Eastern and Western Medicine Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Eastern and Western Medicine - Article Example Western medicine works with the concept of performing different diagnostic tests for detecting pathologies. On the other hand the eastern medicine practitioner would rather check the patient’s pulse, observe the patient’s tongue looking at its shape and color to reach to his conclusion. After finding out the cause and the pathology, the western medicine doctor would prescribe medicine or opt for surgery. The eastern medicine has an entirely different way. According to their view there is a substance known as ‘Qi’ which flows through special channels in the human body. Insertion of needles at these channels affects the flow. This method of inserting needles is used for altering the flow of Qi to organs of the body and different muscles and it is via this way that they treat ailments. This procedure is specifically known as acupuncture. The eastern medicine also uses naturally occurring herbs for its treatment purposes. If a patient is brought in an emergency after an accident eastern medicine is not much effective for him because the patient needs immediate treatment along with blood transfusion if he has had severe blood loss. Doing acupuncture on such a patient would not be a very good step. But for patients who suffer from depression, fatigue and frequent headaches, eastern medicine proves to be very helpful. The reason is that it works more effectively and quickly in such cases whereas western medicine in these cases would delay the process and they have side effects as well. Thus recurrent headaches and other such diseases which require continuous medications should be treated with acupuncture in order to avoid the side effects of the drugs. Athletes also take the benefit of eastern medicine because of its quick response in treating muscle aches by using acupuncture. Chemotherapy for cancer along with acupuncture also is effective to reduce the side effects of the processes. Certain diseases  which have been signified as idiopat hic that is without any underlying reason such as fatigue syndrome can also be treated with acupuncture. But for acute conditions such as acute appendicitis surgery hence western medicine is the only option.