Global Courant
According to history, alternative medicine dates back 5000 years to traditional Chinese medicine, Indian (Ayuryedic medicine) and similar healing practices in many cultures. The common belief was that the energy of the body should be in harmony with the mind, body and soul. A doctor only facilitated healing by identifying and removing obstacles that would inevitably lead to healing. Therapy included lifestyle changes, self-care, and preventive measures.
Today, what we know as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has roots dating back 5,000 years to Chinese (Traditional Chinese Medicine), Indian (Ayurvedic Medicine), and similar healing practices. For thousands of years, these diverse medical traditions believed in the energy of the body and the need for harmony between body, mind and spirit. Doctor’s simply facilitated the healing process by identifying and removing obstacles.
For most of the 19th century, physicians used the same skills as today’s herbalists, osteopaths, and dietitians; they were generous with time and empathy, and relied on good manners. Prayer was important, as was “a change of air,” laxatives, bleeds, and leeches. Until the early 1900s, sick people relied on much the same therapies as their ancestors.
The decades after the Second World War brought important changes. As physician and journalist James Lefanu pointed out in his book The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine, written in the 1950s, a series of medical breakthroughs proved conclusively that previous healing attempts were nothing more than quackery. New medical breakthroughs included the discovery of penicillin, cortisone (a powerful anti-inflammatory drug), streptomycin (a powerful antibiotic effective in treating tuberculosis), insulin (to treat diabetes), and chlorpromazine (an antipsychotic that controls schizophrenia). holds). Open heart surgery, hip replacements, kidney transplants, intensive care and successful vaccination programs have saved and improved the quality of countless millions of lives.
It comes as no surprise that such power to change the destiny of man would lead, as Lefanu suggests, “to the abandonment of home remedies such as massage, manipulation, and dietary advice, only to be taken up by alternative practitioners.” This is exactly what happened – with a dramatic explosion in the growth of ‘alternative’ therapies during the second half of the 20th century. Alongside modern medicine, CAM began to develop as an entirely separate discipline – with disdain for the achievements of mainstream medicine, while at the same time being dismissed by mainstream practitioners as ineffective and fraudulent. For most people it was a delicate operation to get the best out of mainstream and alternative medicine. Those who opted for both mainstream and alternative medical care found that the best strategy was to keep quiet to avoid criticism. Those who tried to use both services learned that to avoid criticism.
History of Alternative Medicine
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