Combine Alternative Medicine and Conventional Therapy
What is conventional medicine? It is the accepted way of prescribing medications or treatment for various illnesses and diseases. But fifty or one hundred years ago, the accepted methods of the day were completely different. You've heard of using leeches to bleed a patient, or applying a mustard plaster for a chest cold. At that time, such treatment was considered the norm.
Hundreds of years ago, there were no medical schools or doctors. When people became ill or injured, they had to find a cure by experimenting with whatever nature had to offer. This was expected at the time and few thought anything about it. As people formed tribes or communities, one or two people were found to have a canny sense of what treatments or cures to use, and these folk became medicine men.
Fast forward to just forty years in our past, when it was discovered how to make pills and potions. The old ways were quickly forgotten as people embraced the convenience of drugs and technology. They also forgot just what was used to make those drugs; the same cures of yesteryear in a modernized container. What is digoxin but foxglove? Opiates come from poppy flower.
In the present time, we are seeing more and more people looking for cures aside from what the current convention entails. 62% of adult patients have tried alternative treatments. Some are successful while others are not. However, doctors are seeing a difference when combining both theories of medicine. According to Eukaryon, studies are showing evidence that "complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) strategies positively affect the well-being of patients undergoing conventional treatment". (Dean, 2008)
We know the mental stress can add to physical complaints. By the same token, finding balance and harmony can restore health. Therefore, if we partake of conventional treatments, and add a holistic approach, true healing is almost guaranteed. At least, the healing process becomes more bearable.
Which doctors and nurses are best prepared to combine therapies? A naturopathic physician is your best bet. These doctors are trained to use both conventional medicine and alternative. They then educate nurses with the same knowledge. Some may lean towards more natural remedies, while others accept modern medicine, but they are all trained with the same properties of healing. According to Judy Krizmanic, who wrote an article for BNET newsletter, naturopaths also "take extensive course-work in nutrition, herbal medicine, homeopathy, psychology, massage, and either Chinese or Ayurvedic medicine".
Combining alternative medicine with conventional therapy is nothing more than taking a wholesome or holistic approach to treating the sum of the whole being instead of seeing just a part of the whole.
References:
http://www.lakeforest.edu/images/userImages/eukaryon/Page_7190/p.%2019-20%20Dean%20Essay.pdf
