Alternative Medicine, Research Paper Example

Alternative medicine continues to be used with increasing popularity by a majority of Americans.  Statistics show that almost half the American population has used at least one of the 16 available alternative therapies in the previous year. Current regulations cover alternative therapies including home therapy, massage therapy, meditation, aromatherapy and chiropractic care (Stone, 2006)

Chiropractic care deals with managing disorders which affect the musculoskeletal and nervous system of the human body.  It aims at treating the general health effects on the body that are caused by complications from these parts of the body. Therefore, chiropractic care is used to manage back pains, joint pain, headaches among other pains. Chiropractic care involves a drug free treatment that is hands-on through patient examination, carrying out diagnosis and providing treatment. Nutritional, dietary and counseling on lifestyle changes are some other key components of chiropractic practice. Manipulation of the spinal or chiropractic adjustment is the most common therapy carried out by chiropractic professionals. The aim of these activities is to restore mobility in joints by applying controlled forces to those joints that have become immobile.

The regulations recommend that practitioners of chiropractic care should be trained as researchers so that they conduct scientific studies on the treatment they provide.  The overall oversight and regulations are provided by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Food, Drugs and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). For chiropractic care, the regulation is done by the Federation of Chiropratic Licensing Board (FCLB).

However, with these regulations, there are still deficits with the regulatory oversight. One deficit is that it is upon the regulatory authority to provide proof that newly marketed chiropractic care techniques are unsafe. The regulations do not require federal checks for safety, efficacy and the correct methods used. The implication of this is that there are dangers ineffective therapies being given to a public that is less informed. Consumers are inclined to trust in therapies sold to them since they trust that the therapies once approved by the FDA, then they are safe to be used.  There have been recommendations from various quarters for new regulations whose aim is to protect and the public from potential misleading claims delivered by alternative medicine practitioners. They have proposed that a use of alternative therapies should solely be dependent on to having sufficiently proven to be safe and effective. A new regulatory process is also needed to ensure that standards for training and practice are set to be consistent with those of conventional medicine (Stone, 2006).  There is also need to start prescribing these therapies since lack of it means that practitioners are not obliged to meet any particular standards. The new regulations will protect consumers because there will be more oversight and scrutiny of alternative medicine practitioners by various health statutory bodies. However, implementing the new regulations is more likely to face various obstacles one being that the new regulations may have very little effect on patient care and others will only work if consumers are made aware of the existing regulations for them to be able to make informed choices.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a therapeutic system which is based on the idea that diseases and ailments can be treated using drugs in small doses which are thought of having the capability of producing the same signs and symptoms in people who are healthy and as the disease itself. It is a holistic system of treating people which originated in the 18^th century through the ideas of a German physician called Samuel Hahnemann and later refined and made popular by doctors from the United States of America, the  most notable one being James Tayler Kent (Baker & Borneman, 2002).

Homeopathy is based on the idea that substances which produce symptoms of ailments in people who are healthy will cure sick people if those substances are given in small quantities. It is based on the premise that each factor that occurs naturally, whether a plant or mineral compound will produce definite symptoms when they are ingested or applied. By diluting them in a way that is standardized, a person can attain the true essence of that substance.  The amounts that have been diluted can then be used to treat those very symptoms that were known to produce. Homeopathy assumes that the body fights disease through expression of symptoms, therefore, these symptoms should be encouraged through prescription of a remedy in minimal doses that would otherwise produce symptoms that are seen in those people who are sick.

References

Stone J (2006), Complementary medicine and the law. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Baker C, Borneman J (2002). The Homeopathic and pharmacopoeia of the United States. New York: Basic Books