some of their trenchant criticism may emanate from bias or ignorance. Patients, who try consulting with herbalists qualified in ancient systems of health management, will be surprised to find similarities in the commonalities of taking case histories. Methods of alternative medicine are distinctly oriented towards trying to uncover systematic patterns to correlate expressed symptoms. Questions about one’s parents may be interpreted as searching for root causes in genetics.
Methods of alternative medicine evolved before the discovery of today’s diagnostic aids, but that does not necessarily imply their invalidity or lack of scientific rigor. We may draw an analogy from the world of math, and reflect on how doing sums in one’s head is less convenient, but as valid as a calculator, in adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying numbers. Methods of alternative medicine are clearly more intuitive than the standard algorithms adopted by modern systems, but practitioners with adequate and relevant experience, can produce nearly matching results with any system.
Can Methods of Alternative Medicine Have Roles in the 21st Century?
It is a fact that some modern drugs are chemical copies of therapeutic substances found in nature. Psychiatry is a branch of modern medicine which uses psychological therapy remarkably similar to methods of alternative medicine. The conventional approach to using antigens in trace amounts as a form of vaccination can be likened to homeopathic methods of alternative medicine. It is evident from these examples that some techniques of modern health management are evolutionary in comparison to methods of alternative medicine, rather than in absolute and direct contradiction with each other.
It must be said that fundamental differences do separate various systems of dealing with injuries, infections, diseases, and states of illness. One of these basic dividers relates to scientific validation of efficacy and safety, as well as the matter of uniform Quality Assurance. Modern systems depend upon patents held by profit making corporations, which support huge and ongoing investments in research, development, and experimentation. Methods of alternative medicine, on the other hand, cannot be patented, and therefore attract no investment funds from private sources. Distinct public funding for modernization of methods of alternative medicine could well see it playing far greater roles in modern health care. Such a trend would be in the greater consumer interest, and would lead to better service levels for the public.
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