Most patients subject of one doctor’s diagnosis of an ailment, disorder or disease would not hesitate to seek a “second opinion.” It is widely accepted and even encouraged - foremost for the patient’s assurance that whatever corresponding treatment is offered, such is actually the best option taken. In the world of current medicine and the advent of medical breakthroughs, present then and now is what is known as “unconventional or non-Western Medicine.” Called today as “
,” this is an old practice that began even before “Traditional Medicine.” Alternative medicine primarily adheres to medical practices and products not part of standard health care.
Alternative medicine may also be referred as “complementary or traditional medicine” likened to therapies that can be associated into modern medicine. Definitions eventually evolved alternative medicine into therapies like acupuncture, physical therapy including yoga and even dieting which are runs complementary alongside what is used with conventional treatments. Alternative medicine has been defined by a distinguished panel from the National Institutes of Health Bethesda in Maryland, USA as “healing resources that encompass all health systems and practices that are different from the dominant health system of a particular society or culture.” Patients who have trouble achieving desired cure and relief from conventional methods and treatments seek refuge in
.
The list of “converts” range from patients and their families who brave the battle against cancer and even the dreaded AIDS. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine defines complementary and alternative medicine as "a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine". Yet critics are quick to pose objection, rejecting the term “alternative medicine” itself. Leading advocates on the matter are Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal Journal of Medicine, George D. Lundberg, former editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and Phil B.
Fontanarosa, Senior Editor of JAMA alongside Richard Dawkins, Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford. Angell argues that “since many alternative remedies have recently found their way into the medical mainstream [there] cannot be two kinds of medicine - conventional and alternative. There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work. Once a treatment has been tested rigorously, it no longer matters whether it was considered alternative at the outset. If it is found to be reasonably safe and effective, it will be accepted." Lundberg and Fontanarosa for their part maintain, “there is no alternative medicine.
There is only scientifically proven, evidence-based medicine supported by solid data or unproven medicine, for which scientific evidence is lacking. Whether a therapeutic practice is 'Eastern' or 'Western,' is unconventional or mainstream, or involves mind-body techniques or molecular genetics is largely irrelevant except for historical purposes and cultural interest. As believers in science and evidence, we must focus on fundamental issues-namely, the patient, the target disease or condition, the proposed or practiced treatment, and the need for convincing data on safety and therapeutic efficacy.” While Dawkins explains alternative medicine as a "set of practices which cannot be tested, refuse to be tested, or consistently fail tests.
If a healing technique is demonstrated to have curative properties in properly controlled double-blind trials, it ceases to be alternative. It simply...becomes medicine." He also states that "There is no
. There is only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't work."
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