A Beautiful Collision: Alternative Modalities and Biomedicine

A Beautiful Collision: Alternative Modalities and Biomedicine Brynn Wajda Traditional and alternative medical approaches are increasingly being investigated, analyzed, and used as either substitutes for or complements of science-based biomedicine. While each of these forms of medicine has distinct philosophies, objectives, shortcomings, and strengths, alternative medicine seems to be gaining more acceptance, recognition, and respect as a viable healthcare option. Not only are biomedical forms of care beginning to adopt several of the fundamental values of alternative medicine, but alternative modalities are progressively being utilized in response to the limitations and inadequacies of biomedical practices. Based on its viewpoints and approaches to treatment, alternative medicine is often used to manage various diseases and conditions which are deemed incurable by biomedical standards. Likewise, its separation from the technological, corporate, bureaucratic, and scientific forces which often plague biomedicine has enabled alternative medicine to develop into a practice that offers a more thorough, personal, and preventative mode of healthcare. As such, alternative therapies are enabling people to “expand their horizons beyond the absence of disease to a state of ‘super health,’ encompassing physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.” Ultimately, patients would receive the most comprehensive form of care from a therapy that integrates the advantages of both biomedical and alternative health systems.