In the modern world, owing to rapid improvement of science and technology, there are various therapies in the world that may be more useful than common remedy. Many people think of proceeding in opposite directions, due to the fact that they do not use traditional medical treatments, instead choosing alternative healing methods. There are many reasons to prove that eating habits could possible affect health. Moreover the dietotherapy has been popularized recently. Therefore, there has been a wave of diet changes sweeping across the planet, which some have branded a ”new-age diet revolution”. Firstly this essay will cite two instances to state that role of alternative diet style in present age, such as dietotherapy of hypertension and utilizing diet to heal cancer. Finally, this will canvass the reasons of alternative therapy has became growing popularity and what it should be heed.
Alternative treatments play a significant role in the therapeutics of illness. For this reason, some maladies can not be cured by modern medicines including the incurable diseases and ailments, hence mankind tries to find other methods. Moreover, most alternative therapies are not only foundation of science but also have higher actual example of cure rate. There are two illustrations to support this theory.
First of all, high blood pressure is a serious problem in present people. Causes of high blood pressure are reason for people who are obese, excessive consumption of alcohol, lack of physical activities and stress or some uncontrollable factors such as race, genetics and age. According to researches some herbal medication can lower blood pressure naturally. (
http://www.azwellness.info/symptoms/high bloodpressure.htm ) For instance, diuretic herbs multiply the amount of blood that circulates to the kidneys, therefore increasing urination and lowering overall blood pressure. There are many herbs in common use, such as Fennel, Dandelion, and Parsley. In addition, another diet therapy is that drinking apple cider vinegar or eating more vinegar in everyday meals. For this reason, the alkalinity in blood causes it to be thicker. More pressure is essential to push the thickened blood through the capillaries, so there may be a raise in blood pressure. The acid in the vinegar dilutes the blood consequently making it easier for the heart to circulate the body. It is worth mentioning that fruit vinegar contains potassium, which can help the body metabolize out sodium and prevent high blood pressure. (http://
www.earthclinic.co m/Remedies/acvinegar.html )
Secondly, most people choose alternative therapies when they get the cancer. For this reason, orthodox treatments are direct to attack tumors; that is like a battlefield in a body, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and operation, which usually occasion side effects. On the other hand, alternative therapies value and improve people’s health status consequently, increasing immune system of patients to resist cancer cells. Vegetarian diet is an extremely effective way to remedy various types of cancer. Owing to large amount of protein and fat effect cancers; therefore vegetarian diet can reduce body to assimilate much animal fat, which may cause the hormone changing and furthering the cancer cells grow up. (Virginia Messina, Reed Mangels, Mark Messina 2004, 35-36 ) Furthermore, vegetables and fruits contain large quantity of vitamin C and fibers, which can raise the excrement and diminish carcinogen in the body. (Richards 1991, 20-27 ) Otherwise, antioxidants, such as the phenol and flavones found in fruits and vegetables, have been discovered as potential cancer fighters due to the fact that their ability to destroy free radicals that can eliminate cells (Karen Bellenir 2002, 393-395 ). Another treat of cancer is organic diet, which means people eat vegetables and fruits have grown without the use of pesticides as well as artificial fertilizer or sewage, animals are not used antibiotics and growth hormones and food processed without the use a large number of food additives. Besides, organic diet does not advocate on cooked foods, freshness is its main claim, because raw foods contain more nutrition than after boiling. An organic raw-food diet that is suitable for the metabolic type of the cancer patient. (
http://www.gojuvo.com/ )
Intuitively, implications for alternative therapy such as diet-therapy are most certainly enormous and promising. Many patients choose alternative treatment not only due to social and cultural reasons, but ultimately their desires for relief and instincts survival. Diet-therapy places great emphasis on food consumption habits, which could potentially lead or assist to the patient’s general well being, however one must be precautious of the nutrition imbalance and the possible allergy. Without direct and firm scientific evidence or validation, alternative healing should only be recommended as a supplementary practice rather than a substitute treatment. This is of particular importance especially in developing countries where factors such as ignorance, socioeconomics, and inadequate access to mainstream medical facilities prohibit sufferers from receiving proper treatments. Nevertheless, for developed countries alternative treatment such as diet-therapy could act as an adjunct to mainstream care for management of symptoms and to improve quality of life.
There are some of the acknowledged risks and associated uncertainty with obsolescing the conventional healing method. Firstly, continued tumor growth or symptom worsening as well as additional and possibly irreversible damage. Next, many damage or complications are from the alternative treatment. Besides, it could loss of financial resources at the time of urgent need (as some alternative treatments are relatively expensive and are not covered by insurance). Finally, allergy to food still remains as a major area of research focus.
Notwithstanding the above-mentioned, it should be realized that diet-therapy like other alternative healing methods still offers a mean of treatment outside the majority accepted medicine today. Although patients other than those suffering from cancer and hypertension throughout the world are adopting diet-therapy in conjunction or in replacement of the mainstream treatment in attempt to relieve their symptoms, care and attention must be taken to prevent undesirable effects, which could be hidden in the invalidated, unproven or unreliable methods.
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