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A Comparative of Alternative and Traditional Medicine

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Submitted By rockinsjgirl
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Different views of medicine from different parts of the world are coming together to enhance our ability to battle disease and live optimal healthy lives. Two of the more common fields of medical thought are holistic medicine and allopathic medicine. The two terms allopathic medicine and holistic medicine are becoming more relevant when it comes to making proper health care decision.
Allopathic medicine is the practice of conventional medicine that uses pharmacology active agents or physical interventions (like surgery) to treat or suppress symptoms or pathophysiologic processes of disease. Holistic medicine represents the idea that all the properties of a given system (physical, biological, social, etc.) cannot be truly determined or explained by its component parts alone. Instead, the system as a whole determines how the parts function together.
Holistic medicine approaches your health by looking at the whole person, mind, body and spirit. It incorporates traditional medicine and also attempts to go beyond it by focusing on the "mind/body connection." This means that you focus on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of yourself as you work with your health-care provider to determine the root causes of your illness and find solutions through allopathic and/or alternative medicine.
A holistic approach prescribes lifestyle, diet and activity plans that will promote overall health for the long term. The main emphasis in this health model is prevention of illness and proactive healthy living, and most solutions offered involve using natural products or physical adjustments intended to return the body to its intended healthy state so the body can heal itself.
The concept of holistic medicine has been around for about 5,000 years. It originated in India and China, where it was a philosophy that a person should be treated medically as a whole and live

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