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Conventional Medicine is a system in which medical doctors and other healthcare professionals (such as nurses, pharmacists, and therapists) treat symptoms and diseases using drugs, radiation, or surgery. Also called allopathic medicine, biomedicine, mainstream medicine, orthodox medicine, and Western medicine.
Premises and Assumptions of Convectional Medicine
One of the important characteristics of western medicine is the belief that diseases are caused by identified physical factors. Western medicine identifies the causes of disease as pathogens (such as bacteria and viruses), genetic factors, and unhealthful lifestyles that result in change at the molecular and cellular levels. In most cases, the focus is primarily on the physical causes of illness rather than mental or spiritual imbalance. Features that distinguishes western biomedicine from other medical systems is the concept that almost every disease is defined by a certain set of signs (physical manifestations) and symptoms (the effects on an individual), and that they are similar in most patients suffering from the disease. Western medicine tends to treat diseases as biological disturbances occurring in humans, rather than being integral in some way to the individual with the illness.
A disease can be caused by either internal or external factors. Internal factors include anatomic or physiologic abnormalities, and defective genetic, hormonal, and immune mechanisms. External causes include infections by bacteria and viruses, and some cases of traumatic injury. The public health measures of the 19th and 20th centuries, chlorination of drinking water, sewage disposal, food safety regulations, vaccination programs, education about hygiene were an outgrowth of this orientation.
Western medicine is based on the scientific method of obtaining knowledge and explaining health related phenomena using scientific explanations that have these characteristics:
Empirical: based on the evidence of the senses and on objective and systematic observation, often carried out under carefully controlled conditions.
Rational: they follow the rules of logic and are consistent with know facts.
Testable: they are verified through direct observation or they lead to predictions about what should occur under conditions not yet observed.
Parsimonious: explain phenomena with the fewest causes.
General: have broad explanatory power.
Rigorously evaluated: are constantly evaluated for consistency with the evidence and known principles, for parsimony and for generality.
Tentative: scientists are wiling to entertain the possibility that their explanation are faulty, based on new, better or connected evidence.
Western medicine translate the scientific method into practice through the research process, highly refined and well-established approach to exploring the causes of diseases and ensuring the safety and efficacy of treatment.
Pharmaceuticals and the Placebo Effect
Researchers hypothesize that positive expectations of a medications effect may results in changes in nerve and muscle activity or in electrical or chemical activity in the brain. A positive aspect of the placebo effect is that a sense of confidence in a provider and hope about a treatment can add to the benefits of the treatment itself. Anatomy, physiology, emotions, hope, beliefs and expectations all contribute to the way the body reacts to medical treatment and utilizes its own healing mechanisms.
Providers of Convectional Medicine
Premises and Assumptions of Convectional Medicine
One of the important characteristics of western medicine is the belief that diseases are caused by identified physical factors. Western medicine identifies the causes of disease as pathogens (such as bacteria and viruses), genetic factors, and unhealthful lifestyles that result in change at the molecular and cellular levels. In most cases, the focus is primarily on the physical causes of illness rather than mental or spiritual imbalance. Features that distinguishes western biomedicine from other medical systems is the concept that almost every disease is defined by a certain set of signs (physical manifestations) and symptoms (the effects on an individual), and that they are similar in most patients suffering from the disease. Western medicine tends to treat diseases as biological disturbances occurring in humans, rather than being integral in some way to the individual with the illness.
A disease can be caused by either internal or external factors. Internal factors include anatomic or physiologic abnormalities, and defective genetic, hormonal, and immune mechanisms. External causes include infections by bacteria and viruses, and some cases of traumatic injury. The public health measures of the 19th and 20th centuries, chlorination of drinking water, sewage disposal, food safety regulations, vaccination programs, education about hygiene were an outgrowth of this orientation.
Western medicine is based on the scientific method of obtaining knowledge and explaining health related phenomena using scientific explanations that have these characteristics:
Empirical: based on the evidence of the senses and on objective and systematic observation, often carried out under carefully controlled conditions.
Rational: they follow the rules of logic and are consistent with know facts.
Testable: they are verified through direct observation or they lead to predictions about what should occur under conditions not yet observed.
Parsimonious: explain phenomena with the fewest causes.
General: have broad explanatory power.
Rigorously evaluated: are constantly evaluated for consistency with the evidence and known principles, for parsimony and for generality.
Tentative: scientists are wiling to entertain the possibility that their explanation are faulty, based on new, better or connected evidence.
Western medicine translate the scientific method into practice through the research process, highly refined and well-established approach to exploring the causes of diseases and ensuring the safety and efficacy of treatment.
Pharmaceuticals and the Placebo Effect
Researchers hypothesize that positive expectations of a medications effect may results in changes in nerve and muscle activity or in electrical or chemical activity in the brain. A positive aspect of the placebo effect is that a sense of confidence in a provider and hope about a treatment can add to the benefits of the treatment itself. Anatomy, physiology, emotions, hope, beliefs and expectations all contribute to the way the body reacts to medical treatment and utilizes its own healing mechanisms.
Providers of Convectional Medicine
- Medical Doctors: practitioners who hold a doctor of medicine (MD) degree from an accredited medical school. Requires three to eight years of school and residency beyond undergraduate premedical education.
- Doctors of Osteopathic medicine: receive their education and training at an osteopathic medical school, where there is an emphasis on structural and functional relationships and a whole person approach to medicine. MDs and ODs are the two types of Physicians in the US who are trained and licensed to perform surgery and prescribe medication.
- Podiatrists: practitioners who specialize in the medical and surgical care of the feet. They hold a doctor of Podiatric Medicine Degree (DPM).
- Optometrists: practitioners trained to examine the eyes, detect eye diseases, and treat certain vision problems. They hold a doctor Optometry degree (OD).
- Dentists: focus on the care of the teeth and mouth. They are graduates of four year dental schools and hold the doctor of dental Surgery (DDS) or doctor of medical dentistry degree (DMD).