The Health System

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The Health System

• Joe Bartolotta
• Rowan University
• HES

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Medical Options

• Conventional
• OR
• Orthodox Medicine

• Alternative
• OR
• Complementary Medicine

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What is Conventional Medicine ?

• Conventional medicine is comprised of drugs that
  restricts the body's natural immune responses or
  bodily effects.
• A branch of health science medicine interested
  with the maintenance of personal health by
  restoring/treating disease.
• Medical Doctors (M.D.) believes medicine is both
  an area of knowledge (a science), and the
  application of that knowledge.
• According to the National Cancer Institute,
  Conventional Medicine is a working association
  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 Western
  medicine, mainstream medicine, orthodox medicine,
  biomedicine, and allopathic medicine.
• Links
• www.WebMD.com
• www.medicinenet.com
• www.healthline.com

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What is Alternative Medicine ?

• Complementary or Alternative Medicine is a
  group of diverse medical and health care systems,
  practices, and products that are not presently
  considered to be part of conventional medicine.
• Both alternative and complementary medicine use
  similar remedies to treat various health
  conditions. The only difference is that
  alternative medicine is often used instead of
  conventional medical practices. Complementary
  medicine is used in addition to conventional
  medicine, not as a substitute. The field of
  complementary and alternative medicine is simply
  known as CAM.
• Links
• 
  
  www.AlternativeMedicine.com
• 
  
  
• 
  
  www.gifam.org
• 
  Global Institute for
  Alternative Medicine
• 
  
  
• 
  
  www.healthbulletin.org
• ALTERNATIVE HEALTH USING FOODS INSTEAD OF DRUGS

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Alternative vs. Conventional Medicine

• Conventional Western medicine is organized around
  the Theory of Diseases, which believes that a
  person becomes sick because he or she contracts a
  disease. In this model, each disease is seen as
  an independent entity which can be fully
  understood without regard to the person it
  afflicts or the environment in which it occurs.
  Conventional treatments are treatments of
  diseases, not of people.
• Alternative systems of healing supply a
  perspective that can help to reverse the "one
  size fits all" philosophy of conventional medical
  practice. All alternative systems of healing,
  ancient or modern, share one common
  characteristic which separates them from
  conventional Western medicine. They all approach
  sickness as a dynamic event in the life of an
  individual, a problem of balance and
  relationship, the result of disharmony between
  the sick person and his or her environment. This
  approach to understanding illness is called
  biographical. In the biographical concept of
  illness, the "disease" itself has no independent
  reality. The healer's job is not to identify and
  treat the disease entity, but to characterize the
  disharmony of each particular case, so that they
  can be corrected. These disharmonies are
  described differently in different cultures.

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PROs/CONsAlternative Medicine

• Alternative and Complementary Medicine (CAM)
  offers a broad range of medical and health-care
  practices, beliefs, and products used for
  prevention and treatment of disease. CAM
  represents a system of care that emphasizes the
  wellness and healing of the entire person as its
  primary goal, drawing on both conventional and
  CAM approaches in the context of a supportive
  patient-physician relationship.
• Safety By receiving Alternative Medical care you
  can be assured that treatments are safe and wont
  interfere with conventional care.
• Enhanced Communication Alternative Medical
  practitioners will communicate with your
  conventional health-care providers to make sure
  that everyone is working together for your
  benefit.
• Better Care The care you receive is improved
  because it is overseen and coordinated by a
  physician.
• Individualized Care The care received will be
  designed to meet your physical concerns, cultural
  and spiritual beliefs, and emotional needs.

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PROs/CONsConventional Medicine

• Conventional Medicine, on the other hand, does
  not significantly acknowledge the power and the
  truth of nature.
• To the contrary, it has mutilated and
  embroidered the truth beyond recognition.
• Overall, it actually maximizes the irrelevant
  issues and sidetracks the important ones.In
  other words, it majors in the minors, and minors
  in the majors. 
• Conventional Medicine tends to view all living
  species from their fragmented parts,rather than
  as completeindividual creatures of nature.
• See for yourself Natural Medicine vs
  Conventional Medicine, Alternative Medicine,
  Health And Disease, God And Nature

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What do the Experts Say

• Explore the different types of complementary and
  alternative medicine.
• Complementary and alternative medicine
  What is it? -
  MayoClinic.com
• Educating yourself Complementary and Alternative
  Medicine
• Complementary and alternative medicine Evaluate
  claims of treatment success - MayoClinic.com

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Cost Effectiveness

• Many people are researching alternative health
  solutions today, while looking for some much
  needed changes in their health care.
• Information overload is absolutely mind boggling,
  and there are as many conventional medicine
  choices as there are alternative ones.
• Did you know that...?
• 1. The pharmaceutical industry grosses more than
  100 billion annually just in the U.S.
• 2. About one-fourth of the prescription drugs in
  the U.S. are plant based.
• 3. There are more than 80,000 various plants
  used in the world today.
• 4. Herbal remedies Alternative Medicine are
  main forms of medicine for 3/4 of the entire
  world.
• More people are turning towards herbal medicines
  for healing different health problems because
  they desire a more natural form of health-care.
• The main reason alternative remedies are
  particularly beneficial is because they treat the
  cause of the disease the person, instead of
  the effect of the disease the symptoms.
• Another good thing about alternative remedies is
  that they have less chance of side effects
  compared to conventional synthetic medications.

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Recent Studies

• Abstract Why Patients Use Alternative Medicine
  Results of a National Study, May 20, 1998, Astin
  279 (19) 1548
• Utilization of Complementary and Alternative
  Medicine by United States Adults Medical Care -
  Abstract Volume 40(4) April 2002 p 353-358
• Results from the 1999 National Health Interview
  Survey
• Official Journal of Medical Care, American
  Public Health Association
• In attempts to improve health and combat illness,
  approximately
• 4 out of 10 Americans will use a complementary
  and alternative medicine (CAM) therapy this
  year.
• Bruce Barrett, MD, PhD
• Assistant Professor of Family Medicine
• The University of Wisconsin

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Learning the basics

• Finding a Doctor
• InteliHealth
• Selecting a Practitioner
• Selecting a CAM Practitioner
• What the Public needs to Know
• Bioterrorism and CAM Consumer Advisory
• NCCAM Health Information

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• A question worth thinking about
• Why has Modern Western Medicine which is five
  hundred years old at most come to be seen as
  traditional, whilst Indian Ayurvedic or
  Traditional Chinese Medicine a form of
  Alternative Medicine which both boast rich
  histories spanning thousands of years have been
  deemed alternative, or at best complementary
  ??????!
• Because
• In the long run, you the health consumer must
  assess your situation and evaluate whether or not
  you require certain services as opposed to an
  Alternative Method.
• International Authority Director of the
  University of Arizona Program on Integrative
  Medicine comments
• "Integrative medicine is the future, and our
  health care institutions will not survive without
  it.
• The integrative approach is based on a
  partnership of patient and practitioner in which
  both conventional and alternative modalities
  are used to stimulate the body's innate healing
  potential.
• -Dr. Andrew Weil
• Advocate on Alternative Medicine

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THE END