Alternative Medicine

Medical Herbs in Spanish Market

Alternative medicine is considered any healing practice, “that falls outside the realm of traditional or conventional medicine.”  It is based on historical and cultural traditions, often with the absence of scientific evidence of fact.    Alternative medicine’s approach or methods are diverse in their foundations and guidelines. Methods may include traditional medicine, folk knowledge, spiritual beliefs, or newly conceived concepts thought to promote healing.

Chiropractic; and Herbalist medicines, are but a couple of the better known alternative medicine approaches most of us are familiar with, and two that I have had personal experience. Acupuncture is another tactic that is commonly used but I have had no personal experience with that method of treatment.    

It is interesting to note that a 1997 survey found that 13.7% of respondents in the United States had obtained the services of both a traditional medical doctor and an alternative medicine practitioner. The same survey found that 96% of respondents who sought the services of an alternative medicine practitioner had also sought after or had obtained the services of a traditional medical doctor, seeking relief for the same problem.

As for my personal experience, I visited a Chiropractor after I felt I had exhausted the possibility of finding or obtaining corrective measures for my ailment.  On the other hand I sought and received satisfactory results from an individual that I often called “the witch doctor” who was a local Herbalist provider, for treatment of a very painful physical ailment for which I elected not to consult a traditional medical doctor.

In all fairness, I can not say for sure whether or not my chiropractic treatment was effective.  The problem I was seeking relief from only occurred 2 to 5 times within a given year (which began at age 24), so after 10 years or there ‘bouts of numerous traditional medical tests, with no medical advice other than to “run it, but watch it”,  I sought chiropractic treatment.

For the several years (here's the good news), following a few weeks of therapy, the dreaded problem for which the chiropractic treatment was intended did not re-occur but for one time.  The bad news is that on that one occasion, a couple of blood vessels within my brain ruptured, which ultimate placed me in the unfortunate state of being which I currently live, which is completely absent of anything the average person would consider normal.

The use of plants or herbs as medicines predates written human history. I expect this constitutes the first alternative to what we know as modern or traditional medicines used today. This is known by way of a 60,000 year-old Neanderthal burial site, in northern Iraq; there, what modern science considers large quantities of pollen from 8 plant species, 7 of which are still used as herbal remedies were found.   But I will venture to point out that 60 thousand years ago, such herbal remedies / medicines were in all likely-hood not considered alternatives, but were no doubt, considered cutting edge medicines.

Chiropractic treatment is said to have come of age as recently as 1895 AD in America, where as acupuncture is referenced in texts that date as far back as 200 BC in China.

Recent preliminary research suggests that the lowly chia seed (remember all those Chia Plants that pretended to be animals?) may help keep your cholesterol in check. Some say that coconut water will cure a bad hang-over.  If these suggestions have little or no interest to you, you might want to know where the best place to obtain training to become a “licensees toting Acupuncturist”. If that’s the case, simply click HERE.   

Sources ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_medicine                                                   http://altmedicine.about.com/                                                                            http://www.naturalhealers.com/