An increasing proportion of the population is becoming more prone to diseases as a result of the modern sedentary lifestyle. It is also evident that medications are not completely effective at curing all the emerging conditions and some people are therefore advocating for the return of traditional medicine. This essay will explain the reasons behind my firm disagreement with re-introducing traditional medicine.
Firstly, the success of traditional medicine in the past was partially due to the majority of people leading a healthy lifestyle and people only became unwell with simple infections or wounds. In contrast, many people of the current age have multiple co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension and thyroid dysfunction which are interlinked with each other. It is therefore extremely important to administer medications that are not contraindicated to each other or another illness. Pharmaceutical companies carry out extensive research and trials before licensing a medication and comes with a comprehensive list of indications and contraindications; it can therefore be trusted to be safe. The same satisfaction and guarantee for safety is not available with traditional remedies.
Furthermore, modern medicine is in fact an evolution of traditional medicine. Many English medications were derived from traditional medical substances in which the active ingredient was identified and purified. This means the side effects that could arise from unwanted substances were eliminated. Returning to the use of original traditional medicine can add various unwanted side effects and cause patients to encounter unnecessary complications. It is therefore more sensible to continue with further research and improve the current medication rather than returning to the past.
In conclusion, I strongly oppose the idea of bringing back traditional medicine to wider use as it is unlikely to be suitable for the modern patient and is likely to complicate the situation with additional side effects.