Complementary and alternative medicine - Research Paper Example

? COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE FINAL PAPER and number: submitted: COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE FINAL PAPER Introduction Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) are useful as reaching the masses for medicinal care and healing where orthodox medicines may not be available. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has a long history to its use, challenges that came with its early use, how it strived through the challenges, and how it continues to be used in diverse instances of chronic illness treatments. Basically, the history of complementary and alternative medicine could account for reasons why it has become popular today and continues to be used in various instances for the treatment of chronic illnesses. This notwithstanding, it is common knowledge that there remain key misconceptions, myths and fears associated with the use of complementary and alternative medicines. Studies however has showed that when well applied and utilized in the hands of a professional, complementary and alternative medicines may just be the right answers to most chronic diseases that face a number of people. In this paper, the researcher takes a closer look at Tai Chi as a complementary and alternative medicine and how it is effective in the treatment of the chronic disease of high blood pressure in older patients. As part of the research therefore, there shall be a thorough discussion of Tai Chi in terms of his historical antecedents and nature of use in modern usage. There shall also be studies into high blood pressure as a chronic disease to understudy how key cultural challenges face patients of the disease and practitioners as well. Finally, the various means by which CAM practitioners diagnose and treat the disease shall be outlined. Tai Chi as a CAM The history of Tai Chi traces it as a form of body exercise and later as a sport. This means that when Tai Chi was first discovered, it was used among people on an individual basis to keep their bodies fit and well resuscitated from stress and tiredness (Ayuk-Egbe et al, 2000). To this end, not much was known about Tai Chi as a public or group exercise. However with time, some schools, specifically of Chinese origin started inculcating this form of body exercise into an entire school program for students. Students who undertook Physical Education as a course or subject therefore started practicing Tai Chi on a group rather than individual basis. This is where the need for professional practitioners to be trained to manage the school based activity became necessary (Gordon, Sobel and Tarazona, 1998). Soon, Tai Chi would move from being a form of body exercise into sport or game, or perhaps competition when the performance of it started taking an inter-school format. Schools would come together to undertake Tai Chi for honorary purposes. Because Chinese schools were attended by International Students from all across the world like Africa, Europe and America, Tai Chi would spread quickly into other parts of the world. From a historical account given by Thorne (2002), clinicians and other physiotherapists started taking key interest in how Tai Chi could be specialized to be an area of complementary and alternative medicine, given the fact that the performance of Tai Chi involves several body movements that could guarantee good health and wellness. High Blood Pressure in Older Patients High blood pressure is a disease that faces several people, especially the aged. High blood pressure in older patients can be view from the complementary and alternative medicine perspective of Tai Chi as a chronic disease in which the arteries of a patient suffers elevated blood pressure (Beckman and Proctor, 2001). The reason high blood pressure, or hypertension is selected in relation to Tai Chi is that the mechanical functionality of the disease is directly related to the physical functioning of the arteries as organs in the body, when participating in Tai Chi also affects the arteries and veins directly. Once the blood pressure in the arteries of a patient becomes raised as explained earlier, the heart is also put under pressure for one major reason. The reason for this is that the heart becomes enforced to work harder than expected in the regular circulation of blood in the various blood vessels. In normal patients, the degree to which the heart contracts and relaxes, when measured using systolic and diastolic measures must produce a range of 100-140mmHg systolic (top reading) and 60-90mmHg diastolic (bottom reading) (Ayuk-Egbe et al, 2000). In patients suffering from high blood pressure however, the enforced functioning of the heart, which makes it works harder than expected pushes this value to 140/90 mmHg or above that. Risk factors in high blood pressure from CAM perspective Even though everyone can be at risk to high blood pressure or hypertension, health expects have noted that there are people and lifestyle practices that push the risk of becoming hypertensive higher. Indeed the risk factors are numerous but those that can be treated from the perspective of complementary and alternative medicine are considered in this research paper. Such risk factors include age, being overweight or obese, absence of physical activity, stress, and certain chronic conditions (Friedman, Bowden and Jones, 2003). Generally, the risk of becoming hypertensive increases with increasing age. This means that whiles people grow older they are more likely to contract high blood pressure. For men, this is in their early middle age but for women, it is after menopause. Fat and obese people also have higher risk of getting high blood pressure. This is because the more people become fat, the more they need supply of oxygen to their body tissues, putting the heart under pressure to work as the heart is the organ responsible for the supply of oxygen to all tissues (Gordon, Sobel and Tarazona, 1998). The absence of physical activity also makes the heart weak and dormant. In effect, such people have higher heart rates as compared to those who engage their bodies in regular body activity. Finally, it has been established that stress leads to a very sharp and quick increase in the level of blood pressure. This in effect put stressed people under higher risk of acquiring high blood pressure Cultural challenges faced by the afflicted patients and practitioners Studies show that most patients of high blood pressure are older people (Behera, 1998). Unfortunately, there are several cultural challenges that some of these patients face when they are afflicted with this disease. Generally, there is a misconception that high blood pressure is a disease for the elderly and so once a person grows old, the person will contract this. Because of this misconception, the need to be thorough with has always been undermined because the disease is thought of as a normal growth situation rather than a health risk. Another major challenge that patients face is withdrawal of care. What this means is that most patients are not open to complete care cycle. The major reason assigned for this situation is that high blood pressure is a chronic disease. Therefore, care must be lifetime. However, after some levels of improvement in the health of patients, care is withdrawn by most traditional practitioners and some patients. On the part of practitioners using Tai Chi as remedies for high blood pressure, the commonest cultural challenge they face is the absence of integration of service. This is so because in most places, the use of Tai Chi is not yet accepted as a complementary and alternative medicine. To this end, practitioners do not have well structured routine of giving full time recovery treatment to patients. Describe how the CAM practitioner diagnoses and treats the condition Tai Chi is both useful in the diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure. The diagnosis of high blood pressure using Tai Chi is however done in consolidation with other orthodox methods and principles such as the measurement of the systolic and diastolic of patients. Commonly, a practitioner would let patients undertake certain modules of the Tai Chi body exercise, noting that there are as many modules of the exercise as possible. With a professional knowledge of the rating of systolic and diastolic that should be recorded after each session to depict a normal sequence of blood level for a person, the practitioner measures the systolic and diastolic after the exercise. People whose systolic and diastolic exceed certain values are identified as suffering from high blood pressure. Once the diagnosis is made, the type of treatment that is given is also directly related to the level of high blood pressure. Commonly, there are metabolic functions of the body, that are directly related to the heart, which makes it possible for people undergoing certain routine body engagement to be assured of the normal functioning of their heart (Beckman and Proctor, 2001). A typical example of this is the use of physical body exercise, which ensures that the heart is always functional within limits that are suitable for the normal functioning of the body. With this understanding, Tai Chi sessions are prescribed to give just about the right amount of physical activity to the body. As Tai Chi sessions continue, blood circulation is better enhanced so that accumulation of pressure in the arteries will be eased up. Questions and Skepticisms about Tai Chi Yuan and Bieber (2003) conducted a research to investigate the religious and spiritual believes attached to the use of Tai Chi as a complementary and alternative medicine. In this research, it was established that there remain a good number of people who have apathy towards the use of Tai Chi because they believe the efficacy of Tai Chi has spiritual connotations. Findings from the study however cleared the doubts of skeptics, indicating that the efficacy of Tai Chi is just as reasonable and scientifically supported as the use of any other form of physical body exercise. Instead of viewing Tai Chi as a spiritual exercise, the research explained that engaging in Tai Chi engages the right organs of the body to function in a way and manner that is suitable for change. Because the body is a mechanical system, a refusal to keep it functioning in certain manner makes it rusty, and this is precisely what Tai Chi seeks to address. Another question that has always been asked is the question of when to know when Tai Chi is becoming too much or too little for a patient. This question is asked especially by users of orthodox medication, indicating that with orthodox medicine, there is sufficient information on dosage. But with this question also, Thorne (2002) states that it is always important to distinguish professional Tai Chi practitioners from others. This is because professional practitioners always have a means, mostly the use of systolic and diastolic measuring instruments to know when it is right to give a break to a piece of Tai Chi session. Other CAM practice interventions Apart from the use of Tai Chi, there are other complementary and alternative medicines that also work very well in minimizing the impact or risk associated with high blood pressure. One of these complementary and alternative medicines is the use of home based food supplements. This does not require the use of any orthodox or traditional medication. Rather, patients are put on certain food supplements such as cocoa, cod liver oil and garlic to ensure that their blood levels are always regulated to acceptable volumes. A major advantage of using food supplement as a complementary and alternative medicine in cases of high blood pressure is that most patients with high blood pressure also suffer cases of high sugar levels or diabetes (Behera, 1998). Using food supplements therefore helps in solving two problems at a go. What is more, the use of food supplements is regarded as highly suitable for patients with high levels of allergy to some drugs. The use aerobic exercises have also been found to be very effective in the treatment of high blood pressure. This is because engaging in aerobic exercises engages most functional parts of the body that related to the functioning of the heart and the arteries, which are the most active organizations in high blood pressure (Friedman, Bowden and Jones, 2003). As constantly as these organs function correctly, the guarantee and assurance that intense and pressurized Conclusion A number of key topical discussions that have been outlined in the paper bring about the need for strict recommendations and conclusions to be made. For example from the discussions so far, it can be concluded the Tai Chi is a very potent complementary and alternative medicine that has gone through a number of challenging history in its acceptance as not just being a sport, form of exercise or a game but as a medicine. But once it became accepted as a potent CAM, it has been so transformational in the lives of several people who otherwise felt that all hope was lost on them when it comes to the treatment and care of high blood pressure. Based on this conclusion, it is recommended that the inculcation of CAM into primary healthcare and contemporary be taken from a very holistic perspective. This is to say that just as pharmacy, laboratory services, maternity care and other departmental health care services are part of every regular health center, CAM should be included in the core practices and service of all health facilities. What is more, it can be concluded that high blood pressure as a chronic disease should not be a justification for which a patient, especially older patients will lose their lives before their time. This is because of the availability of abundance of CAM interventions that can be used treat it. In line with this, the training of practitioners in the specialization of CAM must be taken very serious. This way, the life expectancy of all can be guaranteed to be increased. References Ayuk-Egbe, P., Wutoh, A., Hailemeskel, B., Bernard, D., & Clarke-Tasker, V. (2000). A survey of nurses’ knowledge and attitudes regarding herbal therapies. National Academies of Practice Forum, 2(3), 191-194. Beckman M. R., & Proctor Z. J. (2001). Health promotion strategies through the life span (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Behera, D. (1998). Yoga therapy in chronic bronchitis. Associated Physicians of India, 46(2), 207-208. Friedman, M., Bowden, V., & Jones, E. (2003). Family nursing: Research, theory, and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Gordon, N., Sobel, D., & Tarazona, E. (1998). Use of and interest in alternative therapies among adult primary care clinicians and adult members in a large health maintenance organization The Western Journal of Medicine, 169(3), 153-159. Thorne, S. (2002). Ethical dimensions in the borderland between conventional and complementary/alternative medicine. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 8(6), 907-915. Yuan, C. & Bieber, E. (2003). The textbook of complementary and alternative medicine. New York: The Parthenon Publishing Group. Read More