Many people turn to alternative medicine because of wanting their provider to see them as a unique individual. Yet, the reality is that individualization matters in both conventional and alternative health care.
One of the poorly-understood problems with applying the findings from conventional medical research studies is that the findings reflect group averages, not information about individual patients. It really isn?t possible to know if the statistics apply to you or not.
Interestingly, a prominent academic geneticist from Duke University and reportedly worldwide vice-president of genetics at a leading pharmaceutical company was quoted as saying the following:
The vast majority of drugs ? more than 90 per cent ? only work in 30 or 50 percent of the people... I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 percent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work in everybody.
What are conventional medical researchers doing about this alarming situation? They are starting to look at our individual genetic patterns to determine which drugs are most likely to help which people. Right now, the reality is that medical doctors have to use trial-and-error decision-making to choose the next drug option. So, it is coming full circle. Conventional medicine is recognizing the need to individualize treatment for different people with the same diagnosis. And they are working towards developing methods to do so for their primary therapeutic tool, drugs.
One of the strengths of many alternative medicine approaches is that they already individualize ? and they don?t need genetic tests to do so. They can use information that they can get from interviewing, observing, and examining the patient. Established alternative medicine systems such as acupuncture, classical homeopathy, and Ayurveda, have systems for evaluating the person as a whole to determine the optimal interventions in an individualized way.
The potential advantage of alternative medicine individualization over genetics tests is that the systems of care are well developed already. They don't rely on extensive and hard-to-get laboratory tests that are still in mostly research stages and that, in the end, may only tell the doctor how a person might respond to a specific drug for a specific problem in a specific body part. Although there are definitely situations when conventional medication is the way to go, the alternative health care systems can address health problems of the individual person now. The goals are to improve the well-being of the person as a whole, not just a particular body part.
Finally, even when drugs are essential (and many times they are to stay alive), people still want something more than just a treatment for a disease. That is, they want to go beyond merely surviving and reach a state of wellness or even flourishing. Alternative approaches are better suited to help develop that positive dimension of health care.
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Iris R. Bell, MD PhD is an alternative medicine researcher, author, and educator. Discover a self-empowering system for treating arthritis with her new multimedia program, available at http://www.arthritiscaremap.com