Medicine,

         Genral Medical Details

         Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine has been described as "any of various systems of healing or treating disease (as chiropractic, homeopathy, or faith healing) not included in the traditional medical curricula taught in the United States and Britain". Alternative medicine practices are often based in belief systems not derived from modern science. Alternative medicines may therefore incorporate spiritual, metaphysical, or religious underpinnings, untested practices, non-Western medical traditions, or newly developed approaches to healing. If an alternative medical approach, initially regarded as untested, is subsequently shown to be safe and effective, it may then be adopted by conventional practitioners and no longer considered "alternative".Alternative medicine is commonly categorised together with complementary medicine under the umbrella term 'complementary and alternative medicine' (CAM for short). Some scientists reject this and the above classifications and to varying degrees reject the term "alternative medicine" itself.The following three commentators argue for classifying treatments based on the objectively verifiable criteria of the scientific method, not based on the changing curricula of various medical schools or social sphere of usage. They advocate a classification based on evidence-based medicine, i.e., scientifically proven evidence of efficacy (or lack thereof). According to them it is possible for a method to change categories (proven vs. nonproven) in either direction, based on increased knowledge of its effectiveness


         Common Homeopathic

which in large quantities would cause symptoms similar to the disease, are administered in heavily diluted formulations, with shaking at each stage of the dilution. Homeopaths contend that the shaking causes some imprint (or memory) of the diluted substance upon the medium (usually water or alcohol), thus allowing it to treat the patient, even though in many common homeopathic dilutions no molecules of the original substance are likely to remain.Homeopathy is based on a vitalist world view, which sees the underlying causes of sickness as imbalances in a hypothetical vital force. Proponents claim that homeopathic treatment can harmonize and re-balance the vital force in the body, thus restoring health. These claims are unsupported by modern biology or medicine.

         Homeopathy Information

Samuel Hahnemann conceived of homeopathy while translating a Materia Medica, a treatise by Scottish physician and chemist William Cullen, into German.On reading about cinchona bark, from which quinine is extracted and is used to treat malaria, he noticed that Cullen described the mechanism of the substance as having "stomach strengthening properties". Hahnemann was skeptical of this explanation and decided to understand the effects of Cinchona bark by taking it himself. Upon ingesting the bark, he noticed that he experienced fever, shivering and arthralgia (joint pain). These symptoms are similar to some of those of malaria, which the substance was supposed to be treating, and from this he decided that all effective drugs must produce the symptoms in healthy individuals that are similar to the diseases that the drugs are intended to treat. This later became known as the "Law of similars", and the most important concept of homeopathy.The term "homeopathy" was coined by Hahnemann and first appeared in print in 1807, although he began outlining his theories of 'medical similars' in a series of articles and monographs in 1796. Hahnemann began to test which symptoms were produced by which substances, which would later become known as "proving".The tests were time-consuming and required subjects to clearly record all of their symptoms as well as when they appeared. Hahnemann used them to decide which substances would be used to treat which disease.The first collection of provings was published in 1805 and a second collection of 65 remedies appeared in the Materia Medica Pura in 1810.As Hahnemann believed that large doses of things that caused similar symptoms would only aggravate illness, he advocated extreme dilutions of the substances, and came up with a technique for these dilutions that he believed would preserve a substance's hypothetical "essence" while removing any harmful effects.He gathered and published a complete overview of his new medical system in his 1810 book, The Organon of the Healing Art, whose 6th edition, published in 1921, is still used by homeopaths today.

         Health care delivery

Medical care delivery is classified into primary, secondary and tertiary care. Primary care medical services are provided by physicians or other health professionals who have first contact with a patient seeking medical treatment or care. These occur in physician offices, clinics, nursing homes, schools, home visits and other places close to patients. About 90% of medical visits can be treated by the primary care provider. These include treatment of acute and chronic illnesses, preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. Secondary care medical services are provided by medical specialists in their offices or clinics or at local community hospitals for a patient referred by a primary care provider who first diagnosed or treated the patient. Referrals are made for those patients who required the expertise or procedures performed by specialists. These include both ambulatory care and inpatient services, emergency rooms, intensive care medicine, surgery services, physical therapy, labor and delivery, endoscopy units, diagnostic laboratory and medical imaging services, hospice centers, etc. Some primary care providers may also take care of hospitalized patients and deliver babies in a secondary care setting. Tertiary care medical services are provided by specialist hospitals or regional centers equipped with diagnostic and treatment facilities not generally available at local hospitals. These include trauma centers, burn treatment centers, advanced neonatology unit services, organ transplants, high-risk pregnancy, radiation oncology, etc. Modern medical care also depends on information - still delivered in many health care settings on paper records, but increasingly nowadays by electronic means.

         Pharmacology Details

Pharmacology is the study of how drugs interact with living organisms to produce a change in function.If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals. The field encompasses drug composition and properties, interactions, toxicology, therapy, and medical applications and antipathogenic capabilities. Pharmacology is not synonymous with pharmacy, though in common usage the two are at times confused. Pharmacology deals with how drugs interact within biological systems to affect function, while pharmacy is a medical science concerned with the safe and effective use of medicines. The word Pharmacology comes from Greek: pharmakon (φάρμακον) meaning drug, and λόγος, logos, "knowledge". Early pharmacologists focused on natural substances, mainly plant extracts. Pharmacology developed in the 19th century as a new biomedical science that applied the principles of scientific experimentation to therapeutic contexts.

         Development of medication

Development of medication is a vital concern to medicine, but also has strong economical and political implications. To protect the consumer and prevent abuse, many governments regulate the manufacture, sale, and administration of medication. In the United States, the main body that regulates pharmaceuticals is the Food and Drug Administration and they enforce standards set by the United States Pharmacopoeia. In the European Union, the main body that regulates pharmaceuticals is the EMEA and they enforce standards set by the European Pharmacopoeia.If the structure of a medicine is altered slightly, this will slightly alter the medicine's properties. This means when a useful activity has been identified, chemists will make many similar compounds called analogues, to attempt and maximise the beneficial effects. This development phase can take up to 3 years and is expensive.These new analogues need to be developed. It needs to be determined how safe the medicine is for human consumption, its stability in the human body and the best form for dispensing, like tablet or aerosol. After extensive testing, which can take up to 6 years the new medicine is ready for marketing.As a result of the long time required to develop analogues and test a new medicine and the fact that of every 5000 potential new medicines typically only one will ever reach the open market, this is an expensive way of doing things, costing millions of dollars. To recoup this outlay pharmaceutical companies may do a number of things-Carefully research the demand for their potential new product before spending an outlay of company funds. Obtain a patent on the new medicine preventing other companies from producing that medicine for a certain allocation of time.Medication is said to have a narrow or wide therapeutic index or therapeutic window. This describes the ratio of desired effect to toxic effect. A compound with a narrow therapeutic index (close to one) exerts its desired effect at a dose close to its toxic dose. A compound with a wide therapeutic index (greater than five) exerts its desired effect at a dose substantially below its toxic dose. Those with a narrow margin are more difficult to dose and administer, and may require therapeutic drug monitoring (examples are warfarin, some antiepileptics, aminoglycoside antibiotics). Most anti-cancer drugs have a narrow therapeutic margin: toxic side-effects are almost always encountered at doses used to kill tumours.