Alternative medicine uses many ways and methods to diagnose and treat various diseases. Some of them can be trusted, while others should definitely be avoided.
Traditional and alternative medicine. Alternative Medicine Methods
- Classical medicine. Advantages and disadvantages
- Alternative medicine, its principles
- ethnoscience
- Eastern folk medicine
- Alternative medicine. Trust or not
- Where to get training
- Folk remedies of the West and East
From time immemorial, mankind has been looking for ways to quickly cure diseases. And today there are three main groups of methods used: modern, traditional and non-traditional.
Having fallen ill, first of all they turn to classical doctors who write out a prescription and explain the treatment regimen for a particular ailment.
But, along with medicines, they often resort to proven "grandmother's": brew chamomile, soar legs or eat lingonberries with honey.
And when all the methods have been tried, they turn to healers and healers. With the belief that they can help where medicine is powerless.
Classical medicine. Advantages and disadvantages
Scientifically based (modern) medicine has undoubtedly achieved a lot: surgery, resuscitation, effective ways to deal with mass epidemics and serious diseases. Inflammation of the lungs, complex fractures and appendicitis can hardly be successfully treated with traditional medicine.
However, for every plus there is a minus. And it consists in the fact that official medicine in most cases is concerned about the removal of symptoms and pain. And the patient is already satisfied with the fact that the head no longer bothers, and the acute phase of the disease has passed.
A new magic pill is popular, not good health, in which going to the doctors becomes unnecessary.
Alternative medicine, its principles
Official medicine has generally accepted standards. In all institutions that train future doctors, they adhere to them. Accordingly, everything that does not fall under the standards refers to alternative medicine.
She is looking for the root cause of health problems, disorders in the body that led to the disease. In addition, unlike the classical principles, which consider a person as a system of separate organs, an unconventional approach takes him as a whole, takes into account the interconnection of all organs.
ethnoscience
Folk (traditional) medicine includes ancient, time-tested ways to treat diseases. It was to them that for many centuries they turned for healing. The treatment is mainly with herbs and medicinal plants, infusions and decoctions are prepared from them.
In addition to healing potions, prayers and conspiracies are used.Prayers are read to protect themselves from an evil spirit, and conspiracies came to us from paganism, their words are passed down from generation to generation.
Eastern folk medicine
Eastern traditions teach diseases to prevent, maintain health and thereby prolong human life. The basis of philosophy is the unity of not only the spiritual and physical bodies, but also merging with the outside world. It is in this harmony that healers see the solution to problems.
Folk and alternative medicine is often called alternative medicine, it deals with the treatment of a person, and not a specific disease.
Alternative medicine. Trust or not
Adherents of alternative medicine claim that it is safe and effective. Many people believe in it. However, to abandon the classical methods of treatment is still not worth it. It is possible to apply the recommendations of a doctor and the achievements of alternative medicine together. This should be done with caution, since the effectiveness of most methods has been poorly studied, and clinical evidence is also lacking.
Any clinic of alternative medicine promises to get rid of all ailments, but the patient has to seek help from such centers practically at his own peril and risk, since there is no regulatory regulation of this activity.
There are frequent cases of not only disappointment, but also harm to health, especially if you get an appointment with a charlatan who recommends another miracle remedy or technique. It is difficult to determine the level of qualification of such doctors. Often you have to rely on patient reviews.
Where get trained
Now many centers offer to master palmistry, physiognomy, graphology, astrology – all this is alternative medicine. Training in alternative techniques is carried out in specialized educational institutions or remotely. It is believed that it is much more difficult to master the methods and techniques of alternative medicine than classical medicine, so whether to trust such dubious educational institutions or not is a personal matter for everyone. Unfortunately, the institute of alternative medicine, after which an official diploma of a healer will be issued, is still only a fantasy.
Now in Russia only acupuncture and manual practice have received official recognition. You can get an additional profession if you have a special medical education. For example, only neurologists can master acupuncture.
Folk remedies of the West and East
There are many areas of alternative practice. Every year their number is growing. In order to somehow understand this diversity, they tried to classify them.
The first group includes the following methods:
- acupuncture – the impact on human organs through special points on the body. These include: Su-jok, hirudotherapy, reflexology and many others;
- Ayurveda is Indian alternative medicine.It implies a complex treatment that affects the entire body and includes massage, aromatherapy and meditation. It is also necessary to adhere to a diet and use healing decoctions;
- folk medicine and various healing systems – Tibetan, Vedic, Chinese;
- homeopathy – the use of ultra-low doses of drugs. A significant amount of these substances causes disease;
- naturopathy – the method is based on the revival in a person of the ability to self-heal and improve. Teaching the rules of a healthy lifestyle, in which the body itself will solve all problems.
Bioelectromagnetic methods of influence on the body
In ancient China, biologically active points were discovered. These points are also called acupuncture points, about 700 are described in total. By irritating them in a certain way, various ailments can be cured, as well as disease prevention.
Methods of alternative medicine, which belong to the second group, involve the impact on biologically active points with magnetic, electric fields and biofields. Moreover, both diagnosis and treatment are carried out.
- bioresonance therapy – stimulation of the areas of the cerebral cortex that are responsible for a particular organ with ultra-low frequencies of electrical impulses;
- electropuncture reflexotherapy – stimulation of acupuncture points on the surface of the skin with electrical impulses;
- magnetopuncture – exposure to magnetic fields, variable or constant;
- information-active drugs – water or health-improving drugs that carry the "correct" information to the cells of the body. Means are multifunctional and have no contraindications;
- exposure to fields of stones, metals and plants.
diet therapy
Alternative medicine uses numerous diets. Therefore, the third method includes vegetarianism, macrobiotics, fasting, all kinds of ways to detoxify the body, and the use of nutritional supplements.
A variety of power systems are also included here: according to Bragg, Shelton, Dukan, Semenova, Protasov.
Psychic energy and body
The ability to control the body and emotions is also alternative medicine. Treatment is carried out with the help of influence on the sense organs and through physical movement. These are Chinese and breathing exercises, music therapy, color therapy, aromatherapy, visualization technologies, religious healing, extrasensory perception.
The fourth group also includes yoga and meditation. The techniques are popular and widely known around the world as Indian alternative medicine..
Hands as the main tool in treatment
The methods that belong to the fifth group are mainly massage techniques. Traditional and non-traditional medicine have accumulated vast experience over the centuries. Moreover, it is these methods of treatment with the help of the hands of a doctor that are recognized by official medicine as quite effective.
- manual therapy – special techniques performed by the hands of a doctor, with the help of which the work of the patient's musculoskeletal system is improved;
- massage – mechanical effect on tissues: joints, muscles, skin to achieve a therapeutic effect;
- acupressure – finger stimulation of biologically active points;
Biologically active additives
The use of pharmacological agents also provides for alternative medicine. Treatment is carried out with the help of apitherapy, biological preparations based on products of animal or mineral origin.
The sixth group includes the following types of therapies:
- oxygen, is carried out for body cells that experience hypoxia;
- cellular, using stem cells;
- metabolic to improve metabolism;
- antioxidant, that is, the prevention of oxidation inside the cells of the body.
In addition, there are such methods of alternative medicine that cannot be attributed to any group, for example, astrology, feng shui, psychopuncture.
healing
Very often you can find advertisements for healers, psychics, magicians and sorcerers. They see the cause of the disease in the presence of damage or the commission of bad deeds of a person in this or past lives.
There are certain categories or levels of healing:
- the first level includes healers and herbalists, they work only with the physical body of a person;
- the second level implies an appeal to the Higher Forces with a request for help;
- the third is psychics who literally see the cause of problems;
- the fourth, spiritual level, involves the impact on the root cause of misfortune.
Whether this is true or not is difficult to verify. In most cases, the result of visiting a magician depends on the degree of faith the patient has in him.
Diagnosis of the state of the body
Traditional and alternative medicine in its arsenal has many tools and methods for both treatment and diagnosis.
Unlike official methods, an alternative study allows you to check the general condition of the body in one session and identify all the diseases and problems present.
There are many popular diagnostic methods with confidence. However, classical medicine does not recognize and does not apply them.
If you contact the center of alternative medicine, patients can be offered the following methods:
- Kinesiology is the study of human muscle movement. It is believed that each organ is associated with a specific muscle, by determining the degree of tone in it, you can detect the problem and get rid of it;
- iridology examines the state of the body on the iris of the eyes;
- auriculodiagnostics – a system that examines points on the auricle associated with organs and systems of the body;
- thermopuncture diagnostics measures temperature and sensitivity to it in the zone of biologically active points; measures the pulse and correlates its characteristics with the state of the internal organs.
This is not a complete list of techniques that alternative medicine has. However, it should be understood that there is no absolute certainty in their reliability. And if such a diagnosis is nevertheless addressed, it is better to clarify the results using the means and methods of official medicine.