The Nature of Healthy Living
Conventional and alternative medical systems have different perspectives on the
promotion of health. Conventional medicine focuses on disease prevention.
Consumers are taught how to decrease their risk of cancer, cardiac disorders, and
other life-threatening diseases that cause most premature deaths in Western society.
As important as these behaviors are, however, disease prevention is only one piece
of health promotion.
Health promotion from the alternative perspective is a lifelong process that focuses
on optimal development of our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual selves. An
individual’s worldviews, values, lifestyles, and health beliefs are considered to be of
critical importance. People are encouraged to adopt healthier lifestyles, to accept
increased responsibility for their own well-being, and to learn how to handle com-
mon health problems on their own through greater self-reliance.Research Comparing the Two Systems
Scientific beliefs rest not just on facts, but on paradigms—broad views of how these
facts are related and organized. Differences of opinion between groups of researchers
are at least partly a reflection of the different scientific paradigms each group uses.
This understanding may provide some insight into the ongoing conflict between
quantitative and qualitative researchers, nursing and medical researchers, Western
and Eastern researchers, and conventional and alternative medical researchers. A
common, yet seemingly almost invisible, presumption is that the “experts” of con-
ventional medicine are entitled and qualified to pass judgment on the scientific and
therapeutic merits of alternative therapies. However, since the paradigms of the sys-
tems are so different, they are truly not qualified. Just like the use of the therapies
themselves, understanding alternative medicine from a research perspective requires
the blending of multiple techniques and points of view.Three Approaches to Research
Particulate-deterministic, or quantitative, research represents the principles of
Western scientific method, which include formulating and testing hypotheses and
then rejecting or accepting the hypotheses. Every question is reduced to the smallest
possible part. Results can be replicated and generalized. Outcomes can be predicted
and controlled. Particulate-deterministic research is said to be objective in that the
observer is separate from those being observed. Another part of this objective para-
digm is that all information can be derived from physically measurable data. This
type of research has been extremely effective for isolating the factors that cause dis-
ease and for developing cures. On the other hand, it cannot explain the whole per-
son as an integrated unit.12 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TOALTERNATIVE MEDICINE