Traditional Medicine, Such As Acupuncture And Herbal Remedies, Is Very Popular In Some Countries | Band 7 IELTS Essay Sample

Traditional medicine, such as acupuncture and herbal remedies, is very popular in some countries. Those who practise traditional medicine claim that it is better than modern medicine in maintaining and improving health. Do you agree or disagree with this viewpoint?

Here is a band 7 IELTS essay on this topic written by one of our students. Need help with IELTS writing? Get your IELTS essays, letters and reports corrected by me.

Band 7 IELTS essay sample

As more and more people in several areas opt for traditional medicine, doctors who are in this field of alternative medicine hold the opinion that the Western medicine is not as effective as theirs in promoting health. However, I mostly disagree with this belief for many reasons.

To begin with, the knowledge and practise of conventional medical settings are evident-based and built on rigorous research. For example, before introducing a new drug, it must undergo laboratory, animal, then human tests to ensure safety and efficacy. Additionally, post-market monitoring is still conducted, even when the medications are accepted and available for use. This whole process is complex and can take years on end to produce one drug. By contrast, herbal remedies are not studied as carefully as their counterparts about how many chemical compounds they consist of and their amount, which can lead to underdose or overdose, and difficulties in assessing and evaluating their effects.

Secondly, allopathic medicine looks at the exact causes of diseases and treats them with pharmacological or invasive methods to remove the offending agent. Conversely, traditional medicine revolves around a whole-body approach that stimulates its ability to heal itself via energy alignment, herbal supplementation, and other balancing techniques. Consider the example of acupuncture that is mainly used to relieve pain. However, there are many sources of pain such as injuries, infection, or nervous system, which require specific treatments in order to address it completely. In this way, acupuncture can only alleviate pain temporarily, but does not diagnose the root cause and cure it.

In conclusion, although there continues to be disagreement over which method is better than others, when comparing both of them systematically, I firmly believe that the conventional modalities should be the first choice and traditional medicine may be considered if it fails.

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Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I'm Manjusha. This is my blog where I give IELTS preparation tips.