Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Medicine Basic Medical Sciences Department Head Prof. Dr. Ahmet Usta moderated the “Integrated Medicine” event. The guest of the event was Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yaser Müslümanoğlu, Director of GETAT Research Center.
“In the medicine we all trained in the West, there is no such thing as different cultures”
Addressing the distinction between traditional medicine and complementary medicine in the online program held within the scope of pandemic measures, Müslümanoğlu said, “Traditional medicine is used to refer to medical systems developed in different societies based on empirical knowledge, such as master-apprentice relationships, using evidence and research and measurement methods conducted with scientific methods. Complementary medicine is the meaning gained when health practices believed to provide additional benefits are used together with conventional medicine. Alternative medicine is a concept that generally expresses what the field it covers is not, rather than what it is.”
“Integrative medicine differs from complementary and alternative medicine”
Müslümanoğlu, speaking about integrative medicine, said: “Today, developments in the scientific world encompass all traditional treatment approaches that have been used for centuries in the treatment of various diseases and whose effectiveness has been proven among the public. Thus, efforts are being made to identify traditional treatment approaches from which people can benefit.
Integrative medicine differs from complementary and alternative medicine. Firstly, while CAM practitioners often apply treatments instead of scientific medicine, and sometimes alongside scientific medicine, integrative medicine practitioners apply complementary medicine treatments in a way that is compatible with scientific medicine.”
“Traditional medicine is as old as human history”
Stating that traditional medicine is as old as human history, Müslümanoğlu said, “It has a 5000-year history in written records. Traditional Turkish folk medicine, which emerged before Islam, has a history of thousands of years. Among the sources of traditional Anatolian Folk Medicine lie both pre-Islamic and post-Islamic beliefs and practices. Approximately 2500 years ago, Hippocrates developed the Philosophy of Nature he learned from his teacher Alkmaion in Anatolian lands.”
“Western medicine focuses on diseases, traditional medicine on patients”
Speaking about the scientific study algorithm, Müslümanoğlu said: “We all received training in Western medicine. It is quite difficult to apply the standards applied in Western medicine clinical study standards to traditional medicine. While Western medicine focuses on diseases, traditional medicine focuses on patients. Due to a holistic approach, different treatment approaches can be applied to each patient for the same disease. A different ethics committee application is required for traditional medicine. Turkey is among the first countries in the world to establish a traditional ethics committee.”