considered by all health care professionals. Information is based on qualitative information from the patient and from the professional’s own intuition, quantitative data is an adjunct. This approach to medicine sees the allopathic approach as one that is too limiting.In the allopathic model, when it comes to examining the patient the physician, the allopath, looks mainly for symptoms. The allopath is taught to look for specifics; something that could be labeled and classified. If a patent were to go a doctor who is a General Practitioner of Medicine (GP), he or she, would most likely make a routine check of the individual’s vital signs to start to see if there were any evidence of what could be deemed illness. If there were not any to be found then the doctor would most likely investigate further. The holistic practitioner also would examine the vital signs of the individual but would also try to see patterns in the individuals general health and to note them.Many of the differences in ideas are caused simply by the difference in the cultures from which they sprang. Our society is founded on capitalism and is incessant for more. For this reason it is no wonder that an allopath is trained with an emphasis on efficiency. In the cultures of the East, many of which trail us in modern technology and differ in values, a holistic practitioner is taught to have an emphasis on human values. Our culture while it knows that addictions such as smoking or drinking causes the body to be less resistant to illness but our society that is more intrigued with the pleasure principle will not stop. The theologies of the east particularly Buddhism and Hinduism teaches towards finding freedoms from addictions and also wants. Buddha taught that as long as life is the striving towards obtaining gratification then life would always be suffering since one would always desire to have more.The yogis and monks of the East influenced holisti...
