This paper will discuss the advantages, disadvantages and differences of modern or allopathic medicine and alternative medicine, in order to highlight their clinical importance in the selection and use of specific treatments in patients, with the main Hippocratic bioethical purpose of harmlessness. and charity. In the same way, the myths, beliefs and current qualities of patients’ choices before modern medicine and alternative medicine will be exposed.
How many of us have not gotten sick and taken antibiotics to feel better? It is true that many times the drugs we take only fade the symptoms and not their initial cause, thus causing the appearance of other symptoms in the future, whether they are from the same disease that has not been completely eradicated or from complications.
But modern medicine is not the only option when looking for a cure. There is also alternative medicine that is based on the balance of our organism and treatment that is not as aggressive as modern medicine can be, which is why it could be said that alternative medicine is better than modern medicine because it has fewer side effects harmful to health.
This raises the question of what is the best medicine in the treatment of the disease, what is the best choice? In order to be able to choose and draw a conclusion, we must know our protagonists; modern medicine and alternative medicine and thereby create evidence-based testing.
First of all, traditional medicine is defined as a wide variety of therapies and practices that vary from country to country and region, it is also known as alternative or complementary medicine and has been used for many years. (WHO, 2018). In addition, the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines it, more specifically for homeopathic medicine, as a medicinal system that applies to diseases, in minimal doses, the same substances that, in larger quantities, would produce the same or similar symptoms in a healthy person against whom it is being treated (Pérez , 2015).
However, it is that derivative of medicine that claims to have the curative effects of modern medicine, but has not been proven by the scientific method, leading to the tendency to believe that it produces only a placebo effect.
On the other hand, modern or allopathic medicine is defined by the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy as therapeutics whose drugs in a healthy state produce phenomena that differ from those that characterize the diseases in which they are used (Pérez, 2015).
This is based on scientific evidence and is found in the solution of diseases by providing pharmaco-biological substances, thus raising the question of whether these substances do more harm than good or, also, whether these substances cause drug addiction or not.
During this practice, the doctor does more than examine the patient, he checks the symptomatology in order to stop it with a certain drug. This drug has a quick effect because it acts on the local pathological manifestation and the pain that accompanies it, but does not eliminate the causative agent, causing the possibility of the reappearance of symptoms, the inclusion of another symptom or the increase of gradual diseases that may be related to the administered drugs. With this we can say that modern medicine is medicine of emergency and/or assistance.
Finally bearing in mind that the goals of all existing drugs will always be to preserve health, alleviate or cure disease and prevent premature death. But they also share the natural functions and characteristics of the human being: the beneficial effect of a good doctor-patient relationship, the body’s natural tendency to resist aggression and return to health, the beneficial influence of therapeutics, whether chemically effective or placebo.
References
WHO. (October 1, 2018). Traditional medicine. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/topics/traditional_medicine/es/
Perez, R. (2015). Allopathic medicine and other medicines. Journal of scientific culture UNAM. Retrieved from http://www.revistaciencias.unam.mx/en/159-revistas/revista-ciencias-14/1376-la-medicina-alop%C3%A1tica-y-las-otras-medicinas.html
about the author
Daniel Armando Villarreal Portillo.
Graduated in medical surgery at Universidad de las Américas Puebla. Graduated with honors What a compliment, the best average of his generation. The Pfizer Scientific Institute and the Mexican Association of Medical Colleges awarded him the Academic Excellence Award.
Contact: daniel.villarealpo@udlap.mx