It sounds like an interesting exploration, your dissertation. I wonder what modalities you studied and would be interested in that.tjportugal wrote: ↑28 Apr 2020, 06:09 alternative medicine does not treat the root of the disease but rather tackles the symptoms;
dealing with the symptoms and the side effects of chemotherapy may have a huge impact on how patients deal with the therapy;
having an impact on the patient's psychology, alternative medicine may actually have a huge impact on the outcome of the therapy;
I agree that there is an important use for holistic medicine in treating symptoms. Alternative/Integrative/non-traditional/holistic medicine is more about an orientation to treatment than a rule about treating symptoms or causes. The intention is to affect the core cause of illness. In the process, symptoms can be targeted. Chinese medicine (acupuncture, etc) works with balancing the energetic meridians that are at the core of health. It may be used to alleviate pain or nausea and it works well for those conditions. So yes, symptoms will be affected. The difference is, these treatments have the implicit added bonus of targeting the origin of the symptom. Meditation might be suggested to treat anxiety or insomnia. There is a definite cause-effect relationship because it is often successful. Due to the chemical and energetic changes in the body when practicing meditation, underlying the symptom treatment, there is a deeper transformation that will affect the health of other systems.
Certainly non-traditional treatments may be called on to treat pain or other symptoms. But to say "alternative medicine does not treat the root of the disease but rather tackles the symptoms," is missing the forest for the trees and is a leap that is not based in fact or research. Thanks for the dialogue.