Alternative Medicine vs. Western Medicine

Alternative Medicine is Preventive; Western Medicine is Curative by Daryl Kulak

Have you heard the term “wellness?” It has two contexts, one in alternative medicine and one in Western medicine.

In the alternative medicine world, wellness means taking care of yourself so you don’t get sick. Let’s find ways to avoid cancer, heart disease, mental illness. We can do this through changing our diet, exercising more, and changing our energy fields.

In Western medicine, we wait until we get one of these diseases, then we rush heroically to “beat the disease.” In Western medicine, the term wellness means “early detection” of disease. If you walk into a “Wellness Center” in a hospital, you’ll see mammogram screening rooms, MRI machines and other tools to scan for the existence of disease.

Differences Between Alternative Medicine & Western Medicine

Alternative Medicine is Holistic, Western Medicine is Reductionist by Daryl Kulak

The major difference between alternative medicine, or what I’ll call holistic health, and Western medicine, is in approach.
A Western doctor, or MD, sees his duty as searching out disease, diagnosing it, and treating it. If he does that correctly and effectively, he’s done his job. Most often, this means the doctor prescribing a pharmaceutical drug or a surgical procedure to remedy the situation. The patients is passive in all of this.

A holistic health practitioner sees her duty as an educator and a facilitator. She feels that the body can heal itself, and it doesn’t necessarily need outside influences (drugs, surgery) to heal from an illness or to prevent an illness. In holistic health, the patient is an active participant.