The Emerging Alternative Medicine Market and the Future of the Healthcare Industry

I wrote my paper regarding the emerging alternative healthcare market, and the future of the more conventional healthcare industry. It is important to understand though why this new market is emerging and what these two markets represent. In this paper, I wish to share with the reader my skepticism of why the emerging alternative medicine market is looked down upon by the more conventional healthcare industry. There are three alternative medicinal treatments I wish to share that I support the use of as well as those targeted most by the more conventional healthcare market. In the end however, I see both as being beneficial and I would rather see that the two work with each other rather than against each other, so both forces can be complementary on the improvement of the health of the patient.

Conventional Healthcare is essentially Western Medicine. It is largely impersonal medicine whose assessments are based largely on objective measurements and analysis of the patient's biological functions. Patient involvement in the assessment and treatment process is minimal. Western Medicine of course essentially represents our Western Culture as well. Our culture is a fast paced culture, when someone is depressed they go to a psychiatrist and he prescribes them antidepressants to make the patient happy, when someone is sick in the hospital and is recovering after surgery health insurance only covers said hospital for a short amount of time and then ousts the patient out of the recovery room when perhaps they should have stayed in their longer. The same holds true of people who are in Mental Health settings, when once they meet after a certain number of times, just as soon as some progress is being made the healthcare provider will simply discontinue their coverage. This quick pace, get healed quick mentality of ours in the West is what I believe to be the more Conventional or Orthodox Healthcare Market.

Alternative Healthcare is a response to Our Western Mindset. It is largely holistic, seeing the patient less like a body and more like a person, therefore making this kind of medicine more personal, whose assessments and treatments are based more so on a balance between objective and subjective evaluation of not merely the biological functions, but also other aspects of the human person such as, psychological, social, and emotional health too. Patient involvement in the assessment and treatment process is more active, then in the conventional healthcare setting. This more active involvement, I believe helps the patient learn more about themselves and treatment options, thus in the long run provides a crucial outlet in learn personal responsibility, for one's health. Alternative Healthcare is not merely the opposite of the West, thus making it "Eastern" but it is all-embracing of several world cultures including forgotten Western Alternatives, such as sound therapy of Pythagoras, or contemplative prayer of early Christian Mystics.

When it comes to alternative medicines that go outside the norm of conventional bounds there are three I am most drawn to, they are Colloidal Silver, Herbalism, and Contemplative Meditation. Colloidal Silver can be made by purchasing a Colloidal Silver Generator and putting two thin silver rods [preferably, .9999 Fine Silver] into distilled water, not tap water. The Colloidal Silver is believed to have the ability to act as an Antiseptic, but it can also kill antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. Among other reported benefits of Silver use, it can kill most pathogens that infect humans, however the FDA said that more extreme claims, such as its ability to act as a wound healer and act as a cure for AIDS and Cancer, make some people suspicious of Colloidal Silver, but these reports usually come from those researchers who work in the very Corporations who benefit largely off of the more commonly known and more expensive Cancer and AIDS Therapies.

The next alternative medicine that I am in large support of is Herbalism, which is by definition the use of plant and plant extracts to treat or even prevent certain illnesses. It cannot be denied that the most socially charged herbal remedy for today is the use of Marijuana to treat certain diseases and some research is showing to even prevent certain diseases as well. However there are also other less known and often attacked Herbal Remedies because they proclaim to offer a cure to the very diseases that the Conventional Healthcare Market has been "unable" to find a cure for. The number one herbal remedy I speak of is Vitamin B-17 which comes from processing the seeds of most fruits, however it is warned that these seeds when eaten in large quantities can also kill you, but in moderate amounts may just work wonders as well, I refer the reader to the film, "A World without Cancer" by G. Edward Griffin. Another potential source for more effective Cancer Treatment can also be from Daffodils, which release a compound called narciclasine, this was only announced in the beginning of November 2010. It is the belief of many herbalists that, nature will provide the necessary cures and treatments needed to fix ailments that ultimately derive from Nature itself.

The final alternative medicine that I come in support of is Contemplative Meditation. Many today assume that meditation is simply an Eastern Practice and that the West has no practice of its own, however this is not the case, during my own time of searching for Western Spiritual Practices from Judaism, Christianity [with particular focus on Christian Mysticism] and Sufism, I found that the West has its own original spiritual practices, two of which I have become most interested in is The Centering Prayer of Western Christianity and the Hesychasm of Eastern Christianity. Both are designed to encourage mindfulness and stillness, this I see as something best for the mental health of the individual acting on these practices, I also have learned that there is many different forms of prayer, for not all prayer is verbal. The point I want to make here though is that there is a scientific basis in these practices, despite what the Conventional Healthcare establishment would want us to believe. In psychology it is called, Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR), it has been shown to improve the health of all aspects of the human person (in the body by elevating a better immune system, in the mind by stress reduction itself and adaptability to ones environment), of course most spiritual practitioners point out that these are not ends in themselves but only fruits that come along the journey.

It is my belief that these potentials for new ways of seeing the world threaten the old paradigm and in effect the established marketplace to get treatments. While there are a slew of other alternative medicinal treatments in both the physical and mental aspects there is too much to mention here. It is my belief that the establishment is threatened for the following reasons. The first reason is that, Conventional Healthcare has held a tight grip over The West for about 200 Years or so, it was difficult journey towards realizing this, and I believe that many in this market are not willing to share the market space that it worked so hard to establish. The second reason, of course begs the question of the first reason and that is, "What if the alternative medicines are more effective in combating certain illnesses and diseases of the body?" This of course only means that the Conventional Healthcare Industry would need to share the marketplace. For example, what if it is true that instead of going through expensive chemotherapy that may not work on a patient, the patient could drink a prescribed dose of colloidal silver for a set amount of time, or a tincture of daffodils, or go through Vitamin B-17 Treatment? Maybe even use these treatments to compliment pre-existing treatments as well, either way this would cause a profound shift in where the money is being spent and perhaps even saved.

The final reason is one where I look at the political realm; our Nation simply is not structured in a manner to allow for the alternative medicine market to grow and become a more effective market to allow for further research and development, because most corporations use the Conventional Healthcare models. They use their economic influence in the halls of power (e.g. The FDA or the political process) to put pressure on the emerging marketplace and in effect either push the research underground which only slows the research and production of said services and items in the first place, casting a social stigma on top of it as well, making alternative healthcare users look like, "pot-smoking hippies." Such news does not surprise me for there are bills on the books designed to control the Alternative Healthcare Market (see, S. 425 '" Food Safety and Tracking Improvements Act and S. 510 Food Safety Modernization Act), and by controlling its availability you make it more expensive, for some in this country perhaps the best they could afford is alternative healthcare.

In the end I do not seek to have these two fight against each other, rather I seek to have these two be used in unison with each other to complement each other. Western Medicine I believe needs to go through a paradigm shift, its praxis was used during a different era of awareness, our awareness has dramatically shifted over the past 200 years, and yet we are still stuck in this old praxis and theory of how we view the patient. This does not mean alternative markets are absolutely good and benevolent either, for because it is a new and emerging market it is more so subject to frauds that can and will make promises and sell miracle cures that cannot be made. However, I have not become as cynical as those who defend Western Medicine, thinking that alternative medicine is ineffective in assessing and treating a slew of human illnesses and diseases.