Allopathic vs Ayurvedic Medicine
Allopathic (Western, Modern) Medicine: Disease Management Ayurvedic Medicine (Evidence Based Integrative): Health Management.
Traditional medicine is the origin of Allopathic (Modern) medicine while Traditional medicine is an integral part of Ayurvedic medicine.
Modern Medicine can be defined as “A system in which medical doctors and other health care professionals (such as nurses, pharmacists, and therapists) treat symptoms and diseases using drugs, radiation, or surgery.” (ref NCI) Starting with a traditional approach of care and cure, science has evolved, more drugs were created and it became too often a business focusing on symptoms (diseases) and money making.
(World Health Org.) defines Traditional Medicine as “the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures that are used to maintain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat physical and mental illnesses.” Traditional medicines are not simply a “thing of the past,” or the mechanism of dealing with illness before the introduction of Western medicine. Traditional medicines are still first-line healthcare for 75 percent of the world’s population.” Ayurvedic medicine is an evidence-based health system with the focus on care and healing.
Now what differentiates both medical systems? Two paths: disease or health
Disease and Health concepts
Ayurveda addresses the root of diseases. Cause of diseases is not only physical; in general it starts at deeper levels, the solid structure being the last step in its progression. Body and mind have a limited vocabulary to express dis-eases. The body’s voice to communicate that something is wrong is called symptoms in Western medicine and imbalances in Ayurveda. Ayurveda seeks health (balance) and Western medicine seeks management of diseases.
Statistical vs individual approoach
Modern Medicine relies on biostatistics (probabilistic statistics) to design experiments, to collect and to interpret data, to determine how diseases develop, progress and spread, to develop drugs, which is not an individualized approach. Biomedicine generally looks for the one treatment that will benefit the highest number of people with a particular disease.
Ayurvedic medicine is a comprehensive medical system that combines preventive strategies, lifestyle, diet guidance, and healing protocols with individualized treatments. The approach to each person is unique to bring balance and health.
Therapeutics
Western medicine treats diseases mainly with biochemical tools. It started with medicinal herbs, then introduced man-made pills in 1st AD, went on extirping “active chemicals” from plants, to mass–producing (penicillin in the 20th Century), to synthesis of new chemicals and bioengineering (pharmacogenetics and thousands of chemicals/drugs in the 21th Century). (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_drugs_by_year_of_discovery) Drugs/chemicals were originally to cure diseases not for continual use…
Ayurvedic therapeutics is based on the relationship between the patient and their environment. Health is the natural end result of living in harmony with your own Self and what surround you; disease is the natural end result of living out of harmony. Healing is the process of returning to harmony. Use of medicinal plants has been dated as early as 60,000BC, and herbal teas, poultices started around 2,000BC. Management of health is done through medicinal herbs, lifestyle, diet and detox/rejuvenative therapies.
Philosophy & Spirituality
Ayurveda is based on Sankhya philosophy which teaches that the ego or sense of individual Self (self-esteem) has to be healthy to produce a healthy body. Health in Sanskrit is Svastha which means established in the self. Health is restored through restoring balance amongst mind, body, spirit, community and harmony with the environment. “Western medicine has a philosophy based on a technocentric approach – the body is a machine…” (ref. Google) and something is “going wrong” with the body…
Conclusion
The Ayurvedic understanding of imbalances offers a sensitive and integrative approach. The two medical systems are complementary. Health is balance, fulfillment, progress considering human beings as a whole!