Allopathic medicine

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Homeopathy Looks at the Horrors of Allopathy, by Alexander Beideman (1857) Beydeman Gomeopatiya vzir.jpg
Homeopathy Looks at the Horrors of Allopathy , by Alexander Beideman (1857)

Allopathic medicine, or allopathy, is an archaic and derogatory label originally used by 19th-century homeopaths to describe heroic medicine, the precursor of modern evidence-based medicine. [1] [2] There are regional variations in usage of the term. In the United States, the term is sometimes used to contrast with osteopathic medicine, especially in the field of medical education. In India, the term is used to distinguish conventional modern medicine from Siddha medicine, Ayurveda, homeopathy, Unani and other alternative and traditional medicine traditions, especially when comparing treatments and drugs.

Contents

The terms were coined in 1810 by the creator of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann. [3] Heroic medicine was the conventional European medicine of the time and did not rely on evidence of effectiveness. It was based on the belief that disease is caused by an imbalance of the four "humours" (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) and sought to treat disease symptoms by correcting that imbalance, using "harsh and abusive" methods to induce symptoms seen as opposite to those of diseases [4] rather than treating their underlying causes: disease was caused by an excess of one humour and thus would be treated with its "opposite". [5]

A study released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 defined allopathic medicine as "the broad category of medical practice that is sometimes called Western medicine, biomedicine, evidence-based medicine, or modern medicine." [6] The WHO used the term in a global study in order to differentiate Western medicine from traditional and alternative medicine, noting that in certain areas of the world "the legal standing of practitioners is equivalent to that of allopathic medicine" where practitioners can be separately certified in complementary/alternative medicine and Western medicine. [6]

The term allopathy was also used to describe anything that was not homeopathy. [5] Kimball Atwood, an American medical researcher and alternative medicine critic, said the meaning implied by the label of allopathy has never been accepted by conventional medicine and is still considered pejorative. [7] American health advocate and sceptic William T. Jarvis, stated that "although many modern therapies can be construed to conform to an allopathic rationale (e.g., using a laxative to relieve constipation), standard medicine has never paid allegiance to an allopathic principle" and that the label "allopath" was "considered highly derisive by regular medicine." [8] Most modern science-based medical treatments (antibiotics, vaccines, and chemotherapeutics, for example) do not fit Hahnemann's definition of allopathy, as they seek to prevent illness or to alleviate an illness by eliminating its cause. [9] [10]

The terms "allopathic medicine" and "allopathy" are drawn from the Greek prefix ἄλλος (állos), "other," "different" + the suffix πάθος (páthos), "suffering".

History

The practice of medicine in both Europe and North America during the early 19th century is sometimes referred to as heroic medicine because of the extreme measures (such as bloodletting) sometimes employed in an effort to treat diseases. [11] The term allopath was used by Hahnemann and other early homeopaths to highlight the difference they perceived between homeopathy and the "conventional" heroic medicine of their time. With the term allopathy (meaning "other than the disease"), Hahnemann intended to point out how physicians with conventional training employed therapeutic approaches that, in his view, merely treated symptoms and failed to address the disharmony produced by underlying disease.[ clarification needed ] Homeopaths saw such symptomatic treatments as "opposites treating opposites" and believed these methods were harmful to patients. [3]

Practitioners of alternative medicine have used the term "allopathic medicine" to refer to the practice of conventional medicine in both Europe and the United States since the 19th century. In that century, the term allopath was used most often as a derogatory name for the practitioners of heroic medicine, [12] [13] a precursor to modern medicine that itself did not rely on evidence of effectiveness.

James Whorton discusses this historical pejorative usage:

One form of verbal warfare used in retaliation by irregulars was the word "allopathy". ..."Allopathy" and "allopathic" were liberally employed as pejoratives by all irregular physicians of the nineteenth century, and the terms were considered highly offensive by those at whom they were directed. The generally uncomplaining acceptance of [the term] "allopathic medicine" by today's physicians is an indication of both a lack of awareness of the term's historical use and the recent thawing of relations between irregulars and allopaths. [14]

The controversy surrounding the term can be traced to its original usage during a heated 19th-century debate between practitioners of homeopathy and those they derisively referred to as "allopaths." [15]

Hahnemann used "allopathy" to refer to what he saw as a system of medicine that combats disease by using remedies that produce effects in a healthy subject that are different (hence the Greek root allo- "different") from the effects produced by the disease to be treated. The distinction comes from the use in homeopathy of substances that are meant to cause similar effects as the symptoms of a disease to treat patients (homeo - meaning "similar").

As used by homeopaths, the term allopathy has always referred to the principle of treating disease by administering substances that produce other symptoms (when given to a healthy human) than the symptoms produced by a disease. For example, part of an allopathic treatment for fever may include the use of a drug which reduces the fever, while also including a drug (such as an antibiotic) that attacks the cause of the fever (such as a bacterial infection). A homeopathic treatment for fever, by contrast, is one that uses a diluted dosage of a substance that in an undiluted form would induce fever in a healthy person. These preparations are typically diluted so heavily that they no longer contain any actual molecules of the original substance. Hahnemann used this term to distinguish medicine as practiced in his time from his use of infinitesimally small (or nonexistent) doses of substances to treat the spiritual causes of illness.

The Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine states that "[Hahnemann] gave an all-embracing name to regular practice, calling it 'allopathy'. This term, however imprecise, was employed by his followers and other unorthodox movements to identify the prevailing methods as constituting nothing more than a competing 'school' of medicine, however dominant in terms of number of practitioner proponents and patients". [16]

Contrary to the present usage, Hahnemann reserved the term "allopathic medicine" to the practice of treating diseases by means of drugs inducing symptoms unrelated (i.e., neither similar nor opposite) to those of the disease. He called the practice of treating diseases by means of drugs producing symptoms opposite to those of the patient "enantiopathic" (from the Greek ἐνάντιος (enántios), meaning "opposite") or "antipathic medicine". [17]

Current usage

In the United States, the term is used in the modern era to differentiate between two types of US medical schools (both of which teach aspects of science-based medicine and neither of which teach homeopathy): Allopathic (granting the MD degree) and Osteopathic (granting the DO degree). [18] [19]

In India the term is used principally to distinguish "Western medicine" from Ayurveda, especially when comparing treatments and drugs. [20]

A study released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 defined "allopathic medicine" as "the broad category of medical practice that is sometimes called Western medicine, biomedicine, evidence-based medicine, or modern medicine." [6] The WHO used the term in a global study in order to differentiate Western medicine from traditional medicine, and from complementary/alternative medicine, noting that in certain areas of the world “the legal standing of practitioners is equivalent to that of allopathic medicine” where practitioners are certified in both complementary/alternative medicine and Western medicine. [6]

As of 2004, use of the term remained common among homeopaths and had spread to other alternative medicine practices. Kimball Atwood, an American medical researcher and alternative medicine critic, said the meaning implied by the label of allopathy has never been accepted by conventional medicine and is still considered pejorative by some. [7] American health educator and skeptic William T. Jarvis, stated in 2008 that "although many modern therapies can be construed to conform to an allopathic rationale (e.g., using a laxative to relieve constipation), standard medicine has never paid allegiance to an allopathic principle" and that the label "allopath" was "considered highly derisive by regular medicine". [8]

Most modern science-based medical treatments (antibiotics, vaccines, and chemotherapeutics, for example) do not fit Samuel Hahnemann's definition of allopathy, as they seek to prevent illness, or remove the cause of an illness by acting on the cause of disease. [9] [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability or evidence of effectiveness. Unlike modern medicine, which employs the scientific method to test plausible therapies by way of responsible and ethical clinical trials, producing repeatable evidence of either effect or of no effect, alternative therapies reside outside of medical science and do not originate from using the scientific method, but instead rely on testimonials, anecdotes, religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural "energies", pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, or other unscientific sources. Frequently used terms for relevant practices are New Age medicine, pseudo-medicine, unorthodox medicine, holistic medicine, fringe medicine, and unconventional medicine, with little distinction from quackery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeopathy</span> Pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine

Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a disease in healthy people can cure similar symptoms in sick people; this doctrine is called similia similibus curentur, or "like cures like". Homeopathic preparations are termed remedies and are made using homeopathic dilution. In this process, the selected substance is repeatedly diluted until the final product is chemically indistinguishable from the diluent. Often not even a single molecule of the original substance can be expected to remain in the product. Between each dilution homeopaths may hit and/or shake the product, claiming this makes the diluent "remember" the original substance after its removal. Practitioners claim that such preparations, upon oral intake, can treat or cure disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naturopathy</span> Form of alternative medicine

Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. A wide array of pseudoscientific practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", or promoting "self-healing" are employed by its practitioners, who are known as naturopaths. Difficult to generalize, these treatments range from the thoroughly discredited, like homeopathy, to the widely-accepted, like certain forms of psychotherapy. The ideology and methods of naturopathy are based on vitalism and folk medicine rather than evidence-based medicine, although practitioners may use techniques supported by evidence. The ethics of naturopathy have been called into question by medical professionals and its practice has been characterized as quackery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osteopathy</span> Alternative medicine emphasizing muscle and bone manipulation

Osteopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine that emphasizes physical manipulation of the body's muscle tissue and bones. In most countries, practitioners of osteopathy are not medically trained and are referred to as osteopaths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Hahnemann</span> German physician who created homeopathy (1755–1843)

Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann was a German physician, best known for creating the pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine called homeopathy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Tyler Kent</span> American physician (1849–1916)

James Tyler Kent (1849–1916) was an American physician best remembered as a forefather of modern homeopathy. In 1897 Kent published a massive guidebook on human physical and mental disease symptoms and their associated homeopathic preparations entitled Repertory of the Homeopathic Materia Medica, which has been translated into a number of languages. It has been the blueprint to many modern repertories used throughout the world and even remains in use by some homeopathic practitioners today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heroic medicine</span> Outdated model of medicine

Heroic medicine, also referred to as heroic depletion theory, was a therapeutic method advocating for rigorous treatment of bloodletting, purging, and sweating to shock the body back to health after an illness caused by a humoral imbalance. Rising to the front of orthodox medical practice in the "Age of Heroic Medicine" (1780–1850), it fell out of favor in the mid-19th century as gentler treatments were shown to be more effective and the idea of palliative treatment began to develop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Bach</span> British physician, homeopath and spiritual writer

Edward Bach was a British medical doctor, bacteriologist, homeopath, and spiritual writer, best known for developing the Bach flower remedies, a form of alternative medicine inspired by classical homeopathic traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of alternative medicine</span>

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George Vithoulkas is a Greek teacher and practitioner of homeopathy.

In homeopathy, arsenicum album (Arsenic. alb.) is a solution prepared by diluting aqueous arsenic trioxide generally until there is little amounts of Arsenic remaining in individual doses. It is used by homeopaths to treat a range of symptoms that include digestive disorders and, as an application of the Law of Similars, has been suggested by homeopathy as a treatment for arsenic poisoning. Since the arsenic oxide in a homeopathic preparation is normally non-existent, it is considered generally safe, although cases of arsenic poisoning from poorly prepared homeopathic treatments sold in India have been reported. When properly prepared, however, the extreme dilutions, typically to at least 1 in 1024, or 12C in homeopathic notation, mean that a pill would not contain even a molecule of the original arsenic used. While Anisur Khuda-Bukhsh's unblinded studies have claimed an effect on reducing arsenic toxicity, they do not recommend its large-scale use, and studies of homeopathic remedies have been shown to generally have problems that prevent them from being considered unambiguous evidence. There is no known mechanism for how arsenicum album could remove arsenic from a body, and there is insufficient evidence for it to be considered effective medicine (for any condition) by the scientific community.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regulation and prevalence of homeopathy</span> Alternative medicine

Homeopathy is fairly common in some countries while being uncommon in others. In some countries, there are no specific legal regulations concerning the use of homeopathy, while in others, licenses or degrees in conventional medicine from accredited universities are required.

In homeopathy, homeopathic dilution is a process in which a substance is diluted with alcohol or distilled water and then vigorously shaken in a process called "succussion". Insoluble solids, such as quartz and oyster shell, are diluted by grinding them with lactose (trituration). The founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), asserted that the process of succussion activated the "vital energy" of the diluted substance, and that successive dilutions increased the "potency" of the preparation, although other strands of homeopathy disagreed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Cockburn (physician)</span>

Samuel Cockburn was a conventionally trained, for the time, Scottish physician who, early in his medical career, was won over by the principles of homeopathy. In the mid to late 19th century he was an outspoken defender of homeopathy and a critic of the medical establishment of the time, which practised what is now termed Heroic medicine.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Lutze</span>

Arthur Lutze, was a major figure in medicine and regimen in Germany because of his establishment of a major homeopathic clinic and spa in Köthen, Germany in the mid-1800s. He was also known for his advancement of a particular approach in the use of homeopathic medicines, known as dual remedy prescribing, after it was ostensibly dropped by others, including Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of the homeopathic approach. His decision in 1865 to release a version of the much awaited, but long delayed publication of the last, 6th edition of Hahnemann's Organon der Heilkunst, which included a disputed paragraph created by Hahnemann for the 5th edition, but subsequently withdrawn for political reasons within the homeopathic medical community in Germany, resulted in a strong protest from more conventional homeopaths.

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Alternative medicine describes any practice which aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine, but which lacks biological plausibility and is untested or untestable. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), integrated medicine or integrative medicine (IM), and holistic medicine are among many rebrandings of the same phenomenon.

The infinitesimally low concentration of homeopathic preparations, which often lack even a single molecule of the diluted substance, has been the basis of questions about the effects of the preparations since the 19th century. Modern advocates of homeopathy have proposed a concept of "water memory", according to which water "remembers" the substances mixed in it, and transmits the effect of those substances when consumed. This concept is inconsistent with the current understanding of matter, and water memory has never been demonstrated to exist, in terms of any detectable effect, biological or otherwise.

References

  1. ↑ Weatherall, Mark W. (1996-08-01). "Making Medicine Scientific: Empiricism, Rationality, and Quackery in mid-Victorian Britain". Social History of Medicine. 9 (2): 175–194. doi:10.1093/shm/9.2.175. ISSN   0951-631X. PMID   11613446.
  2. ↑ "Definition – allopathy". The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Retrieved 25 October 2013. Citing: Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (2008) and Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th ed. (2009).
  3. 1 2 Whorton JC (2004). Oxford University Press US (ed.). Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America (illustrated ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 18, 52. ISBN   978-0-19-517162-4.
  4. ↑ Gundling, Katherine E. (1998). "When Did I Become an 'Allopath'?". Archives of Internal Medicine . American Medical Association. 158 (20): 2185–2186. doi:10.1001/archinte.158.20.2185. PMID   9818797.
  5. 1 2 Barrett, Stephen; London, William M.; Kroger, Manfred; Hall, Harriet; Baratz, Robert S. (2013). Consumer health: a guide to intelligent decisions (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 34–35, 134, 137. ISBN   9780078028489. OCLC   758098687.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Xiaorui Zhang (2001). "Legal Status of Traditional Medicine and Complementary/Alternative Medicine: A Worldwide Review" (PDF). World Health Organization. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
  7. 1 2 Atwood, Kimball C. (2004). "Naturopathy, pseudoscience, and medicine: myths and fallacies vs truth". Medscape General Medicine. 6 (1): 33. PMC   1140750 . PMID   15208545.
  8. 1 2 Jarvis, William T. (1996). "Misuse of the term "Allopathy"". National Council Against Health Fraud . Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  9. 1 2 Berkenwald, AD (1998). "In the name of medicine". Annals of Internal Medicine . 128 (3): 246–50. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-128-3-199802010-00023. S2CID   53089206.
  10. 1 2 Federspil G; Presotto F; Vettor R (2003). "A critical overview of homeopathy". Annals of Internal Medicine. 139 (8): W-75. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-139-8-200310210-00026-w3. PMID   14568881. Archived from the original on 2003-12-30. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
  11. ↑ Singh, Simon; Ernst, Edzard (2008). Trick Or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 108. ISBN   978-0-393-06661-6.
  12. ↑ Bates, DG (September 2002). "Why Not Call Modern Medicine "Alternative"?". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 583 (1): 12–28. doi:10.1177/000271620258300102. PMID   11058987. S2CID   145294892.
  13. ↑ Cuellar NG (2006). Conversations in complementary and alternative medicine: insights and perspectives from leading practitioners. Boston: Jones and Bartlett. p. 4. ISBN   978-0-7637-3888-4.
  14. ↑ Whorton JC (4 Nov 2003). "Counterculture healing: A brief history of alternative medicine in America". WGBH Educational Foundation. Retrieved 25 Dec 2007.
  15. ↑ Whorton, JC (2002). Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America . Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-517162-4.
  16. ↑ Bynum, W. F. (2013). Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine. Routledge. p. 608. ISBN   9781136110368.
  17. ↑ e.g., see Organon, VI edition, paragraphs 54-56
  18. ↑ "Two Kinds of Physicians - Health Professions and Prelaw Center - Indiana University - University Division". www.hpplc.indiana.edu. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  19. ↑ Prep, Veritas. "How to Decide Between an M.D. and a D.O." U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  20. ↑ Chandra, Shailaja; Patwardhan, Kishor (2018). "Allopathic, AYUSH and informal medical practitioners in rural India: a prescription for change". Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. 9 (2): 143–150. doi:10.1016/j.jaim.2018.05.001. ISSN   0975-9476. PMC   6033720 . PMID   29858128.
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