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Why learn about Traditional Medicine?
Western Medicine is superb at trauma management, at the treatment of all types of serious injuries, and the management of advanced disease. However it is terrible at prevention, the focus of western medicine is on the management of symptoms as opposed to healing the underlying cause. It is reductionist, reductionism being the philosophical belief that understanding a complex system is best done by breaking it into smaller, more manageable parts, and studying those parts. Basically it is the belief that the whole is nothing more than the sum of the parts. Reductionism is the opposite of wholism.
There are still many people in our world who cling to the idea that western medicine and the reductionist approach are all that is needed to fix all that ails us. If that is so, why are illness and disease rates rising so quickly? Here are some facts about the current health of the population in our country. Depression rates are rising, rates of obesity are rising, rates of diabetes are rising, the rates of heart disease are rising, and the dependence on pharmaceuticals by the US population is increasing.
The facts about depression: About 9.5 % of the US population over the age of 18 are affected by some form of depressive disorder (approximately 18.8 million people). (1) The rate of increase of depressive disorders in the US pediatric population between 1998 and 2002 was 23%. (1) The rate by which the use of antidepressants by children and adolescents increases annually is 9.2 %. (2) At this time, approximately 4% of all preschoolers, over 1 million children, are diagnosed as being clinically depressed. (1)
The facts about heart disease: It is the leading cause of death for both genders in the US. It costs the US tax payers more than $258 billion /year. It kills almost 700,000 people per year, in fact approximately 29% of all deaths are heart disease related. (3)
The facts about obesity: The prevalence of obesity has increased significantly since the 1970's for The US population. Among adults aged 20-74 years the prevalence of obesity increased from 15.0% in 1980 to 32.9% in 2004. For children aged 2-5 years, the prevalence of being overweight increased from 5.0% to 13.9%; for those aged 6-11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 18.8%; and for those aged 12-19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.4%. (4)
The facts about diabetes: From 1980 through 2005, the number of Americans with diabetes increased from 5.6 million to 15.8 million. In 2005 20.8 million people, 7.0% of the population, have diabetes, 14.6 million people are diagnosed, 6.2 million people are undiagnosed. In 2000, an estimated 35 million adults aged 40-74 had Impaired Fasting Glucose. 16 million people had Impaired Glucose Tolerance. 41 million people had prediabetes. About 176,500 people aged 20 years or younger have diabetes. About one in every 400 to 600 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes. In the last 2 decades type 2 diabetes has been reported among U.S. children and adolescents with increasing frequency. This is a disease usually diagnosed in adults aged 40 years or older. No data currently exists to determine the extent to which type 2 diabetes has emerged among U.S. children and adolescents, but researchers at CDC estimate that among new cases of childhood diabetes, the proportion of those with type 2 diabetes ranges between 8 percent and 43 percent.
The facts about pharmaceutical use in the US: We seem to becoming more and more dependant on them. The rates of people ages 20 to 44 using cholesterol lowering drugs rose from 2.5% to over 4%(roughly 4.2 million Americans) between 2001 and 2006. (5) In the same population, in the same time period the use of blood pressure controlling medicines rose 21%, approximately 8.5 million Americans. Among people 65 and older BP lowering drugs use increased by 9.5%, Cholesterol lowering drugs by 52%. (5) The use of Diabetes drugs increased 5.1% between 2005 and 2006. (6) It is expected that the amount of money we spend on Diabetes drugs in the U.S. will increase 60-68% between 2006 and 2009.(6) Even our food is getting more dependant on pharmaceuticals: Between 2005 and 2006 there was approximately an 8.1% increase in antibiotics sold for use in farm and companion animals. The Overall rate of antibiotic use in humans has decreased, except for in the food supply. Antibiotic Use in agriculture is a contributing factor in rates of VRE, and other resistant strains of bacteria.(7) And too many of us are dependant on drugs for emotional concerns: Among 1 in 10 U.S. women now take an antidepressant. Between 1994 and 2002 the rate at which US adults were prescribed antidepressants tripled. Between 1994 and 2002 Pediatric use of antedepressants also tripled, now about 6% of children are prescribed antidepressant medications. (1)
In western medicine we are highly focused on the concept of curing, confusing it with the concept of healing or just flat out ignoring healing as a concept. Western medicine is superb at vaccinating us, at saving lives when the body has been very compromised, but rarely does it get at the root of the cause of the illness. In traditional thinking illness starts in the spirit first, and/or in the emotional realm, and if left unaddressed it becomes physical. So if the emotional and spiritual aspects of an illness are not addressed along with the physical, it is believed a person will again become ill in some way even if the illness at hand is resolved. Our society and our medical society are changing. More and more people are accepting that the reductionist model doesn't really work well in the true promotion of health and well being. So people are focusing more on holistic health practices an orientation which promotes the taking into account of whole systems , rather than exclusive focus on the individual parts. The holistic approach holds the belief that the essence of the system can not be understood by merely analyzing its individual parts. Reductionism is good for figuring some things out, such as the functioning of machinery, However the natural world, as well as all living beings, are complex.
It is time for western medicine to acknowledge its limitations, and look to our forbears and our ancestors to help us heal our very sick population, our very sick planet. By turning to the wisdom contained in traditional medicine practices with humility and respect we can begin to learn how to change the dismal direction in which our society is heading. It is time to honour our traditional and indigenous elders, and learn from them.
references:(1) http://www.upliftprogam.com/depression_stats.html#statistics. (2) Trends in the Use of Antidepressants in a National Sample of Commercially Insured Pediatric Patients, 1998 to 2002 by Thomas Delate, PhD, Alan J. Gelenberg, MD, ValarieA. Simmons, MS, and Brenda R. Motheral, PhD. Psychiatric Services, April 2004, Vol 55, No. 4. (3) http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm. (4) http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/index.htm (5) Cholesterol Drug Use Rising Regularly in The Young, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21534447 (6) Diabetes Drug Spending May Surge 70% by 2010 http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Health/2007/7-05-17-DiabetesDrug.htm (7) Trends in Savings of Lifesaving Animal Medicines Continue, by the Animal Health Institute, www.ahi.org
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