Oriental medicine and holistic nutrition

From the West we have been trained under the conception of Western medicine, characterized by the use of pharmaceutical drugs and surgical interventions to treat symptoms and diseases. Our medicine is very controversial, as many accuse big pharma of being an industry more focused on selling drugs than on truly solving our medical problems.

The opposite side of Western medicine is known as Oriental or traditional medicine, where traditional Chinese medicine is one of the most popular. Traditional medicine responds to a millenary culture that follows the tradition bequeathed by their ancestors, experience and popular wisdom.

During this guide we will be addressing some of the essential concepts that you should master about oriental medicine. We will also see what role it plays in holistic nutrition.

Oriental Medicine

Oriental medicine, traditional or Chinese medicine as it is also called, is a way of dealing with diseases and offer solutions to these, for it is not usually made use of industrial drugs, but folk remedies, spiritual techniques and medicines based on plants or animals.

Oriental medicine does not escape criticism from the scientific community. Many practices carried out by it do not have scientific backing, but are based on mysticism, religious or pseudoscientific beliefs.

This has caused that for Western medicine, Oriental medicine is not considered as medicine, this being one of the reasons why Western doctors are totally forbidden to recommend or prescribe solutions that come from this, except in very few cases, where the techniques used if they have studies and scientific basis.

Is Oriental Medicine useless?

Oriental medicine, as we have said before, has little scientific basis in many of its practices, although it is clear that this does not mean that we should consider it useless or discard it completely. To recommend or not the use of Oriental medicine is a task that must be done with great responsibility.

The truth is that there are remedies within this side of medicine that have shown to be truly effective as substitutes for drugs, such is the case of the use of natural herbs or spices to treat diseases such as flu or stomach problems. Logically, this has given rise to a whole branch of independent study known as natural medicine, which has more and more support within the scientific community.

The negative side of oriental medicine would be precisely the exposure to fall into unscientific practices that may end up exposing our health. That is why we must be very cautious when using this style of medicine.

Oriental Medicine and Holistic Nutrition

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