Medicine

Medicine is used for health and disease.

Medicine can be something healthy used for healing, growth, and development of the body, mind and spirit or non-healing such as a drug, device, or therapy that intervenes with the causes of disease, sickness, illness and infection. 

All forms of medicine use the scientific method for understanding how something supports, maintains and promotes healthy performance of states, systems, organs, glands and tissues or medicine is a non-healing form that uses drugs, devices, and therapy as methods for treating and managing diseases and conditions.

There are many forms of medicine: some medicine is accessible to everyone, such as positive thinking, eating well, taking dietary supplements, and choosing healthy lifestyle habits. Other forms of medicine have developed systems that are practiced, which are based on colors, crystals, prayer, ritual, music, energy, herbs, and essential oils.

For example, China and India have both highly evolved healing systems of medicine that have existed for over 5000 years. In the previous 500 years, pathology has been increasingly seen as non-healing medicine for intervening in the causes of diseases. Modern science has developed the laboratory and biochemical examination of foods, herbs and the folk uses of healing medicine, with nutrient science and herbal medicine.

Major Systems of Medicine:

• Allopathy
• Nutrition
• Herbal
• Classical Chinese
• Ayurveda

Allopathic Medicine: 'Modern medicine', 'western medicine', and/or 'medical healthcare' represents the allopathic concepts of diagnosing the causes of diseases and conditions for treatment interventions and management. Allopathy and all the forms of 'alternative medicine' use the study of pathology, which is disease theory, that borrows from many types of science for integration into biomedical models, such as bioscience and biochemistry. The 'germ model' of disease is included in theoretical pathology.

Allopathy intervenes with diseases using drugs, devices, procedures, therapy, and counselling, but also includes a broad range of quack medicine used by doctors to treat and manage disease.

Nutrition: The nutrition in food contains a plethora of essential nutrients, such as protein, fats, vitamins and minerals, which are studied for how they work with and promote health. Nutrition includes the idea of eating complete balanced meals for greater density of nutrients to support a healthy weight and promote bodily performance. Nutrient science uses biochemistry, along with observational studies, to confirm how the structures and functions of the body and nutrients work together for optimal health.

Herbal Medicine: This is the theoretical and scientific study of how unique constituents found in plants, animals and other edible foods work to support health. Folk and indigenous medicines find roots in herbalism, where the medicinal properties of foods and herbs are used for health. Modern science examines the biochemistry of food and herbal constituents and confirms the use of these medicinal remedies through observational studies. Herbal medicine should not be confused with drugs made from herbs.

Classical Chinese Medicine: An ancient system of balancing the forces of nature with the body using concepts like the 'five elements', 'qi', 'yin' and 'yang'. Classical Chinese medicine includes food, herbalism, non-medical acupuncture and other techniques; like Korean and Japanese systems. Classical Chinese Medicine is not to be confused with the modern branch of allopathy called 'Traditional Chinese Medicine' that uses herbal patented medicines, which are classified as drugs, and other forms of therapy to treat and manage diseases and conditions.

Ayurvedic Medicine: Studies long life and healthy living, balancing the natural elements in the body using foods, herbs, lifestyle, and yoga; through a highly evolved system of interpreting energies through observation. Ayurveda is a system based in the 'doshas' or foundational elements of air, fire, and water. Ayurveda balances uneven imbalances that are not easily interpreted into disease interventions; nor does Ayurveda combine well with the allopathic medicine theory of pathology.