WHAT IS INTEGRATED HEALTH? CONVENTIONAL AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE: LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER - MANY DIFFERENT FORMS OF MEDICINE FOR DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

What conventional medicine has achieved in its brief 300 years of existence is to find treatments, partly for acute conditions that in the past have been beyond traditional techniques, but principally for those acute ailments created by modern society, such as new and more damaging toxins, and the terrible injuries resulting from crime, transportation accidents, warfare and industrial hazards. Traditional or complementary medicine can still, however, deal with chronic conditions, usually more effectively and cheaply than conventional medicine.

We therefore have a situation which is relatively new, where there are many different forms of medicine for different conditions, many of them recent developments, and competition has resulted in conflict and even professional warfare. This is a tragedy, and it has rested with just a few of us to try to redress the balance by adopting the opposite attitude of culling the best from every form of medicine and integrating it all for the benefit of the health of mankind and the cost-effectiveness of the health services.

Some may say that there are clear movements in the health service towards integrated medicine. Aromotherapy, for example has been introduced in some hospitals, soothing music is provided, and acupuncture is used for pain relief instead of drugs. This is not integrated medicine. The complementary therapies are only used by conventional medicine where they offer no threat to existing practices, and then only as a 'feel-good' component. Some incidents have resulted in strong resistance on the part of conventional doctors to complementary therapies. For example, there was the case of the Chinese herbs that cured eczema, a disease for which there is no conventional cure. The herbalists in China Town in Soho, right in the heart of London, were flooded with patients when the news broke, some queuing up from 1 a.m. in the hope of obtaining relief. They didn't care about drug regulations, toxicity or illegal practice. They just went for it. The fact was it was a wonderful medicine and cured a lot of people.

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