New Definition of Alternative Medicine

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defined healthcare as the prevention, treatment and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions. If we follow this definition of medical care, then alternative medicine would be seen as the use of other means, either as a complement or in place of conventional orthodox medical care. This nomenclature and definition have relegated natural medicine to a second class status and unfortunately, this has been accepted by almost everybody involved.

Most of the prejudice about natural medicine (or alternative medicine, if you want), is grounded on the premise that the procedures and substances employed are not scientifically proved, as far as modern science is concerned. But the fact remains that, if we look deep enough, there is countless research and evidence to prove the efficacy of most natural cures. Talking about scientific proof, you and I can name a couple of orthodox drugs that were certified safe and good for consumption by all agencies involved and later recognized to be damaging to health, after countless innocent people had lost their lives or suffered debilitating disabilities as a result of these drugs.

Natural medicine, for the great part, is concerned with maintaining health and preventing illness instead of managing diseases. Nature is replete with substances, herbs, just name it, that when effectively used, can guarantee that you will hardly fall sick. Besides herbs and other natural substances, natural medicine can boast several procedures that have been shown to be very effective. Let’s talk acupuncture for example. This simple procedure has been in practice for over two thousand years and has remained as effective as ever. Long before modern medicine, acupuncture practitioners realized that there are several energy pathways in the body and by interrupting or stimulating energy flow across these pathways, the body is stimulated to enhance self healing, improve body function and provide an overall boost to the body system.

Look at massaging or yoga that have even been accepted by most medical practitioners as a complement to orthodox medicine. These procedures have been proved to be effective both in improving mental and physical health as well as emotional health. There are also innumerable nutritional supplements made with natural substances that are known to promote health and prevent several disease conditions. Although modern science would want us to believe that these procedures and substances are not medically or scientifically proved to be safe for consumption, one reasonable question to ask is whether the medically or scientifically proven orthodox drugs have been really safe.

So far, one can conveniently conclude that orthodox and natural medicines are both man’s attempt to ensure better health, making use of the intelligence and materials that nature has provided him; thus, one approach might not be placed above the other, both should be seen as different approaches to the same problem.

The Elderly’s Mental Health

Mental illness generally is more prevalent in the elderly than in the rest of the population, but this figure can hardly be surprising. Far too many elderly people live on their own. They no longer can, nor wish, to work. They have to watch relatives and friends of their own age die off, leaving them more and more isolated.

Nevertheless, we’ve all heard it said many times that you should plan for retirement. People tend to leave their jobs and careers behind them as though a great weight has been lifted from their shoulders. You certainly can’t blame them for that. If they’ve managed their affairs sensibly, they have a nice pension on which to live, and glorious days of golf, or sitting with their feet up on the front porch with a nice glass of scotch, stretch like a golden road before them. Now all that’s fine for those who can afford the lifestyle, but how about the poor old chap who’s stuck on Social Security, or the widow who’s husband died and left her without a penny?

All the more reason why people should plan for the years when they’re no longer working. That being said, so many don’t. Dr. Gary Kennedy, director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Centre in the Bronx, makes it clear that depression is not a normal nor inevitable part of growing old, nor is it harder to treat. It is, however, the most prevalent illness.

We’ve noted that so many older people live on their own and if they’re of an introverted nature, and have no-one to care for them, or even to look in on them to make sure they’re all right, then the world simply passes them by. Dr. Kennedy points out, too, that they can commit a sort of passive suicide. They stop eating, or at best survive on snacks. They stop taking their medication and become dangerously sedentary.

He recommends that they should be screened periodically, so that it may be ascertained that they’re not completely losing interest in life and heading into a dangerously depressed state which may lead to suicide.

Alcohol, too, can play an injurious part. After all, the poor old person’s all alone. No-one visits them and all they have are the ghosts of the past. These spectres are made more real, perhaps, with the help of a bottle of scotch. Maybe the faces become clearer, the old times come alive again. The main problem is that falls can result because of their drinking, and who’s there to pick them up?

Alzheimer’s goes without saying, but other dementia can take their toll, two in particular. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a viral infection which can lead to a rapid downward spiral. Medications, too, can cause problems. These days, it seems, more and more medications are being dished out and someone elderly, with a slower metabolism, can experience toxic levels of these drugs more quickly. This means that the drugs can interact, causing mood changes and symptoms of dementia.