Sun Shower Blog: Medicine: Traditional Vs Alternative (An Inside Look)

Here you won't read about someone who sees the world just as black or white. Therefore, if you're passionately in favor or against mainstream or alternative medicine, you should probably stop reading right now and start looking someplace else.

Having said that, what you will read here is the experience of someone who has tried both kinds of treatments and has seen the upsides and drawbacks of the two approaches.

Personally, I've been suffering from two different chronic conditions for about 5 years. And this is one of the main reasons why people feel attracted to what it's called traditional or natural medicine in the first place. Because of the fact that they're incurable these days and the drugs you have to take cause all sorts of undesirable side effects. Trust me, I know about this only too well.

General practitioners and specialists can't usually spend as much time as it would be ideal with their patients, and we end up feeling as if they don't truly care enough about us.

So, what to do when we feel desperate to find a solution to our problem? It's simple, we all know someone who's absolutely into alternative medicine and says nothing but wonders about it. And guess what? We give it a try with the hope of finally finding a cure to something where mainstream medicine has completely failed.

The outcome varies depending on the kind of 'miracle-maker' you're consulting, the treatment and our personal illness. Just like I told you at the beginning, world is not just black or white. There are tons and tons of greys and for some people herbal medicine (also known as old wive's tales), homeopathy or reflexology are the Holy Grail, whereas for others -me included- these types of natural solutions have proved to fail over and over again, with some exceptions, though.

Greys. The physiotherapist who have been treating me for over a decade is the perfect example of the mix between mainstream and alternative treatments. Physiotherapy mingled with other techniques such as osteopathy and acupuncture have proved utterly effective when it comes to relieving some of the pain I bear on a daily basis.

However, trying to deal with I.B.S. (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) with chronic constipation, haemorrhoids, and a daily chronic tension headache whose inception was a migraine caused by an overly high prescribed dose of antibiotics to treat a U.T.I. (Urinary Tract Infection) as a result of a renal colic with homeopathy... Well, I think it's self-explanatory. For me, and as a consequence of having tried what a highly popular homeopath here in Tenerife explained that I should do after over 2 months, was nothing but seeing my symptoms and problems worsen quite seriously.

On the other hand, and as you've just read, my headaches were caused by a doctor who prescribed me a terribly wrong dose of antibiotics and, moreover, the fact that it became chronic was the outcome of not having been prescribed the right kind of drug when it began. Therefore, I don't think we should always trust our doctors blindly without checking for ourselves or trying to ask for a second opinion, or doing something as simple as ask our pharmacist.

If I had known as much as I do now about my issues back then, I wouldn't have reached this 'critic point' and I'd be able to carry a rather 'normal' life.

To sum up, do what you think it's more appropriate. However, I urgently recommend you to always do a thorough research beforehand and inform both your doctor and alternative 'healer' of what you're taking and trying to achieve. Be realistic, a cancer won't be healed by a homeopath, and taking pills is not always the best approach to relieve a backache.

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