Traditional medicine

Nowadays, it is common for people to expect to live up to eighty years old or more, compare to people who live in eighteenth century mostly live up to forty years old. In 2000, the infant mortality rate falled by eighty percent since 1950 and between 1970 and 1992, infectious diseases nearly halved. These statistics clearly show that modern medicine has advanced so much alongside with the new treatments and marvelous surgery (Porter, 1997). Medicine has become one of the most important aspect of humans, which no other species acquire. The root of medicine may be found in the philosophical and religious traditions it have grown out of.

“Traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness” ( World Health Organization, nd).

Modern medicine mostly used in today hospital is Western medicine, which is believed to be originated from Ancient Egypt medicine about 500 years ago. This claim is supported by the archeological evidence in “medical instruments, art pieces and at least seven medical papyruses” in Ancient Egypt ( Carlos, 2005).

Modern medicine and Traditional medicine are different in terms of their philosophy, their medical tools and their treatments to the disease. . “Western medicine is based on biomedical science” which emphasizes on collecting data and evidence.Due to analytical and reductive methods, Western medicine is very efficacy in comprehending “the structure and function of the human body and diseases-causing agents such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, virus, etc” (Zhange, nd). Thanks to collective scientific data from anatomy, histology, cytology, ultra-structure, molecular biology and sub-molecular biology, the Western biology has been provided with “the clear and detailed