Essay Sample on Modern and Traditional Medicine

Introduction

Traditional medicine and modern medicine are of great significance to the existence of humankind. Traditional medicine, such as traditional Chinese medicine, Kampo, Ayurveda, and traditional Korean medicine, has been practiced for a long period and has evolved to become well-regulated medicine systems (Singh & Sharma, 2018). Humans have used natural products to treat diseases since prehistorical times. They have used plants, microorganisms, animals, and marine organisms to develop medicine. Modern medicine has made it easier to treat complex diseases hence increasing the life span of humans. Traditional medicine used herbs and plants that were not always effective. Modern medicine cannot always cure, but it can reduce pain and improve one's condition. This paper will evaluate the similarities and differences between modern medicine and traditional medicine.

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Similarities Between Modern and Traditional Medicine

The concept of medicine may have begun in the prehistoric periods, as observed in documents obtained from ancient Greek and Babylonian time (Yuan et al., 2016). both modern and traditional medicine work under the same theory to bring recovery to the sick person. Another similarity is that both obtain their medicine from natural material. Traditional medicine was able to obtain knowledge through differentiating between what is edible and what is not. They then used the herbs to treat diseases such as diarrhea after one had ingested something poisonous. Modern medicine also obtains its raw material from nature, but it undergoes changes to develop new drugs.

Active compounds are separated from natural products to make modern medicine. Traditional medicine has also been used extensively in developing new drugs, and it is too important to be ignored. Modern medicine uses the same methods as traditional medicine to determine the materials suitable for developing medicine and the best time to obtain them. Modern medicine also uses herbs and plants to treat diseases, and it is currently used to treat over 1.5 billion people worldwide (Wang et al., 2018). Another similarity is that both require a lot of research before developing a new treatment.

Differences Between Modern and Traditional Medicine

Although modern and traditional medicine has the same objective to save lives, there are significant differences between them. However, it is important to note that traditional medicine forms the foundation for modern medicine and is an important modern medicine component. One significant difference between the two is that traditional medicine works to implement one or a mixture of methods to identify, handle, prevent and preserve the health of human beings through the use of methods that obtain values and information using tones, flowers, pet, and manual methods such as exercises and massage. On the other hand, modern medicine depends on software health technology and biomedical research to analyze and prevent conditions. It includes areas such as the best treatment for diseases that cannot be treated using traditional medicine. Software health technology is also used in surgery to adjust particular body components. Another difference is that traditional medicine uses methods such as herbalism. In contrast, modern medicine uses pills, gels, and fluids developed after extensive research, testing in pharmaceutical labs until 100% accuracy is attained (Canaway, 2017).

The theory of detail reliability, promptness, and emergency is used in modern medicine as it focuses on saving lives. Quick conclusions and correctness are vital to saving a life. Another difference between traditional and modern medicine is in the legal protection given to knowledge. Traditionally, knowledge and experience we shared freely, also referred to as open access. Strict intellectual property laws cover modern medicine. There is also a patenting system that is highly evolved to protect information about medical equipment and drugs (Yuan et al., 2016). There is also a difference between how modern and traditional medicine are practiced. For example, in traditional medicine, medicine is given during a consultation with the patient, while in modern medicine, the dosage and treatment are predetermined. In modern medicine, one has to be tested, and it can not be changed unless it is retested. For traditional medicine, the dosage is not fixed, while modern medicine has fixed doses.

Conclusion

For millions of years, people across the world have healed the sick using herbs and animal-derived remedies passed down from one generation to the other. In Asia and Africa, 80% of the population still uses traditional methods instead of modern medicine to treat their sick. Traditional medicine is also gaining popularity in the western world, with physicians indicating that modern medicine would benefit extensively if integrated with traditional medicine. Modern medicine has played a significant role in developing new drugs that can treat complex diseases that may not be healed using traditional medicine. It has also worked to prevent the spread of some diseases through research to develop vaccines. In recent years, traditional medicine has gained popularity mainly due to the resistance of diseases to modern drugs and the high cost of producing them. Natural products have played a significant role in both modern and traditional medicine. Plants, animals, microorganisms, and minerals have all been used as medicine or source of medicine in modern and traditional medicine. There are also significant differences between modern and traditional medicine regarding how they are practiced, knowledge protection, formulation, regulation, testing, and dosage.

References

Canaway, R. (2017). Integration of traditional and ‘modern medicine: Reflections on a visit to DPR Korea. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 15, 32-38.

Singh, R., & Sharma, B. (2018). Metal-based therapy in traditional and modern medicine systems. In Biomedical Applications of Metals (pp. 195-211). Springer, Cham.

Wang, J., Wong, Y. K., & Liao, F. (2018). What has traditional Chinese medicine delivered for modern medicine?. Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine, 20.

Yuan, H., Ma, Q., Ye, L., & Piao, G. (2016). The traditional medicine and modern medicine from natural products. Molecules, 21(5), 559.