"Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability or evidence of effectiveness."
Explore the integration of Ayurveda with modern medicine, including how Ayurvedic principles can be applied in conventional healthcare settings.
Ayurvedic Philosophy: The basic principles and philosophy behind Ayurveda.
Tridosha theory: Understanding the three doshas and their balance.
Ayurvedic Constitution (Prakriti): Learning about the different body types or dosha types.
Ayurvedic Diet: Understanding the role of food in Ayurvedic treatment and prevention.
Ayurvedic Herbs: Learning about the different herbs used in Ayurvedic medicine.
Ayurvedic Massage: Understanding the techniques and benefits of Ayurvedic massage.
Ayurvedic Lifestyle: Understanding the role of lifestyle habits in Ayurvedic medicine.
Ayurvedic Treatment Modalities: Learning about the different treatment options in Ayurvedic medicine.
Diagnosis and assessment: Understanding the diagnostic process and assessment tools used in Ayurvedic medicine.
Modern Medicine: Learning about the concepts and practices of modern medicine.
Integration of Ayurveda and modern medicine: Understanding how Ayurveda and modern medicine can complement each other to provide better healthcare services.
Ayurvedic Pharmacology: Understanding the pharmacology and pharmacokinetics of Ayurvedic formulations.
Clinical trials of Ayurvedic medicine: Understanding the process of clinical trials and research of Ayurvedic medicine.
Safety concerns: Learning about safety concerns and drug interactions associated with Ayurvedic medicine.
Legal Aspects of Ayurvedic medicine: Awareness about the legal frameworks govern the practice of Ayurvedic medicine, licenses, and certification requirements.
Charaka Samhita: One of the oldest and most influential texts in Ayurveda, it focuses on internal medicine and is considered the foundation of Ayurvedic therapy.
Sushruta Samhita: This text is primarily focused on surgery, including techniques for performing various types of surgeries.
Ashtanga Hridaya: It is a comprehensive text that covers all aspects of Ayurvedic medicine, including diagnosis, treatment, and philosophy.
General Practice: A branch of medicine that involves treating patients for various illnesses and injuries.
Internal Medicine: A branch of medicine that specializes in understanding and treating diseases of the internal organs.
Surgery: A branch of medicine that focuses on performing surgical procedures to correct medical conditions or injuries.
Pediatrics: A branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents.
Obstetrics and Gynecology: A branch of medicine that specializes in the female reproductive system and pregnancy.
"Unlike modern medicine, which employs the scientific method to test plausible therapies by way of responsible and ethical clinical trials, producing repeatable evidence of either effect or of no effect, alternative therapies reside outside of medical science and do not originate from using the scientific method."
"Frequently used terms for relevant practices are New Age medicine, pseudo-medicine, unorthodox medicine, holistic medicine, fringe medicine, and unconventional medicine, with little distinction from quackery."
"...alternative therapies rely on testimonials, anecdotes, religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural 'energies,' pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, or other unscientific sources."
"Research into alternative therapies often fails to follow proper research protocols (such as placebo-controlled trials, blind experiments and calculation of prior probability), providing invalid results."
"Much of the perceived effect of an alternative practice arises from a belief that it will be effective (the placebo effect), or from the treated condition resolving on its own (the natural course of disease)."
"In the absence of this bias, especially for diseases that are not expected to get better by themselves such as cancer or HIV infection, multiple studies have shown significantly worse outcomes if patients turn to alternative therapies."
"Some alternative therapies are actively harmful (e.g. cyanide poisoning from amygdalin or the intentional ingestion of hydrogen peroxide) or actively interfere with effective treatments."
"The alternative medicine sector is a highly profitable industry with a strong lobby, and faces far less regulation over the use and marketing of unproven treatments."
"Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), integrated medicine or integrative medicine (IM), and holistic medicine attempt to combine alternative practices with those of mainstream medicine."
"Traditional medicine practices become 'alternative' when used outside their original settings and without proper scientific explanation and evidence."
"Alternative methods are often marketed as more 'natural' or 'holistic' than methods offered by medical science, that is sometimes derogatorily called 'Big Pharma' by supporters of alternative medicine."
"Billions of dollars have been spent studying alternative medicine, with few or no positive results and many methods thoroughly disproven."