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Alternative Medicine Fundamentally there are two distinctions between orthodox and alternative medicine. Orthodox treatment relies mainly on combating disease with the help of drugs or surgery: unorthodox treatment concentrates on encouraging the body to fight for itself, saying that it is a person's life force that determines the outcome. Orthodox medicine usually isolates a disease or a disorder and treats solely that, alternative practitioners consider the body as a whole, and treat the cause rather than the result. The life force is a combination of the biological, mental and spiritual will to survive. The mechanism by which it works is little understood and the events that force it into action are varied and often unpredictable. Although the ideas and techniques of the alternative group vary they all rely mainly on this life force, and try to accelerate its action. We have built-in recuperative powers which can be seen at work on such a simple thing as a cut, which quickly heals into a scar, then fades. Apart from the life force, the life of the person is taken into account. Alternative medicine deals with people, not symptoms. All systems stress the importance of detailed history, not judging by outward signs alone. Rapport between patient and doctor is of prime importance - if there is trust and confidence in a cure, it often works. One of the most effective forces is the power of suggestion. People who become fringe practitioners do so because they are convinced of their beliefs and this is contagious. Diagnoses of the various disciplines are often quite different and specialised. A herbalist, for example, cannot work from the same type of diagnosis as an orthodox man because his conception of disease is totally different. He does not attempt to find out which germs have attacked the body, but which organs are falling in their function so they no longer resist. Chiropractors and osteopaths make diagnoses from touch and X-rays, acupuncturists from pulse points. To read more about the following alternative practices click on the word links below:
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