Alternative Medicine :: essays research papers fc

Throughout the last few years alternative medicine has drawn a ton of attention towards itself. New ideas and new styles of this medicine are introduced into the media everyday. Despite all the attention to this new trend what do we actually know about it? Is it safe? What studies have been done? In a time when people are looking for a change and living life to the fullest these new methods of medicine seem to be just the answer we’re looking for. Conventional medical practitioners say that this new style of medicine is bogus and is dangerous because there is no solid evidence it actually works. Although alternative medical doctors say this kind of medicine cures even better without using the pills, drugs, and shots that conventional medicine uses. Despite the argument between these two sides the best possible cure for ones self should be instead of choosing a specific method to help yourself use a combination of the two to help heal. This subject of alternative medicine relates to many people in today’s world. The media, the government, and even parents and children have something to do with this vast new form of medicine. Alternative medicine continues to grow every year, which makes it a very important issue in our society, in fact 40% of American use some form of herbal or other alternative medicine in the world today (Jonas). This fact just shows how widely used this method is. According to a survey of 1,539 adults in 1990 and 2,055 in 1997, use of at least one type of alternative therapy during the previous year jumped from 33.8 percent in 1990 to 42.1 percent in 1997 (Mann). These facts show just how fast alternative medicine is growing. The option to ignore the use of alternative medicine is gone. For how much this new method of medicine is growing it is almost impossible to overlook. The subject of alternative medicine is a two-sided argument. On one side you have the conventional or western medical practitioners and on the other side you have the alternative medical doctors. Both sides have a strong argument towards the other. Is it that conventional physicians are not informed regarding alternative techniques, or is it that alternative physicians don’t know how the body actually works (Lin)? What my question is, is why can’t both these medicines be used together? Dr. Joseph Jacobs, a former director of the NIH office of Alternative Medicine and a Yale trained physician believe that if used properly these two styles of medicine combined together can work far better than one alone (Langone).