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 Promotive
Medicine This
aspect of medicine aims at strengthening the body & mind
against diseases and is effective when a person is healthy in a
holistic & general sort of way.
A healthy balanced diet (including milk
& milk products, fresh seasonal fruits, fresh
vegetables or lean meat or fish that has adequate amounts
of carbohydrate protein, & fats) taken on time 3 to 4
times a day
Exclusive breast feeding till 6 months for
newborns (including
colostrums) supplementary foods after 6 months
A stress free work environment, socially
useful work, quality family time & entertainment
Regular exercise such as brisk walking for
30 -40 min or Yoga & Tai Chi are some alternatives
depending on your age, beliefs and disposition. These can
well be alternated with outdoor games & sports,
aerobics, jogging, swimming, and dancing as per personal
preferences.
Essential Food : water soluble vitamins like Vit B
(Green leafy vegetables) & C (citreous fruits)
in a diet, fat soluble vitamins like Vit A
(yellow fruits, carrot, papaya, egg yellow), Vit
D (Exposure to sunlight) , Vit E (Code & Fish
oils) & Vit K, elements like adequate
iron, folic acid, calcium, iodine, zink and trace
elements, amino & fatty acids
Good hygiene, dental care, hand washing,
safe drinking water, adequate sanitation are essential to preventing diseases
Traditional home remedies for minor ailments
including traditional systems of medicine
Preventive
Medicine The rationale for preventive
medicine is to identify risk factors in each individual and reduce or eliminate
those risks in an attempt to prevent disease. Primary prevention is the
preemptive behavior that seeks to avert disease before it develops—for example,
vaccinating children against diseases. Secondary prevention is the early
detection of disease or its precursors before symptoms appear, with the aim of
preventing or curing it. Examples include regular cervical Papanicolaou test
screening and mammography. Tertiary prevention is an attempt to stop or limit
the spread of disease that is already present. Clearly, primary prevention is
the most cost-effective method of controlling disease e.g. Immunisation against specific diseases for
children & adults - BCG vaccination against
Tuberculosis, OPV/IPV, DPT, Measles, Hep B, Hib, yellow
fever, cholera, typhoid, chickenpox among others. Drugs for specific disorders when at risk
e.g. Vit A to prevent night blindness, malaria
prophylaxis, HIV/AIDS post exposure prophylaxis, Rabies
vaccine etc.
Curative
Medicine This
aspect of medicine aims at curing diseases that have already
happened and generally this is what comes to mind whenever
medicine is mentioned. However, this is only one of the lines of
medicine that help with minimizing the effects of diseases after
they have already happened. Treatment of
various communicable & non communicable diseases and
problems
Rehabilitative
& Palliative Medicine
This aspect of medicine deals with the after effects (Rehabilitation e.g.
physiotherapy after paralysis) of diseases after they have already happened or
the care of a terminally ill patient (Palliative : Management of pain for a
advanced cancer patient not likely to survive).
 Cosmetic
medicine & surgery
There are now aspects of medicine that do not deal with illnesses per say but
work on enhancement of physical aspects such as cosmetic surgery e.g. cosmetic
treatment
Faith
Healing is more a belief rather
than actual treatment, a placebo? or the healing of
one's belief and mind. Something that modern science does not believe in
and it certainly has variations form places to place and time to time.
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The right approach to Medicine Traditional
home remedies, modern medicine, exercises, attitude,
environment, work, family, friends and all have roles to play and
overlap promotive, preventive and curative aspects of healing.
All systems of medicine, Homeopathy, Allopathy, Ayurveda, Yunani,
Siddha, Chinese, acupressure & acupuncture, including yoga
and many other systems of medicine have their own strengths
within the realm of health & healing and should never be
discarded. Their limitations should however be recognized and
judicially embraced along with their power. Alongside faith,
belief, & spirituality that looks through the heart, the
facts, proven clinical trials & collective experience i.e.
logic should guide the selection of these for solving a medical
problem.
Holistic
Medicine a doctrine of preventive and
therapeutic medicine that emphasizes the necessity of looking at the
whole person, his body, mind, emotions, and environment, other than at an
isolated function or organ and which promotes the use of a wide range of
health practices and therapies. It has especially come to stress
responsibility for “self-healing,” or “self-care,” by observing the
traditional commonsense essentials of exercise, healthful diet, adequate
sleep, good air, moderation in personal habits etc.
The term holistic medicine became
especially fashionable in the late 20th century (the International
Association of Holistic Health Practitioners was founded in 1970,
assuming its current holistic name in 1981). In its underlying
philosophy, in emphasizing the provision of whole care to a person or
patient, holistic medicine is not new, being inseparable from any
traditional health care of good quality. Holistic medicine in extreme
instances, however, has tended to equate the validity of a wide range of
schools or approaches to health care, not all of them compatible and
some of them competitive, some scientific and some unscientific.
Although mainstream Western medical practices are not ignored, they are
seen as only one part of the available therapies and by no means the
only effective ones. Congresses and conferences on holistic health have
thus drawn not only representatives of medical schools and institutions
but also advocates of such widely varying concepts as acupuncture,
alternative childbirth, astrology, biofeedback, chiropractic, faith
healing, graphology, homeopathy, macrobiotics, megavitamin therapy,
naturopathy, numerology, nutrition, osteopathy, psycho calisthenics,
psychotherapy, self-massage, shiatsu (or acupressure), touch encounter,
and yoga. "holistic medicine."
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Medical
History
More attractive to mid-19th-century
Americans were various non-exercise treatments, cures, and dietary
schemes designed to encourage overall health and well-being.
Naturopathy, including such practices as
hydrotherapy, electrotherapy,
herbal medicine, nutrition, massage,
and
homeopathy, drew on the Hippocratic
notion of the healing power of nature and the capacity of the body for
regeneration. One early health reformer was
Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian
minister who preached temperance and advocated a vegetarian diet, sexual
restraint, and water (bathing) treatments. He is best known as the
inventor of graham crackers, made from whole-wheat flour.
Ellen White, an advocate of
vegetarianism and hydrotherapy, was a
founder of the
Seventh-day Adventists, a religious
group that embraced naturopathy and claimed to enjoy better health than
the general population. With her husband, James, White created the
Western Health Reform Institute; it was later appropriated by
John Harvey Kellogg, an eccentric
physician who started the first sanatorium at Battle Creek, Michigan.
Proper diet, regular exercise, correct posture, fresh air, rest, and
avoidance of “unnatural” sexual practices formed the “Battle Creek
Idea.” Kellogg's sanatorium accommodated several thousand health seekers
annually, many of whom were rich and famous. In 1894 he and his brother
William also devised a flaking process for ready-to-eat cereals. Along
with associate
Charles W. Post and quixotic
nutritionist Horace Fletcher, the Kelloggs brought about greater dietary
consciousness and fostered the beginnings of the health food industry.
These physical culture innovations were
complemented by advancements on other fronts, including the formation of
the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
(1874) and the
Anti-Saloon League (1893), both based
in Ohio. In 1866
Mary Baker Eddy, once a sufferer from
poor health, believed that she had experienced physical regeneration
through spiritual revelation. This healing through the “Divine Mind” led
her to found
Christian Science (1879) in Boston.
Hydrotherapy, avidly practiced by the
ancient Greeks and popularized by the Romans at such resorts as Bath,
England, enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the 19th century in the
form of “water cures,” first in home-based versions and later at
mountain retreats and spas in New York, West Virginia, Arkansas, and
Georgia. Here the middle and upper classes could escape the stresses of
urban and industrial life by “taking the [mineral] waters.” Naturism (or
nudism), instituted in 1903 in Germany,
was a controversial offshoot of this same search for health and freedom
from the inhibitions of modern civilization. Eventually the body, and
even sex, would be approached in a more open manner.___________________________________ |
