Is Alternative Medicine Becoming More Popular than Conventional Healthcare?*

ByLisa Jayne

If you’ve been active on social media at all, you’ve probably noticed the ongoing promotion and sharing of “natural home remedies” and “holistic treatments.” It seems that there’s a growing trend in society, with a huge percentage of people speaking out against alleged corruption in the pharmaceutical industry. 







If we flash back to more than a decade ago, the landscape on the matter was a bit different, with most of the “mainstream” holding the consensus that natural healthcare practitioners are “quacks” and “conspiracy theorists.” While that mentality is still very present, it can’t be denied that the crowd consensus is slowly shifting towards favoring alternative medicine before resorting to trips to the hospital, prescription medications, and surgery. 




With that said, let’s look at a few considerations to determine whether it is likely for alternative medicine to ever overtake conventional healthcare in terms of popularity:




The Healthcare Industry Isn’t Going Anywhere 
Regardless of how popular the concept of natural medicine becomes, it is safe to say that the pharmaceutical industry and hospital system isn’t just going to stop making progress. The fact is, conventional healthcare has produced literal miracles in terms of emergency care.
Antibiotics are a perfect example of an effective treatment that has saved countless lives. As long as most of the medications prescribed are effective at treating symptoms and/or curing ailments, the healthcare system as we know it is going to continue to thrive based on the efficacy of its advancements. 


 


Where is the Research on Alternative Medicine?  
One of the main arguments you hear against alternative medicine is that it hasn’t yet been researched enough to have been proven effective. It’s neither a secret nor a theory that our current economic environment favors the progression of businesses and organizations that produce returns for investors. That’s just the way capitalism works – if your efforts produce capital, you succeed; if not, you fail.




The resulting argument from naturalists is that there’s a limit to how much profit a company can reasonably make on a substance that anyone can grow or grab from nature, so there isn’t much monetary benefit in researching or promoting such substances other than to do philanthropic good. However, supplement companies and online directories like www.dispensaries.com do in fact stand to gain from the advancement of alternative medicine, so that argument is not entirely valid. Still, it can’t be denied that the funding for research is seriously lacking in this department. 




Conclusion: We Need Both
I would say that, although alternative medicine is certainly growing exponentially in popularity thanks to information sharing on social sites, conventional healthcare is still the ruling philosophy in most circles. Furthermore, there is still a huge disconnect between the beliefs and values of people who use alternative medicine and the mainstream, as the two sides are mostly in strong opposition.




The natural crowd criticizes the pharmaceutical industry for causing absurd side effects and operating with a profit-driven motive, while conventional healthcare advocates condemn alternative medicine by calling it ineffective pseudo-science. In my opinion, both approaches have merit in certain areas, so people should be open to considering both sides of the fence in order to choose a treatment that best suits their specific preferences and circumstances. 


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