Holism In Medicine

The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of medicine from its African origin to this day, including the shifts in medicinal metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.

The understanding of health and the process of healing in regard to the religious belief of individuals goes beyond the realm of spirituality (Suzanne, 2008). Health is believed by every religion as the most important value at which insights can be created, and as well a practical means at which the health of individuals can be promoted. The secular perspective of religion is considered a contributing factor which broadens the unique religious contribution and individual’s concern to spiritual dimensions. However, the essay to be discussed is on the issue of the spiritual perspective of individuals from different religious faith, and our main religious focus will be on the Buddhist religion, Sikh religion and the Baha’i

The author does not dismiss the divine cause of a disease. It was believed that the gods and the forces of nature were one in the same. In addition, the other presupposition was that body is related to and affected by the environment. Consequently, the author observes that treatment was sustained by the observation of the external “signs”. This leads the author to search for the physical mechanism that occurs in the body to create the disease. In his observations, the author concludes that imbalances of the elements in the body (like the environment) cause disease. While physical and rational observations allow the author to properly treat a disease, the author’s methods of allopathy are built upon the theoretical presupposition that the gods have indefinite power over the human body.

Health care facilities in the United States today are faced with a unique patient population with diverse cultures with different religions and faiths (Leavitt, 2012). Health care providers have a tedious task when it comes to caring for their patients. The care that they provide need to meet not only the physical needs of the patient, but also the spiritual ones as well. In order to meet these needs it is important for the health care provider to gain insight on their patient’s unique culture and religion. All faiths have a unique philosophy oh healing; this paper shall discuss the philosophies of Christianity and Buddhism.

One of the oldest and most complete medical systems ever developed is traditional Chinese medicine. The Taoist ideas and the importance of nature have been intertwined with Chinese Medicine from the ancient beginnings of Chinese culture. “'Tao' or way, is the major idea of Taoism: 'Man models himself on earth, earth on heaven, heaven on the way, and the way on that which is naturally so'. Taoism teaches that human beings should be in harmony with nature, that is, with Tao” (Y). Taoism celebrates the forces of nature and recognizes the interplay of yin and yang in all things. The Taoist principles of Yin-Yang, the eight principles, Chi energy, and the five elements are tools used in Chinese medicine to comprehend the web of phenomena as it

When the study of human anatomy first began doctors knew very little about the human body and the functions of internal organs. This all started to change when a philosopher named Aristotle, began performing dissection in a systematic way, from this he started to believe that the soul is what gives life to the human body. 1 In the ancient world, the word ‘organ’ was known to come from the Greek word tool, which led Aristotle to believe that there was some sort of relationship between the body and soul. 1 When Aristotle discovered this, he started to believe all bodies required different souls; this is when he first began performing dissections to have a better understanding of all the different souls. 1 Once Aristotle had discovered this about

"The body of man has in itself blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile; these make up the nature of the body, and through these he feels pain or enjoys health. Now, he enjoys the most perfect health when these elements are duly proportioned to one another in respect to compounding, power and bulk, and when they are perfectly mingled. Pain is felt when one of these elements is in defect or excess, or is isolated in the body without being compounded with all the

In traditional Chinese medicine, the human body is healthy only when its internal state is in harmony and balance. The disruption of this internal balance, however, causes for disease and illnesses. According to Dillman and Thomas, “The body is understood as a wholly interactive, interrelated, and integrated organism. The health of each part of the body depends on the wellness of the whole” (Advanced 34). Due to the holistic view of the body, only one diseased part of the whole organism can disrupt balance and affect other internal parts of the body as well. Subsequently, balance within the whole body is promoted within Chinese medicinal beliefs.

Medicine has a long unfortunate history of pseudoscience and folklore. In medieval times, the prescribed cure for a sick child would be to place a gourd in the crib of the infant. Pseudosciences such as astrology plagued the sick public with helpless cures. Many ills were thought to be soothed by bleeding the patient, which in reality did nothing, but harm the patient. It was said that early doctors would, “bleed, blister, and purge their patients to early graves.” Most of the naive philosophies involving medicine were incorrect due to a lack of knowledge involving the workings body and anatomy of the body. The body was seen as a holy temple, not to be entered by dissection or studies for science. Many sickness were even thought to be the wrath of God and a punishment for a patients sins. There were, in general, no use of pain killers or understanding of germ theory. For generations, all that was known and taught about the skills of surgery and medicine originated from the sacred texts of Galen and Hippocrates. However, even those texts were writhe with inaccuracies and pseudoscience. Largely, it was not until John Hunter became his lucrative involvement in the field of medicine that human anatomy, and therefore human sickness, started to become understood.

Below is a journal entry from an unnamed physician in the court of King Henry VIII of England, dated 1540. The article was typed using Microsoft Word, and was then annotated in order to highlight key pieces of information and to provide the reader with relevant historical and philosophical details. The entry follows:

In 162 AD, Claudius Galen; a Greek physician and philosopher, suggested his theory of the circulatory system. He was the first physician in history to provide a proper understanding of how the blood forms, and how blood vessels and the heart function. Galen’s theory was left unquestionable until the fifteenth century. He was also very popular within the western medical thought as he was their main influence for more than a millennium. (1)

In life, there are challenges that, can alter our daily being one challenge, is illness that can consume our bodies. The other is, a physiological result of medicating the body for a prolonged life. We, look to God!!! As, a Major source of healing and, the Doctor as, a major source of remedy. When our situations sometimes become over-bearing, healing, only breaks our positive mode and the doctors remedy give us bleak hope…We look to other means of consolation to keeps us going or to bring us to a sudden end.

Since the dilutions of homeopathic remedies reached nearly infinitesimal quantities of an actual drug, many homeopaths believed that some sort of “spirit” was an

“Up until around the sixteenth century death was thought to occur when heartbeat and breathing stopped”(Chapter 55). With increasing knowledge about the body and its

Treatment of illness and health procedures in Western culture are directly linked to scientific findings. However, in other cultures, it is closely related to religion; and for the Hmong, it has no connection to any scientific research. Therefore, it is essential to comprehend Shamanism and how it explains illness, by reason of properly interacting with these patients. In Shamanism, the soul is seen as the main factor influencing a person’s health, and the healing of any illness often involves a spiritual ritual.