Allopathic medicine

From ArticleWorld

Allopathic medicine, also called allopathy, is a term used by proponents of alternative medicine to describe any form of medicine that is considered conventional or mainstream. Calling a type of medicine or therapy “allopathic” is considered making a disparaging remark about that therapy.

The term, allopathy, was coined by Samuel Hahnemann in the late 18th century. Hahnemann was the founder of homeopathy, an altogether different medical approach to treating patients when compared to mainstream medicine. In Greek, “allopathy” means “opposite disease”. This refers to the belief by many homeopaths that conventional medicine treats disease by creating the opposite symptoms to the condition being treated, thus not really treating the disease.

The use of the term, allopathic medicine, came into popular use in Europe and in the US in the 1800s and persists today. Part of the reason such a term still exists is that there are natural battle lines firmly entrenched between conventional medical therapies and homeopathic medical remedies—lines that are not likely to dissipate. Homeopaths, having beliefs nearly directly opposite to conventional medical practitioners, attempt to gently mimic the disease being treated using several kinds of tinctures. By doing this, homeopaths believe this kind of treatment affects a true cure. In contrast to allopathic medicine, the practices of homeopathy have yet to stand up to formal scientific evaluation.