Natural therapies: advantages and disadvantages
Natural medicine and the so-called conventional medicine - or western medicine - often come into conflict. For many people, allopathic doctors, those who practice conventional medicine, concentrated on symptoms, "forget the causes of the disease with invasive treatments". For the vast majority, alternative medicine is ineffective, insecure and unproven scientifically.
Both are right, no medicine causes as many side effects as conventional medicine, but it is also true that it has the most and best results in many treatments.
There are few professionals who propose collective treatments, that is, they do not confront natural medicine with conventional medicine, but understand that, although clinical development has produced great advances, Natural therapies can complement them or help us break the cycle of medicine and disease.
Conventional medicine versus natural therapies
It is evident, as in almost everything, that you can not generalize. Many of the alternative therapies they have been perfected over the centuries and medical research has not yet reached them. Others, such as macrobiotics or shiatsu, have taken advantage of the medical knowledge of their time, but run the risk of being outdated. The best thing to do is work together.
In the spectrum of medical research, much emphasis is placed on the scientific method. In principle, this may seem appropriate, since it is believed that if a treatment can not be validated scientifically it should not be accepted. However, what for a doctor may be a symptom of illness, for an alternative therapist there may be two or more different symptoms, or none at all. This causes current medical treatments that "according to the advocates of natural therapies ?, have shown effectiveness for thousands of years, are discredited by different sectors of the medical community.
The natural or alternative therapies They tend not to look at the disease, but to seek health through balance in the body. The body reveals a relationship between the symptoms and the disease that is measured and treated by Western medicine. On the other hand, the subtle relationship between the energies of the body, the origin of the disease, is much more difficult to measure by technological devices and, therefore, its effectiveness is compromised.
The technological advances of recent decades seem to move towards a break with the Cartesian paradigm, in which medicine (Western) must deal with the body, while the religion of feelings and the soul. Recent technologies agree with many of the principles of alternative medicine, in which the individual must be understood as a whole, not as a collection of organs. Both alternative therapies and medical science should come together in a climate of mutual respect. Mistrust has caused both to be demonized and distancing, to the detriment of the individual.
The great advantage that many natural therapies and alternative treatments have is their harmlessness: they are relatively harmless. The search for professional standards and integration to conventional medical treatment can help to ensure this safety and to recognize the scenarios in which these medicines work best.
Government regulation is also important. The lack of control over content in supplements, parapharmacy and homeopathy products and the lack of consensus around doses and sources, compels the responsible therapists to compete on the same stage as charlatans and swindlers, well below the standards that protect the pharmacological industry.
Advantages of natural therapies
1. They are less aggressive to the body. They usually lack or have minimal side effects.
2. Promote the general welfare, not only fight a symptom. Many natural treatments also help you with your emotions.
3. They have no long-term effects. Unlike many medicines that leave substances in your body that can damage your organs.
4. They are more economical. Because you're not paying for the lab or the patent.
5. They are holistic, not specific. They look at the body as a whole, they are interested in everything being fine, not a part.
6. They are not aggressive with the body. Being natural, with some exceptions, they are easy to assimilate and eliminate.
7. They are preventive. You can receive treatment before symptoms of the disease appear.
Disadvantages of natural therapies
1. They are not subject to the same quality controls. Many products may not be what they promise.
2. Because there is less supervision, there is also exposure to non-sanitary or contaminated sources.
3. They are slower. Most treatments focus on the source of the problem, not on the symptom, so the symptom may take longer to disappear.
4. Doses are poorly controlled. Doses vary among therapists due to lack of consensus.
5. They are holistic, not specific. They are less effective in alleviating an acute problem
6. Many natural treatments are not covered by insurance, so its cost must be assumed additionally.
7. They tend to have problems in dealing with emergencies. In cases of crisis, its spectrum is very limited.
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