Medicine Health

In the present United States, if you need care or treatment for a sickness or disease you still have one of two options to pursue and that is conventional or alternative treatment. The first important factor to weigh is to understand the differences between the two.

Conventional medicine has some pros and cons. It offers the best medicine in surgeries or trauma care but in the treatment of immune related conditions it relies heavily on prescribing drugs and recommending invasive medical procedures. Conventional tends to target treating symptoms, not the underlying causes (repeat drug sales). It treats the human body in parts, not as a whole. The shaped thinking of conventional medical doctors is based upon using "rescue medicine," not finding treatment and prevention alternatives for illnesses and disease and included in all of this, Medical schools are set up by organ specific departments that don't share any kind of relationship with one another.

On the other hand, alternative medicine is not only prevention-based but also approaches medical treatment by focusing primarily on proactive measures, basically it treats the condition, not the symptoms. In doing so, its goal is to target the whole body which is really more cost effective.

The growing number of people turning to alternative therapies is rapidly growing and is becoming more and more the chosen form of medical treatment among Americans. This is a good thing considering where health care in the United States could be heading. If healthcare becomes nationalized we all we a value placed on us as to where we stand in the line.

Did you know that one out of every three Americans uses some kind of alternative medicine?
Between 1990 and 1997 there was almost a 50 percent increase in visits to alternative practitioners. Who wants a drug that treats a symptom that not only comes with a list of possible side effects that you do not want any part of, but there is a good chance you can't take the drug because your on some other prescribed drug(s) that are not compatible.

People are starting to choose alternative therapies as a form of treatment, and you may be asking yourself the big question, "Why don't more conventional doctors recommend alternative medicine?"

Due to pharmaceutical associations, with all the money that is involved there is no looking back. Don't be surprised about this because the driving force behind the continuing growth of conventional medicine has been the pharmaceutical industry, embraced by both doctors and pharmacists, who calculate their worth through treating disease by prescribing medications.

Schools of medicine are hugely funded by pharmaceutical companies so this industry has a hugely vested interest in the marketing of their medicines. A company that is the leading producer of prescription drugs offers scholarships and grants to medical schools so these two entities are joined at the hip.

Ever notice how many drug commercials consumers are exposed to? The mass media is about making money just like the pharmaceutical industry and those ads must be making profit for the media and visa-versa. Over the past few years mass media commercials for drugs have exploded. Multi-billions are spent on advertisements for prescription drugs and consumers do listen and inquire with their doctor on specific drugs they saw or heard in an ad.

As you might guess, funding conventional medicine towers the funding allotted alternative medicine to the tune of $12 billion to the National Institutes of Health to only about $5.5 million to the Office of Alternative Medicine to investigate claims of various therapies.

The consequences for almost the blatant disregard of alternative medicine research results in preventing relevant research projects, it has negative effects the research infrastructure and it does not attract the highly-skilled scientists to enter the field for various reasons, ironically one being the complaint that alternative medicine lacks the scientific research to support their practices.

Conventional has come a long way and people still come to the United States due to the medical technology is second to none, but it has it's flaws and it does not discount that it is profit driven by big pharma and its influence. People are becoming more and more aware of this so we a growth in the public turning to alternative methods for treatment.

Don't look for the drug industry controlled mainstream medical industry to show much empathy any time soon. There is too much money involved. Considering the state of affairs on healthcare in America with the present administration, now more than ever it is up to us to be proactive in taking care of ourselves and check out was is available alternatively in the areas of prevention and treatment of illness and disease.