Abstract
I attempt to relativize allopathic medicine, or Modern Establishment Medicine (MEM), specifically in the context of the ayurvedic medical system of India, and to promote Daniel Moerman’s concept of the medical “meaning response” as a preferable conceptualization of the phenomena usually subsumed under the name “placebo.” Finally, I suggest that once these steps have been taken, a space opens up in which informed ayurvedic practice – indeed, any human activities aimed at promoting health – may find a valid place.
Highlights
This journal is published by the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh as part of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program, and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press
I attempt to relativize allopathic medicine, or Modern Establishment Medicine (MEM), in the context of the ayurvedic medical system of India, and to promote Daniel Moerman’s concept of the medical “meaning response” as a preferable conceptualization of the phenomena usually subsumed under the name “placebo.” I suggest that once these steps have been taken, a space opens up in which informed ayurvedic practice – any human activities aimed at promoting health – may find a valid place
The professor decided that further tests would be prohibitively expensive. He suspected that allopathic (MEM) doctors were in league with each other, and would continue recommending expensive tests in order to support each other‘s practice
Summary
A professor at Trivandrum University, India, visited England as a guest lecturer not long ago. The professor had formerly followed quite a strict diet in any case, and practiced simple yoga, so these recommendations amounted to a reinforcement of his normal, and healthy, routines of daily life. He did not volunteer the name of the drug he was given, but it is likely to have been nitro-glycerine This drug, dissolved under the tongue, had been commonly prescribed for angina, the pain that follows a reduction in the flow of blood to the heart muscle, since the second half of the nineteenth century. The normal reasons given for heart bypass surgery are that the procedure will increase the blood supply to the heart This in turn will improve the health of the heart muscle, and will lead to prolonged life for the patient. Is a system that enjoys success in giving patients relief from a range of ailments, but whose explanatory mechanisms are hard or impossible
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