Discuss the safety and effectiveness of alternative and complementary medicine for the treatment of specific
illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. Share your opinions about holistic and allopathic care.
Would you have any conflicts or concerns supporting a patient who chooses holistic or allopathic medicine?
Reply to at least two other student posts with a reflection of their response.
I just attached two discussions to make a reply to each one. Each reply should include 200 words and a minimum of two references in APA 7 format within the last 5 years.
Plagiarism must be less than 10 %
Peer 1 Heidy:
Effectiveness of alternative and complementary medicine
The medical field’s main goal is to help people heal and relieve pain. Several approaches can be used to achieve these goals. These approaches include complementary and alternative medicine. Complementary and alternative medicines entail practices that are out of standard medical care offered by medical doctors with master’s and medical degrees. They include body-based practices like therapy and biologically based practices like dietary supplements (Adeniyi et al., 2021). Even though some complementary and alternative medicine approaches have proved safe and useful, some have proved harmful and ineffective.
Many cancer patients use alternative and complementary medicine to manage symptoms like fatigue and nausea. Therapies like meditation and acupuncture have proved useful in managing cancer symptoms. However, some alternative and complementary therapies have been found to interfere with treatment, causing harmful side effects and making these approaches less effective (Sheikhrabori et al., 2018). Regarding hypertension, intake of biologically based practices like taking grains, fruits, and vegetables have proved to help lower blood pressure. Further, alternative and complementary approaches like meditation help lower blood pressure among patients with hypertension. Most diabetic patients have been found to use Complementary and alternative medicine therapies to reduce the risk of complications and manage their blood sugar levels.
Holistic and allopathic care.
Allopathic care treats diseases using chemicals to relieve symptoms. On the other hand, holistic care focuses on healing a whole person, including emotion, the spirit, body, and mind. Both allopathic and holistic care are significant and have their place in healthcare. The best approach should be guided by specific health needs and individual patient desires (Orsow & Waterman, 2020). Allopathic care can be used for emergencies or specific health problems, while holistic care can effectively prevent disease, manage chronic conditions and promote overall well-being.
As a healthcare provider, I would not have any conflict with patients who prefer either holistic or allopathic medicine. This is because both approaches effectively promote health and have their role in promoting care (Orsow & Waterman, 2020). The main thing to keep in mind is that the goal of any form of care should be to offer evidence-based care that is patient-centered and aligns with patients’ health needs, goals, and values.
Peer 2 Norely:
Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) refer to medical approaches and activities that are not considered to be part of standard health care. The approaches and activities of CAM include practices such as massage, tai chi, yoga, acupuncture, and many others. In recent times, many people are starting to include these approaches in their treatment plans, especially for chronic illnesses (Dermody, 2021). For instance, patients with cancer tend to prefer including these activities to help them cope with the treatment and also improve the cancer symptoms. The safety of these approaches has become one of the most popular topics in healthcare. There has been researching aim to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of these approaches. Some of the effective and safe CAM approaches include acupuncture, yoga, and meditation (Dufter et al., 2021). On the other hand, these evaluations carried out have also been able to find sufficient proof that other approaches are effective and because of this, they have been labeled harmful.
There are several reasons why people recently are opting in including CAM approaches in the treatment or management of their chronic illness, especially cancer treatment. There has been no proof to indicate that these approaches prevent or even cure cancer, but most patients prefer the inclusion of CAM to cope with the treatment. Treatment of cancer has multiple side effects such as fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and chronic pain (Dufter et al., 2021). People usually use these approaches to help them feel better and continue with their normal life. Some studies have indicated that these approaches have been able to provide patients with relaxing abilities and hence reduce psychological stress. In most cases, CAM approaches are opted for because of their ability to calm the emotions of the patients, relieve their anxiety, and increase their general sense of health (Dermody, 2021). In recent years, many healthcare professionals, including nurses have been interested in how CAM activities and approaches help patients in their healing process.
Holistic care is designed to focus on prevention. This approach does not entail the prescription of medication and because of this; people tend to prefer to use allopathic care (Dermody, 2021). As an experienced nurse, I have no conflict or concern supporting a patient who opts for holistic or allopathic care because they all aim to promote health. As a nurse, I have come across many patients and individuals who prefer holistic care because it allows the body to improve its immune system and fight disease. All of these approaches play a vital role in promoting health.
Discuss the safety and effectiveness of alternative and complementary medicine f
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