Break Free from Conventions with Traditional Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) revolves around qi, a concept in Chinese culture describing the energy that flows through everything. An imbalance of qi can cause disease. The ancient Chinese believed that good health comes down to achieving an equilibrium between your internal organs and natural surroundings. Acupuncture, tai chi, and cupping therapy are all TCM modalities.

Traditional Indian medicine

In India, traditional medicine is divided into three categories: Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani. Ayurveda, the most used, is a holistic, personalized system aimed at promoting longevity. As in TCM, Indian medicine is centred on balancing bodily organs and external elements.

Traditional Indigenous medicine

For centuries, Indigenous populations in North America have practised their own traditional forms of wellness through ceremonies; plant, animal, or mineral-based medicines; energetic therapies; and physical or hands-on techniques, all of which rely upon an emphasis on Mother Earth.

Traditional African medicine

Traditional African medicine is deeply rooted in the spiritual, with many practitioners using divination to connect with the gods and ancestral spirits for diagnosis before treatment with herbal medicines.

How is traditional medicine different?

With conventional medicine, “we often wait until we get to a disease diagnosis,” says Krista Dawn Poulton, a medical herbalist. Comparatively, traditional medicine is more holistic, with an emphasis on preventive care. It can be seen as filling the gaps left by conventional medicine and is often turned to as a last resort to fix an existing problem, she added.

Traditional medicine is often treated as pre-scientific, but a lot of conventional medicines come from plants. For example, aspirin was derived from the bark of a willow tree and morphine is extracted from the opium poppy, while vincristine—long-used in chemotherapy treatments—was isolated in 1961 from a Madagascar periwinkle flower.

Who seeks out traditional medicine?

Some estimates suggest that more than half of the world’s population uses traditional or alternative medicine. In the West, people who “feel like they’ve fallen into a gap in the healthcare system,” waiting for a diagnosis, not feeling heard, or not getting the right treatment, may be more likely to seek out alternative medicine, says Poulton.

There’s also a growing trend in the West toward proactive health, preventive care, and healthy lifestyle choices. The complementary and alternative medicine market in Canada has been growing steadily and is expected to continue this growth as consumers look for reliable options.

Benefits and shortcomings of traditional medicine

One of the key benefits of traditional and alternative medicine is its holistic approach to health. Alternative medicine practitioners often spend over an hour with a patient each session, addressing a myriad of different concerns, says Poulton.

Compare this with a visit to a conventional doctor where you’re often limited to focusing on one complaint and, as Poulton says, you “lose out on the wholeness of the person,” which could better inform the diagnosis. However, scientific evidence that backs the use of certain traditional medicines may be lacking, so downsides like unintended side effects may not be known.

Bridging the gap

The healthcare system in Canada is overtaxed. Poulton believes this is because of the overreliance on acute conventional care over preventive care. Bridging the gap between the two by emphasizing proactive healthcare, effective natural supplements, and healthy lifestyle choices, could improve health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and diminish the stress on our overburdened healthcare system.

This article was originally published in the March 2025 issue of alive magazine.