Comment by hariis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hariis | Hacker News Reader

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All the ancient treatment modalities treat the body as a whole. It only makes sense. Holistic care is what is missing in the Western medicine.

Having said that, no one modality is better than the other. Each one has its own place.

There is one more striking difference also between the Western and other modalities and You made it clear by using the word "fix".

For certain conditions, "fixing" does not work. If my arm is broken, sure you can fix it but for chronic conditions, certain lifestyle changes will have to be made and that requires the individual to be willing to undertake shifts in their behavior. For example, what you eat, when you eat, where you eat, how the food is cooked, when you sleep, the ambiance of your work, home and not to mention exercising etc.

So in that sense, the holistic medical practitioner becomes more like a guide and the individual takes on a active role.

For most people, this is too much to do. So they prefer Western Medicine where the mindset is, someone is going to "fix" me while I am busy with my life getting stressed up. The role is passive. Big difference.

It is funny that Western Medicine practitioners are called doctors whereas holistic practitioners use the term heal and are called healers. (The root of the word heal is related to whole)

To be fair, Western medicine has completely eradicated multiple fatal viral epidemics, developed a rather good series of antibiotics to handle bacterial infections of all kinds, kept a lid on flu epidemics year after year, and made vast strides in the treatment of multiple cancers.

Now that Western medicine has got most of the low-hanging fruit and is now banging its head on the hard problems, it may appear to fall short in the "what have you done for me lately?" sense. But that's just because we take it for granted that we aren't going to get polio or smallpox.

I thought that was the parent's point -- Western medicine has done superb work for acute diseases and injuries, but doesn't have solutions yet, and may not even have the right approach, for chronic ones.

Western medicine works pretty well for a lot of chronic diseases, actually. A few blood tests and a daily pill are all I have ever needed to take care of mine. Show me a working alternative treatment for not having a functional thyroid gland and I'll reconsider my opinion.[1]

A lot of Western treatments for chronic conditions aren't that great, but is there anything that's been proven better? It's not exceptionally pleasant for people with sleep apnea to have to wear masks and have pressurized air blown into their breathing passages at night, but at least they get some real sleep. Living with diabetes still sucks, but wouldn't it suck more without the treatments scientific medicine has developed?

[1] "Western medicine" is really a bad name for it. My specific condition was first discovered by a Japanese doctor, hence the name Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

While I cannot address your particular conditions since I am not qualified, what I can tell you is that alternative treatments generally require you to change your lifestyle along with the pills - and it is mandatory and not optional and hence the results vary from person to person. Hence it cannot be proven in a way a pill alone can be. Examples of lifestyle change would be reduce your anger, be more understanding, take walks in the nature etc. In essence, The treatment is a guide while you fix yourself. Are you getting me? This is the underlying philosophy of all the ancient treatment modalities of every civilization.

Any doctor would recommend most of those as well. The effects of exercise and reduced stress on overall health are very well documented, along with the effects of eating properly.

Of course, that's not going to accomplish anything if my immune system has decided to destroy my thyroid gland, or if a stray gamma ray or two has turned a lump of otherwise-useful tissue into a malignant tumor, or if my breathing passages are shaped in just the right way to obstruct my breathing at night.

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