A short history of alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is the oldest form of medicine around and indeed thousands of years ago it was the only form of medicine and one which millions of people relied upon for curing their problems and illnesses. As traditional medicine became more popular and more people took to going to a Doctor with an illness you would think that alternative medicine would be a thing of the past. However this is far from untrue and today there are millions of people worldwide who still use this form of medicine, either as a standalone form of healthcare or alongside more traditional methods.
Since the beginning of time there has been documentation found of using alternative medicine, the most well known of course, as it was freely available was using herbal remedies. Today this is no exception and herbal remedies are top of the alternative medicine list of treatments, with millions of pounds being spent annually on products.
However those who practised alternative medicine thousands of years ago didn’t always have it good and were not given the credence they deserved. In fact many were proclaimed as witches. Even today there are still some sceptical people who mistakenly think that herbal remedies and those who practise and prescribe them are nothing more than charlatans and some think that witchcraft still exists.
As medical practises and drugs became more refined we still didn’t lose the old ways, for example aspirin which is a leading painkiller was derived from the bark of the willow tree. Penicillin which has been claimed as a wonder drug and indeed saved many lives came from nothing more than mouldy bread. So conventional medicine isn’t really so different from the old ways of alternative medicine, indeed it is the base of it.
Today health care is a multi million business with scientists forever striving towards reaching cures for all kinds of illness and diseases which keep springing up. Although still widely used throughout the world alternative medicine is just a very small percentage, but has modern medicine got too confusing?
Today we tend to look at the symptoms and place too much importance on treating those alone rather than treating the person as a whole and taking other factors into account. If only the symptoms are treated the this leaves things wide open for them to return, however alternative medicine and therapies treat the underlying cause rather that the symptoms, which leads to the body being able to take care of itself by a stronger immune system.
Arguments for and against alternative medicine and therapies will continue, but one thing we should consider is that alternative medicine showed us the way for the drugs of today and is still around after thousands of years, something which lasts that long must tell us something.