Health Insurance

The Major Differences Between Chinese Medicine And Western Medicine

Copyright (c) 2009 Stephen Lau Chinese medicine is one of the most sophisticated medical systems in the world. It has been enhanced through thousands of years of experience and research. Its unique difference from Western medicine is that it focuses on “health” rather than on “healing” because Chinese medicine promotes overall wellness of an individual, as opposed to the approach of Western medicine in treating the symptoms of an illness. As a matter of fact, in ancient China, a physician would not be remunerated for treating his patient who had fallen ill, because it was his first duty to keep his patient from illness. Essentially, Chinese medicine is “heal-all”, while Western medicine is “cure-all.” Another major difference between Chinese medicine and Western medicine is that Chinese medicine focuses on plants as remedies. Plants are essential to life. In fact, nearly all the food you eat comes from plants or animals who eat plants. Accordingly, to the Chinese, plants enhance health. In Chinese medicine, the number of plants used as medicines is greater than the number of plants for food. In Chinese medicine, there is not much distinction between a food and a medicine. Even thousands of years before Christ, the Chinese believed that every single plant on earth has its specific function in the well-being of an individual. For this reason, Chinese physicians have always been on the lookout for a remedy in any herbal plant. Not until recent decades and the opening of China to the Western world, little of traditional Chinese medicine was known to the Western medical community. Initially, Western doctors and scientists were skeptical of the potency of Chinese medicine, which is based on herbal cures and remedies. This is not surprising because in the beginning of the 20th century, Western medical science had dismissed even traditional Western plant remedies as folklore medicine – concoctions only for grandmothers but not for professionally trained doctors. With the emergence of the pharmaceutical industry, Western scientists began to focus almost exclusively on chemical drugs to treat different diseases with different symptoms. A case in point is human cancer. In the early 20th century, cancer was relatively unknown, but the number of cancer cases soon began to explode exponentially. With the growth of the billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry and the need to validate the potency of these chemical drugs, more research studies have to be conducted. Given that Western medicine aims at treating the symptoms rather than eradicating the causes of a disease, and that chemical drugs often generate many adverse side effects, more new chemical drugs have to be developed to treat those new symptoms. Until fairly recently, after many years of concern at the pervasive side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, is there an interest in Chinese herbal remedies and medicinal foods. Such plants include aloes, garlic, feverfew, and licorice, among others. Another major difference between Chinese medicine and Western medicine is that Chinese medicine often incorporates Western medicine into the medical system. For example, in Beijing hospitals, a doctor may carry out surgery in the Western manner with state-of-the-art equipment, while the anesthetist may use acupuncture and herbal preparations for preoperative and postoperative treatments. The Chinese are using the best from over four thousand years of experience to complement Western medicine. Results have proved that traditional Chinese medicine works even though it may not always conform to the current Western scientific theories. According to the Okinawa Centenarian Study, Okinawa, Japan, and Hong Kong are the top three areas of the world in life expectancy. They all share an important common characteristic of incorporating both Eastern and Western approaches to healing in their health care systems. The use of natural or herbal tonics in these populations far exceeds that of North America. Get the best of both Chinese and Western medicine so that they complement each other to give you the best health to enable you to become younger and healthier for longer.

Purchasing Tramadol in Your Difficult Situation

There are some people who cannot deal with many kinds of diseases that make them so suffering. There are many problems that people usually deal with the medical care related to the diseases. Some people cannot pay the medical cost which is so higher to reach. There are many medical things such as consultations, medical care and many kinds’ intensive cares that they want to take but they need to deal with many obstacles related to financial problems. Some people cannot survive to pay the medical cost. in this situations, they choose to survive with their pain and try to hold on when the pain is coming. They are very suffering because of this condition, so they need to get the other alternative that can give great solutions to get always from this suffering. Some of them even embarrassed to show their diseases. Shopping in the conventional pharmacies means that they need to purchase the medicine in the store.

The Power of Integrative Medicine

INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE

As a medical biochemist I have been working for many years side by side with medical doctors toward the same goal – to protect and heal patients from diseases. During my professional training program I got very basic knowledge of medicine, but I never understood why highly trained medical professionals were never taught anything about self-healing and the natural healing capacity of human beings. I asked myself why they were so uncomfortable with alternative (traditional) therapies and spirituality. Where are all the free thinkers in modern medicine that have the power to bring attention to alternative therapies?
My next question was; is modern medicine neglecting our natural mind-body connection? I hope, not. Although integrative medicine is gaining recognition by the medical establishment, the pace is much too slow. By the end of their training, many doctors feel that the compassion and spirit which drew them to medicine has been lost. Why is that?

To better understand the terms used in this article, I would like to give you a few definitions:

Modern medicine, also known as western, regular or conventional medicine, is focused mainly on the physical aspect of the body for treatment. Another name for modern medicine is allopathic medicine.

Natural Medicine-Thinking Beyond The Prescription Bottle

When you get sick, you go to the doctor. And the doctor will, of course, prescribe medicines. You will go and buy medicines. You take them, and hopefully, you get well.

This is how the health profession goes on nowadays, a cycle of diagnosis and prescription.

If anyone were to give you herbs for medicine, you would probably say that that person was a quack.

But nowadays, studies are being conducted to see if there are really is any merit to what is called natural medicine.

Natural medicine is the use of natural methods, herbal medicines, and traditional practices to heal ailments. Every culture has a form of natural medicine. In ancient cultures, village medicine men served as the doctors of the community, passing on medical knowledge to the apprentices that followed them.

Many categories of the healing methods fall under natural medicine. Among these are traditional medicine, complementary medicine, and alternative medicine.

Usually, natural medicine refers to medical practices that were in place before the advent of modern medicine.

This includes herbal medicine, or phytotherapy, which is prevalent in Chinese, Ayurvedic(or Indian), and Greek medicine.

Medicine Balls… From Back Breakers to Muscle Makers

Medicine balls have been hovering in the corner of the gym for close to 2 centuries.  The first medicine ball was designed and used by William “Iron Duke” Muldoon in 1830.  Iron Duke was a championship wrestler and boxing trainer in New York back then and the medicine ball was developed as a strength training device.  I doubt very much that back then Iron Duke knew that his simple idea would turn into such a diverse tool in the fitness and sports industry.

The original medicine balls featured a tough leather outer skin.  You can still buy models of this style and like the original they are truly designed for basic strength training.  Great for fitness and building any muscle in the body, leather covered medicine balls may not be fancy but they get the job done when it comes to general strength building.  A leather medicine ball routine utilizing a range of weights and a good variety of exercises will help build muscles throughout your body from calves and thighs to biceps your neck and back.  As with any weight training the performing the exercises the right way is important otherwise you’ll find the medicine ball to be a back breaker rather than a muscle maker.  You can start by searching online for medicine ball training resources