The Viability of Healing Medicine, Essay Example

Contemporary exigencies within the medical arena and the inefficacy of many traditional treatments for debilitating illnesses such as cancer and diabetes has opened up a vacuum for alternative medical treatment to gain currency as viable alternatives. There is a burgeoning corpus of qualitative and quantitative evidence that support the argument that healing medicine—often referred to as alternative medicine, which retains a negative connotation for being fringe medicine—is effective and a scientifically tested phenomenon that should be integrated into the medical healthcare system as viable medical treatments. Healing medicine encompasses a vast array of practices and exercises, including yoga, meditation, Chi, and chanting, among several others. The escalating prices of healthcare and obtaining adequate health care service delivery has rendered it necessary for healthcare rationing.

As such, developing effective and low-cost therapies and propagating such courses of treatments has gained currency and facilitates efforts to ensure that the quality of health care is maintained at a high quality. Extant studies and literature validate the currency of healing medicine in enhancing human health vis-a-vis unconventional and untraditional methods that deviate from official medical treatments as written in official medical manuals. Despite initial resistance and viewing healing medicine in a pejorative manner, there have been profound changes in the last few years that have swayed official attitudes towards such course of treatments. The fact that the General Medical Council changed its code of ethics to enable patients to opt for healing medicines indicates that there is ample evidence in the corpus of literature that validates the currency of healing practices to enhance human health. General practitioners are now able to employ healing practitioners to amplify primary care services. Moreover, within the western tradition, healing practices have been embraced as the best medical care that the sick can get. Historical evidence combined with the scientific evidence underscores how healing medicine retains currency as viable treatments.

References

Achtenberg, J. (1994).  Healing images and symbols in non-ordinary states of  consciousness. Revision 16(4), 148 – 156.

Porter, R. (1997). A history of healing: Ancient traditions to modern practices. New York: Barnes and Noble Books.