Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America

Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America PDF Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299166946
Category : Alternative medicine
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Examining medical pluralism in the United States from the Revolutionary War period through the end of the twentieth century, Hans Baer brings together in one convenient reference a vast array of information on healing systems as diverse as Christian Science, osteopathy, acupuncture, Santeria, southern Appalachian herbalism, evangelical faith healing, and Navajo healing. In a country where the dominant paradigm of biomedicine (medical schools, research hospitals, clinics staffed by M.D.s and R.N.s) has been long established and supported by laws and regulations, the continuing appeal of other medical systems and subsystems bears careful consideration. Distinctions of class, Baer emphasizes, as well as differences in race, ethnicity, and gender, are fundamental to the diversity of beliefs, techniques, and social organizations represented in the phenomenon of medical pluralism. Baer traces the simultaneous emergence in the nineteenth century of formalized biomedicine and of homeopathy, botanic medicine, hydropathy, Christian Science, osteopathy, and chiropractic. He examines present-day osteopathic medicine as a system parallel to biomedicine with an emphasis on primary care; chiropractic, naturopathy, and acupuncture as professionalized heterodox medical systems; homeopathy, herbalism, bodywork, and lay midwifery in the context of the holistic health movement; Anglo-American religious healing; and folk medical systems, particularly among racial and ethnic minorities. In closing he focuses on the persistence of folk medical systems among working-class Americans and considers the growing interest of biomedical physicians, pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations, and government in the holistic health movement

Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America

Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America PDF Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299166946
Category : Alternative medicine
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book

Book Description
Examining medical pluralism in the United States from the Revolutionary War period through the end of the twentieth century, Hans Baer brings together in one convenient reference a vast array of information on healing systems as diverse as Christian Science, osteopathy, acupuncture, Santeria, southern Appalachian herbalism, evangelical faith healing, and Navajo healing. In a country where the dominant paradigm of biomedicine (medical schools, research hospitals, clinics staffed by M.D.s and R.N.s) has been long established and supported by laws and regulations, the continuing appeal of other medical systems and subsystems bears careful consideration. Distinctions of class, Baer emphasizes, as well as differences in race, ethnicity, and gender, are fundamental to the diversity of beliefs, techniques, and social organizations represented in the phenomenon of medical pluralism. Baer traces the simultaneous emergence in the nineteenth century of formalized biomedicine and of homeopathy, botanic medicine, hydropathy, Christian Science, osteopathy, and chiropractic. He examines present-day osteopathic medicine as a system parallel to biomedicine with an emphasis on primary care; chiropractic, naturopathy, and acupuncture as professionalized heterodox medical systems; homeopathy, herbalism, bodywork, and lay midwifery in the context of the holistic health movement; Anglo-American religious healing; and folk medical systems, particularly among racial and ethnic minorities. In closing he focuses on the persistence of folk medical systems among working-class Americans and considers the growing interest of biomedical physicians, pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations, and government in the holistic health movement

Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine

Complementary and Alternative Approaches to Biomedicine PDF Author: Edwin L. Cooper
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475748205
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
WHAT HAPPENED IN KANAZAWA? THE BIRTH OF eCAM This book contains the proceedings of the International Symposium on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, (CAM) which was convened in Kanazawa Japan, November 8-10, 2002. The participants were mainly from Japan, USA, China, France, England, Germany, Taiwan, and India. The world of western medicine is gradually opening its doors to new ways of ap proaching healing. Since many of these approaches began centuries and even millennia ago in Asia, it was entirely appropriate to open our symposium in Kanazawa, a beautiful, traditional city located on the Sea of Japan. Experts from Asia, Europe and the United States gathered together for true discussions on complementary and alternative medicine and its role developing all over the world. As scientists, we listened to historical perspec tives from India, China and Japan, where CAM is still being practiced as it has been for centuries. It is well to mention at the outset that this book will cover a rapidly growing field that has strong advocates but others who are less than enthusiastic. This should be evident by the presentation of chapters that aim to significantly dispel some of the criticisms of pseudoscience and myth that often surround the discipline. It is our purpose to present high quality peer reviewed chapters.

Toward an Integrative Medicine

Toward an Integrative Medicine PDF Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759103023
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Baer's exciting new book chronicles the transformation of the holistic health movement as it increasingly influences the delivery of health care in America. He describes the battle for legitimacy by alternative therapeutic practitioners, and the increasing interest by the biomedical profession in the possibilities of a complementary and integrative medical system. Baer shows ironically, how the holistic movement may ultimately become more limited as it gains acceptance and is integrated into mainstream medicine.

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine PDF Author: Anamaria Iosif Ross
Publisher: Berg
ISBN: 085785318X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Alternative medicine is not a fashionable new trend but an established cultural strategy, as well as a dynamic feature of mainstream contemporary medicine, in which elements of folk traditions are often blended with western scientific approaches. The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine is a concise yet wide-ranging exploration of non-biomedical healing. The book addresses a broad range of practices including: substance, energy and information flows (e.g. helminthic therapy); spirit, consciousness and trance (e.g. shamanism); body, movement and the senses (e.g. reiki and aromatherapy); as well as classical medical traditions as complements or alternatives to Western biomedicine (e.g. Ayurveda). Exploring the cultural underpinnings of contemporary healing methods, while assessing current ideas, topics and resources for further study, this book will be invaluable to undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, sociology, psychology, and health related professions such as nursing, physical and occupational therapy, and biomedicine.

Bounding Biomedicine

Bounding Biomedicine PDF Author: Colleen Derkatch
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022634584X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
During the 1990s, unprecedented numbers of Americans turned to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), an umbrella term encompassing health practices such as chiropractic, energy healing, herbal medicine, homeopathy, meditation, naturopathy, and traditional Chinese medicine. By 1997, nearly half the US population was seeking CAM in one form or another, spending at least $27 billion out-of-pocket annually on related products and services. As CAM rose in popularity over the decade, so did mainstream medicine's interest in understanding whether those practices actually worked, and how. Medical researchers devoted considerable effort to testing CAM interventions in clinical trials, and medical educators scrambled to assist physicians in advising patients about CAM. In Bounding Biomedicine, Colleen Derkatch examines how the rhetorical discourse around the published research on this issue allowed the medical profession to maintain its position of privilege and prestige throughout this process, even as its place at the top of the healthcare hierarchy appeared to be weakening. Her research focuses on the ground-breaking and somewhat controversial CAM-themed issues of The Journal of the American Medical Association and its nine specialized Archives journals from 1998, demonstrating how these texts performed rhetorical boundary work for the medical profession. As Derkatch reveals, the question of how to test healthcare practices that don't fit easily (or at all) within mainstream Western medical frameworks sweeps us into the realm of medical knowledge-making--the research teams, clinical trials, and medical journals that determine which treatments are safe and effective--and also out into the world where doctors meet patients, illnesses find treatment, and values, practices, policies, and priorities intersect. Through Bounding Biomedicine, Derkatch shows exactly how narratives of medicine's entanglements with competing models of healthcare shape not only the historical episodes they narrate but also the very fabric of medical knowledge itself and how the medical profession is made and remade through its own discursive activity.

Nature Cures

Nature Cures PDF Author: James C. Whorton
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 0195171624
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
The first truly thorough history of alternative medicine in the U.S. covers the subject in its entirety, from reflexology and homeopathy to dream analysis, chiropractic, and acupuncture, discussing the historical evolution of each practice, the philosophy of "nature cures," and the effective use within the context of conventional medical treatment. (Health & Fitness)

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309133424
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Integration of complementary and alternative medicine therapies (CAM) with conventional medicine is occurring in hospitals and physicians offices, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are covering CAM therapies, insurance coverage for CAM is increasing, and integrative medicine centers and clinics are being established, many with close ties to medical schools and teaching hospitals. In determining what care to provide, the goal should be comprehensive care that uses the best scientific evidence available regarding benefits and harm, encourages a focus on healing, recognizes the importance of compassion and caring, emphasizes the centrality of relationship-based care, encourages patients to share in decision making about therapeutic options, and promotes choices in care that can include complementary therapies where appropriate. Numerous approaches to delivering integrative medicine have evolved. Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States identifies an urgent need for health systems research that focuses on identifying the elements of these models, the outcomes of care delivered in these models, and whether these models are cost-effective when compared to conventional practice settings. It outlines areas of research in convention and CAM therapies, ways of integrating these therapies, development of curriculum that provides further education to health professionals, and an amendment of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act to improve quality, accurate labeling, research into use of supplements, incentives for privately funded research into their efficacy, and consumer protection against all potential hazards.

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine

The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine PDF Author: Anamaria Iosif Ross
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000180743
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Alternative medicine is not a fashionable new trend but an established cultural strategy, as well as a dynamic feature of mainstream contemporary medicine, in which elements of folk traditions are often blended with western scientific approaches.The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine is a concise yet wide-ranging exploration of non-biomedical healing. The book addresses a broad range of practices including: substance, energy and information flows (e.g. helminthic therapy); spirit, consciousness and trance (e.g. shamanism); body, movement and the senses (e.g. reiki and aromatherapy); as well as classical medical traditions as complements or alternatives to Western biomedicine (e.g. Ayurveda). Exploring the cultural underpinnings of contemporary healing methods, while assessing current ideas, topics and resources for further study, this book will be invaluable to undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, sociology, psychology, and health related professions such as nursing, physical and occupational therapy, and biomedicine.

Healing Powers

Healing Powers PDF Author: Fred M. Frohock
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226265858
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The personal testimony of individuals engaged in healing practices and the opposing voices of orthodox and alternative medicines are the center of Healing Powers. Focusing on medical norms and practices and on competing philosophies of the mind, the body, reality, and rationality across radically different "belief systems", Fred Frohock clarifies the social and legal dilemmas represented by "scientific medicine" and "alternative care." "Frohock goes beyond the often irreconcilable differences between scientific biomedicine and alternative care by clarifying the social and legal dilemmas they present. . . . A noteworthy contribution forcing us to rethink what medical care is all about."—Jeffrey Michael Clare, Journal of the American Medical Association "The book does more and better than simply provide a social-scientific proposal. It also gives not only a hearing but a voice to those who follow alternative therapies. . . . Frohock's accounts of their stories—along with the stories of the medical professionals—are eloquent and fascinating."—Allen Verhey, Medical Humanities Review "Contains a storehouse of valuable information about the historical, philosophical, and psychological bases of alternative approaches to healing."—Marshall B. Kapp, New England Journal of Medicine "Frohock introduces us to the scientific naturopaths and to physicians who believe in the mind's power to heal, to charismatics who believe in but cannot explain their powers, to those who test God and those who merely accept. He writes so well that I felt I had met these people."—Arthur W. Frank, Christian Century

Ethnomedicine

Ethnomedicine PDF Author: Pamela I. Erickson
Publisher: Waveland Press
ISBN: 1478608641
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
People throughout time and place, no matter their belief system, have sought to discover causes and cures for illness and disease. Among Westerners is a groundswell to augment biomedicine with holistic practices inherent in ethnomedicines of non-Western traditions. Yet missing are awareness and knowledge of the foundations and outgrowth of these alternative concepts. Erickson fills this gap by clearly explaining the basic organizing principles that underlie all medical systems, the full range of theories of disease causation, the geographical distribution of medical practices, and the historical trends that led to biomedical dominance. Her efficient, balanced approach highlights commonalities among the worlds vast and diverse medical systems, making ethnomedicine easier to internalize and to apply in clinical settings.