The unstoppable rise of alternative medicine
Have you ever had your hip ‘pulled’ by a bonesetter? Or pressed tobacco into a cut on your hand? Or sought the cure for incessant joint pains in those famous rheumatism bracelets? Very well, how correct are these methods? Or else, is what’s being offered to us by alternative medicine really just a bunch of unsubstantiated behaviours?
Alternative medical practices that remain outside of classical Western medicine are commonly tried throughout the world. They are increasingly in demand, in spite of all the scientific and technological advances and the miracles worked by medicine. The characteristics of these practices, which are generally called ‘alternative medicine’, can vary widely according to countries’ geographic location and cultural substructure. As for their general features, instead of practices based in scientific proof, as In the case of classical medicine, they usually have roots in folklore; some are learned through master-apprentice relationships and some are formulas that are passed down from generation to generation. Experts stress that whilst alternative methods can be deemed safe administered in the right doses, according to guidelines dictated by the Ministry of Health and under the supervision of a doctor, they can be life-threatening in the hands of ignorant or self-seeking people.
Cardiology specialist Dr. Nevrez Koylan answered our questions on this sensitive topic.
Why do people feel a need for alternative treatments?
People have both negative and positive motivations for opting for alternative treatments. Among the negative motivations are: being unhappy with health practices and medical results; the side effects of medicines and treatments; peoples’ wish to have the final word on their own health (wanting to be free of doctors domination); the overuse of medical technology; and the fact that going to the doctor is time-consuming. The reasons that make these treatments attractive are: the hope of having a full recovery from chronic diseases; the wish to use ‘natural’ products; feeling strong as a person; and the feeling of mental and emotional weli-being.
How much can alternative medicine be trusted?
It is very helpful to divide the topic of reliability into several main sections. The first is the issue of separating alternative medicine from complementary and integrative medicine. The term alternative medicine comes from an understanding that completely rejects existing Western medicine and replaces it with entirely different systems such as Chinese medicine or Native American-shamanistic medicine.
Whereas the terms complementary and integrative medicine should refer to treatments that support existing medical practice. In such practices as herbal remedies or manual treatment, it is useful to correctly evaluate whether the therapy is complementary or alternative. At this point, the dangers of alternative or complementary medicine need to be split into two. The first is direct harm. Which can be the toxic effect of a prescribed herbal remedy, the emergence of new injuries following manual treatment by inexperienced and untrained individuals (the most typical example of which would be Injuries caused by bonesetters) or situations where complementary treatments replace real treatments.
Causing medical treatment to be abandoned altogether. As for indirect harm, it is harm caused to a person without directly resulting in illness. Examples of this are over-reliance on alternative or complementary medicine and, as a result, spending large amounts of money on useless procedures and treatments, the weakening of the immune system through unfounded diets, and mental health breakdowns resulting from placing too much faith in religious healers or Indian medicine, reiki, hypnotism and similar practices.
For these reasons, the most important thing is to never abandon medical treatment and for alternative and complementary therapies to be carried out under the guidance of a trained and informed expert. In many countries complementary and integrative medical practitioners carry out these treatments under the supervision of the health authority and again with certificates obtained from that authority. Unfortunately we are very far from having that in our country.
Should alternative medicine be monitored?
The most effective way to deal with this issue is for the health authority to step in and monitor such practices by determining training and certification standards in the light of scientific data, neither rejecting nor encouraging such therapies. The absence of such an intervention leaves the field open to people who claim to come from China and hang indecipherable Chinese writing on walls around the room, people from Central Asian countries who carry out meaningless rituals saying they are ‘using bio energy”. Underground ozone therapy centres, religious healers and bonesetters.
How right is it for alternative medicine to be a competitor to medical and surgical methods for the treatment of chronic diseases?
Of course it is not. In the case of chronic diseases, one should only make use of the additional benefits of complementary and integrative treatments within certain restrictions. And then only under the guidance of a specialist in that field. There are very beneficial modalities available, provided they are used in the right place and in the right way; these can noticeably improve the quality of life and speed up recovery, if used responsibly.