Difference between Allopathic (Western Medicine) vs Integrative/Functional/Natural/Holistic Health
The below information is an excerpt from “The Beginner’s Guide to Natural Living” which can be found at http://www.thenaturalguide.com/natural-medicine.htm. Not all claims are made are scientifically backed. It is a good place to start to understand the difference between allopathic medicine vs natural healing. In the US we have wonderful acute/emergency care services. If you are involved in a motor vehicle accident, your life can be saved by machines and skilled surgeons. But, if you have any chronic condition, it is more likely to worsen with allopathic medicine. People are treated by ‘bandaging’ symptoms vs discovering the true process that is happening in the body. Blame is not placed on our doctors and practitioners, because this is the way they were taught and the current constraints of our system make it challenging for any provider to take the time to look at chronic disease management. It takes a lot longer than the typical 8-15 minute apt. slots to find cures for most common ailments affecting individuals today.
Allopathic Medicine
The allopathic medical philosophy taught at most medical schools, and practiced by the majority of medical doctors and practitioners, relies on the concept of identifying diseases or symptoms, and then prescribing drugs to manage or combat those conditions. It is a system that considers the disease or symptom to be the actual problem, as opposed to addressing the underlying causes that produced the disease or symptom in the first place. A wide variety of tests, procedures and equipment specially designed to identify diseases and symptoms have been developed, which on one level is great, because these tests could be used to help figure out underlying causes. Yet, on another level they are very limiting, since they are rarely used for such purposes. Typically, once a diagnosis is determined, the tests are plunked into the patient’s file as conclusive evidence of his or her condition.
Natural Medicine
In contrast, the philosophy of natural medicine holds that a weakened immune system (and/or along with other weakened bodily systems) is the reason foreign invaders can thrive, producing symptoms and diseases.
Most of us are taught that we need to go to medical doctors when we get sick. What we aren’t taught is that the real doctor is already within us as the innate wisdom of the body. This is the difference between conventional allopathic systems and natural holistic medicine systems. The philosophy of natural medicine is that, given the right conditions, the body willheal itself. Whereas the allopathic model tries to control defective body systems through drug intervention, or kill foreign invaders with antibiotics, natural medicine rarely includes toxic agents. Instead, herbs, homeopathic remedies and other non-invasive therapies are used. These techniques harmoniously help facilitate the repair and strengthening of bodily systems (especially the immune system, which can then properly fight foreign invaders), or help to destroy offending pathogens without toxic side effects. The goal of natural medicine is to figure out why systems have weakened and then repair them, which results in healing.
In natural medicine, prevention is always considered the first priority. Therefore, much attention is placed on educating the patient about proper diet and other lifestyle choices that affect health, such as discussed in this book. An ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure, and more. Speaking of cures, only the body cures. Not drugs, not diet, not herbs, or anything else. It is the innate wisdom of the body and the unblocked flow of life force energy that moves through the body that produces healing (cure). However, that doesn’t mean we can’t help the body heal, which is the focus of this book.
Since our bodies do have the innate wisdom to heal themselves, the task of the natural doctor is to figure out how, why and where the body’s ecology/energy is out of harmony, and then offer ways to bring it back into harmony through non-toxic means. Healing will almost always occur when bodily systems are brought back into harmony with each other and pathogens are dealt with properly (via toxic-free methods).