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What
does all this mean to the patient?
Both camps have scientific support within their own practices
and standards. Which camp is more meaningful to the patient
is determined by what he or she perceives health to be. If
the patient thinks that the absence of symptoms is health,
then drugs (mechanistically based) are likely to appear attractive.
For example, pain-killing drugs eliminate the symptom of pain.
On
the other hand, if the patient knows that most "diseases,"
especially the major killers of today, are relatively symptomatically
quiet until their final stages, he or she may have a different
(and vitalistic) definition of health—which may include the
concept of optimum functioning of all cells and systems of
the body, regardless of symptoms. This patent knows that a
person who is symptom free today may have a heart attack tomorrow.
In addition, patients today generally realize all allopathic
drugs have side effects. Thus, more and more people are turning
to alternative health care.
Vitalistic
practitioners do use symptoms to guide them to the CAUSE of
symptoms. Within the practice of any vitalistic approach,
a practitioner may utilize observable mechanisms to free the
vital energy. Allopathic mechanistic medicine does have its
place, and emergency medicine is a good example of this.
Thus,
if a person has a heart attack or any other symptom, what
is the best question to ask? An allopathically minded person
may well ask, "What drug do I take?" A vitalistically minded
person has at least two questions: "What CAUSED this problem?"
and "How do I naturally correct this cause so my body can
heal (vitalistically) itself?"
If
you ask what caused the problem, then an appropriate course
of action can take place. So then comes the question: "What
causes 'disease'?" In the alternative health field, we use
the term "dis-ease" to denote that ill health is a lack of
ease, rather than an entity. In general, Mechanists are interested
in the "disease," rather than the host organism. In general,
Vitalists are interested in the host organism and reject the
idea of "disease" being an entity. The bottom line is that
Vitalists are interested in causes.
>>
What causes disease?
What
is Mechanism?
The doctrine of mechanism holds that ALL natural phenomena
can be explained by material causes and mechanical principles.
Most mechanistic practitioner today use drugs and surgery.
These methods FORCE the body to change.
What is Vitalism?
The
doctrine of vitalism holds that life processes are guided
by non material vital principle and are, thus, unable to be
fully explained as physical and chemical phenomena. Most vitalistic
practitioners today use natural methods which ALLOW the body
to change itself.
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