RESEARCH
PHILOSOPHIES OF MEDICINE By
Areeha Khalid Katrina Schmitt
Many people think “medicine” is one big field with a series of subspecialties. In fact, there are many different philosophies on how one should approach healing! From traditional alternative medicine techniques, like acupuncture, to interventions based on the mind, like meditation, practitioners all over the world treat physical and mental illnesses very differently. In this piece, we’re going to focus on allopathy, osteopathy, and homeopathy specifically.
Allopathy Although humans have practiced forms of rudimentary healing since the beginning of time, the first known records of medical treatments for diseases were kept by an Egyptian physician named Imhotep and date back to 2600 BC. Over two thousand years later, Hippocrates, widely credited as the father of modern medicine, began
the scientific study of medicine in Greece. Early practices of medicine used treatments that were not very effective, or even downright harmful. However, as science and human knowledge developed, medicine, too, evolved into the research-based field we see today. Allopathy (or the “M.D.”) is typically what people imagine when they think of a “doctor” or “going to medical school,” and the standardized form of medicine used in the U.S. and many countries around the world. Interestingly, the term allopath, which originates from Greek (where allos means “against'' and pathos means “suffering”), was first used as a critique by homeopaths in the early nineteenth century towards allopathic medicine for their approach of treating the symptoms of a disease, as opposed to the root cause or disease prevention. However, over time allopathic medicine has become the conventional form of medicine,
using scientific discoveries (such as vaccines, administration of exogenous, and new medications and surgeries) to not only treat the symptoms of diseases but eliminate or prevent many illnesses altogether. Allopathic doctors attend medical school for four years, followed by a three- to seven-year period of residencies or fellowships that allow them to specialize in a subfield of their choice, from dermatology to neurology. In the U.S., there are over one hundred and fifty medical schools that offer M.D. programs for students to pursue allopathic medicine.
Osteopathy Osteopathy (or the “D.O.”) is an offshoot of allopathic medicine based on the philosophy that all body systems are interrelated, and thus illnesses should be treated in the context of the whole body. Osteopathy began in 1874 by Dr.
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