How good and effective is Alternative medicine as compared to the other one?

If you are wanting to cure something then you should avoid both and read the book by Aajonus Vonderplanitz about diet. "let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food". What he says is so simple and so obvious. He has a 96% cure rate with the people he works with. You should have just about as good success just by reading his book and following what is written there. He doesn't sell supplements, or recommend them and, he cures people that the doctor's can't. The guy is a genius.

I made the decision to use only alternative medicine without any drugs of any kind. My doctor told me that if I did not use her medicine I would seize up and not be able to move at all. I had chonic pain for over 3 1/2 years and was in a medichair to get around. Today I have no chronic pain, out of the medichair and doing my yard work. I have a friend with the same problems and they have her on heavy meds and just keep raising the dosage, she has developed other health issues, which I am sure came from the side effects of her drugs. I look and feel better since my alternative choice.

I personally believe that Alternative medicine is the best way to go.- I always use Alternative medicines for myself and also my children mainly because the Alternative way pin points to the root of the problem, unlike medicine or drugs you get from the doctor which only covers over the top of the problem and you will most likely find that the problem will keep comming back again and again so the more you take the drugs, the more you are bunging up your body with something that the body is actually trying to get rid of. But as I said earlier- The Alternitive medicine, what ever it may be, this will always go straight to the root of the problem and will make you feel better alot more quickly in the long run than the "other stuff"...

Wow. After reading the previous 7 answers, I don't even know where to start. Every post so far is entirely wrong. Reading all this BS all at once is giving me a headache. Most of these responders all have good intentions, but they all have one thing in common, none of them have any background in science. And I won't single anyone out on this, but some of these people are downright stupid, rather than just uneducated and misinformed. The notion that medicine only masks symptoms is downright false. If anything, the drug pinpoints the chemical process that is causing the illness and alters it to bring back the normal functionality of the chemical process, but the drug will also have some additional effects on other chemical processes in the body that may not have been desired. That is why these effects need to be considered with a risk/benefit ratio, by a qualified medical scientist (not an Alt Med "doctor"). I know and have met many "doctors" of alt med, and their levels of scientific and medical knowledge are at best marginal, but often times downright poor. Alt Med nearly always claims to have one single treatment that cures all disease - a panacea. The methods by which alt med works is usually by a magical theory of wellness that is unscientific and not plausible. Alt Med is an umbrella term that incorporates any treatment that anybody can invent out of their imagination. It doesn't have to and almost never is subjected to scientific scrutiny (whereas real Medicine is always subjected to scientific scrutiny and comes to be from the scientific process). When scientific tests prove that the Alt Med treatment doesn't work, the Alt Med proponents ignore the scientific findings and dogmatically adhere to it anyway. Real medical doctors do not have a dogmatic approach to medicine. Their treatment decisions rely only on scientific evidence, and their treatments will evolve and change over time as new evidence is brought to the table. Whereas, Alt Med therapies are invented by some non-scientist scam artist that ignores what we have learned over the past 100 years and begins only with his wildest imagination, incorporating some magical elements to it, and that treatment that he conjured up while he was stoned will remain unchanged no matter what scientists continue to learn through the years. There are mounds of data that prove that Alt Med is almost always entirely ineffective, and only rarely slightly effective, yet people will use it and swear by it anyway. Your family member's success story is irrelevent for many reasons - placebo effect, law of big numbers, etc... Only controlled scientific studies should be considered when evaluating these options. The reason Alt Med is so widespread is that it all (no matter what it is) caters to the widespread ideology that people tend to have a hatred for the "establishment". It's easy to sympathize with the little guy, and hate the gov't or big corporations, or agencies, or whatever. But the question about health, needs to be evaluated independent from your political ideologies. Many people are unable to do that. I personally have a very strong background in science and medicine, and I don't even like big corporations. It is important for me to think objectively and scientifically, not dogmatically. In my objective point of view, I think Alt Med is total BS and shouldn't be given a free pass into the field of medicine. If it can't stand up to scientific scrutiny, then it isn't science. That same reason is why I don't want the Bible being taught in high school biology class. It isn't science.

Can you separate anger from your body. Can you separate cruelty, bloodshed, killing, revenge, and the kind of emotions from your body? Can you seperate love, neutrality, peacefulness and the kind of emotions from your body. Can you seperate the thoughts to beat, thoughts to fight, thoughts to revenge, thoughts to defeat, thoughts to win etc from the body? No you cannot. Body is an integrated whole containing all these emotions and their repercussions on the body. In the same way as offence,defence, neutrality, management, peace, love, etc cannot be separated from the body, these aspects cannot also be separated from the treating systems and the mind behind the treating systems. The conventional methods is a method which believes that germs invade the body kill us through inflicted diseases, and before they kill us let us kill the germs, the conventional system believes in suppression, management, attack, cutting, surgery, joining, removing the blood and filling, adding fuel, adding vitamins, adding,...... subtracting cutting away limbs and the kind of imageries.

Many of the alternate system of medicines believe in neutralising stimulating, rejuvenating, adding live to the life force and thus metamorphising a morbid or diseased state into a healthy state.

Both the defensive system of medication, offensive system of medication and neutral system of medication are required for the body and mind of human beings. To say one is better than the other or we can do without one or the other are foolish thoughts. What we need is an integrated system of medicines where all possible approaches are used. We should be creating a healthy society rather than curing diseases or preventing diseases. All ailments have its roots in the individual body and not outside the body. Germs in millions enter each body everyday in and out. Some body accept the germs some others do not. Germs never attack, germs only settle because it has been accepted by the body. Germs attack only if hostile atmosphere is present, germs do not attack if natural atmosphere is present. Our intention by saying and creating a healthy body is to create an natural ecology inside thebody, inside the stomach so that the germs do not settle. There are some exceptions in the germs, which are incorrigible, that is where we need offensive system of medication i.e. the present conventional system of medication.

Alternate system of medication aim towards homeostasis. That is the body in harmony within itself and its surroundings. If that is achieved, no ailments can touch that body.

Have you tried alternative therapies? Are you looking to take charge of your own health. I've taken daily supplements for the past 14 years and have noticed a reducement in colds or getting sick and much higher energy level both physically and mentally.

Functional/Nutritional Medicine - belief that the bodies natural state is to be healthy. By feeding your body nutrient dense whole-food you can reach homeostasis. It all starts with a healthy digestive tract, with taking digestive enzymes and probiotics. If you sincerely want more information contact me, and I'll supply you with more free information so you can make your own decision. HillmanC@ymail.com

I have been on them for over 15 yrs & don't think I would be alive if stayed under prescription meds.Plus only 1 0f one million drs seem to know their butt from a hole in the ground.They partied in med sch instead of studying.