The Pros And Cons Of Traditional Medicine

The debate that encloses the issue about using traditional medication as a primary health care is still prevailing provided the recurring side effects and risks that has been discussed by people all over the world for a long time. People have been taking sides whether to choose the alternative or the conventional method in curing diseases.

Traditional or alternative medicine is “the knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, used in the maintenance of health and in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness” (Galor, 2011, p. 1). Alternative medicine “includes any therapy or remedy that is not generally accepted or provided by the dominant medical establishment in a given culture” (Na, D. & Larimore, W., 2001, p. 2).

Advocates of traditional medicine strongly believe that this type of medicinal treatment is preferable over modern medicine simply because it is derived from natural sources. This implies that traditional medicine has not been interfered by adding chemicals and other elements, which is the main characteristic of modern medicine. Consequently, herbs and medicinal plants were used to treat different forms of diseases and ailments in humans.

Garilli, B. et al. (2015) demonstrates

Traditional medicine is commonly chosen by people to treat common and chronic diseases. The most common traditional medicine users are “rural people, of whom 80% are peasant farmers that prefer traditional treatment due to the low cost of therapeutic methods” (Bodeker, G. et al., 2005, p. 211). Particularly, this is the case in remote areas, where traditional medicine is almost the only choice available for health care. In majority of the cases, people collect medicinal plants in their local area and do not have to spend money. The cost of curing chronic diseases is acceptable and the effectiveness is equivalent to that of the conventional therapeutic