Medicine
Medicines are an integral part
of our life. Each one of us is prone to get sick and have to take help of medicine
to get back to normal state. Although our body had its own repair system but medicine
is required to assist our body in the process. Sometimes our body is not able to fight the disease until an external assistance
is not there. Therefore, medicine is a science that is required to maintain and
restore the health of the human body. The word medicine is actually derived from
a Latin word medicina which means the art of healing. Doctor can decide upon the best medicine
that suits a patient depending upon the study and diagnosis carried upon the patient (Wikipedia 2007[online]).
HISTORY OF MEDICINES
The early medicines
were generally made of herbs or animal parts. the doctors in olden times used to study around the locally found plants and
their effects on various diseases. With the advancement of science and the discovery of latest chemicals, the scenario of
the medicine industry has changed drastically. But even today, the herbs and animal
parts form an important part of the medicines where the technology is used to
extract the desired molecules from the herbs and animals (sciencedaily2007[online]).
Main stream medicines
Main stream medicines
are mostly allopathic medicines that are given by most of the doctors and are
more or less common all through out the world. The main stream medicines are made
from chemicals and molecules. the advent if nana-technology and micro biology has opened new fields in this respect and now
medicines are made that are very specific in nature and thus are very effective(Mant 1998).
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINES
There are many main stream medicines that are being used by the patient’s world over to cure the diseases. But there are few old medicines that cure to the diseases and are still very popular among the masses.
Chinese used the ancient technique of acupressure and
acupuncture. The disease here is cured by the use of needles and applying pressure to the key points in the human body. This
alternate medicine is very popular among the people for treating the joint pains
and other ailments that are difficult to cure with the help of main stream medicines.
Few other types of alternative medicines that have gained wide importance and recognition are the use of magnets as medicines to treat various diseases such as blood pressure and heart troubles. There is a wide use of Chiropractic
medicines, this is based on the fact that most of the ailments are related to
spine and can be cured by treating the spine (Larson 2000).
PROPER USE OF MEDICINES
Medicines help the patients to
recover, but at the same time if proper care is not taken while taking the medicines,
it can cause further deterioration of the health. The antibiotics have a defined cycle time and should be administered during
the given time period. The doses should be given according to the specified time duration. The growth of the bacteria is checked
by these medicines and if proper cycle time is not maintained bacteria gathers
immunity against these antibiotics and thus render them ineffective. Also there are various side effects of the medicines that must be well understood before you start any medicines.
References
Thinking about prescribing by Dr. Andrea Mant
Alternative medicine by Christine A. Larson
URL http://www.wikipedia.com[online source]
