Medicine has been around for thousands of years and is still used in every part of the world today. Medicine is the application of science to solve problems by reducing or treating symptoms. When you have an illness, the effects of it on your body and mind can cause serious disturbances. It is these symptoms that medicine tries to reduce or eliminate.
The field of medicine has changed quite a bit over the years. In the early days, medicine was primarily concerned with disease, with little if any focus on wellness. The advances in modern medicine have made it possible for people to lead healthy lifestyles by using medicines and therapies in the treatment of acute or chronic diseases. Health is now a state of complete physical, mental and emotional well being where infirmity and disease are absent.
Complementary medicine
Complementary medicine is allopathy which focuses on providing a natural healing approach. In many countries, people use complementary medicine as a complementary healthcare approach. Common treatments used in complementary medicine include acupuncture, acupressure, herbal remedies, chiropractic therapy, traditional Chinese medicine, and other alternative methods. These complementary therapies often improve the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses and can even be used in place of conventional healthcare.
Complementary therapy can take many forms. People use it to supplement conventional Western medicine with complementary methods that are not accepted by the Western medical community. For example, some complementary therapies include naturopathy, osteopathy, homeopathy, Ayurveda, chiropractic, meditation, and yoga. There has been a lot of clinical research performed on complementary therapies that have shown that they can help people recover from a wide range of diseases.
It is common for people to turn to complementary therapies to overcome various health conditions. It is also common for people to use complementary medicine in place of conventional Western medicine when conventional medicine fails to provide relief. Studies have shown that complementary medicine can reduce the duration and/or the intensity of disease. It has also been shown that people who have used complementary therapies for pain relief medication are less likely to experience symptoms associated with their condition again. Studies have also indicated that, for chronic patients, complementary medicine can lead to improvements in health care and decreased use of pain relievers or other medication.
Complementary medicine has been widely accepted in the United States as long as doctors are able to demonstrate that a patient can benefit from the use of a treatment other than conventional medicine. Today, it is rare for doctors to discontinue using mainstream medicine when a patient asks them to do so. As time goes on, more health professionals use complementary medicine in place of or in addition to standard medical devices for treating patients with different health problems.