influence and, therefore, upon any change of the environment, the system must perform work that would influence the alterations of state induced by said external influence, thus changing them.”
The described principles correlate with modern ideas on self-organizing systems, developed by the schools of I.Prigozhin and G.Haken. According to S.E.Shnol – a prominent Russian biophysicist – the following is directly related to the problems in question:
1)thermodynamics of irreversible processes;
2)information theory;
3)bioenergetics (ways and mechanisms of energy transformation in biological processes);
4)physics and physical chemistry of biologically important macromolecules.
This list should also include the concept of cyclic influences of cosmic processes in biology, especially by the Sun. The prominent Russian scientist A.L. Chizhevskiy was the first to draw attention towards these issues. He developed and validated the principle of ‘cosmic determinism' – the dependence of terrestrial biological cycles on Earth on the cosmic activity.
“We are used to the crude and narrow-minded antiphilosophical idea of life being the outcome of a random interplay of solely terrestrial forces. This, of course, is wrong. We can see that life is more of a cosmic phenomenon than an earthly one. It has been created by the influence of creative dynamics of the Cosmos on the inert material of Earth. It lives by the dynamics of these forces, and every organic pulsation is harmonized with the beating of cosmic heart – the enormous congregation of nebulae, stars, the Sun and the planets”.
Chizhevskiy A.L.
Nowadays these issues have been extensively studied by hundreds of scientists all over the world and do not longer cause such controversy as in Chizhevskiy’s time. Ideas of the rhythmic of life in all its manifestations – from an individual person’s cycles of activity, such as neurohumoral and endocrine processes, to the macro scale rhythms of the society – have permeated all layers of society and received public recognition. All the more, we have increasing understanding that those rhythms are directly related to our everyday life and health.
Fundamental trends of medicine of the XXI century
It is becoming obvious that the XXI century calls for a new medical paradigm, a new approach towards health and treatment.
Many physicians and researchers have been developing the principles of this new approach; in particular, these principles are described in the book Logic of Health by the Moscow physician Anatoly Volkov, who based his book on years of medical practice and treatment of hundreds of patients saved from the most serious illnesses.
•“Health is an optimal state of the organism that implies adequate reaction of the organism towards any kind of external stimuli.
•A human organism is a self-regulating system that may be corrected just a little, but must never be regulated from outside.
•An organism that provides an adequate response to external stimuli does not need any drugs. Therefore, medicines and drugs should only be used for emergency medical treatments.
•Any treatment should aim at restoring the natural level of the organism’s adaptability to external stimuli, except when some functions of the organism have been irreversibly lost. “
We can see that these ideas have a lot in common with the views of great ancient physicians, from Hippocrates, Galen and Roger Bacon to the Eastern philosophers – Israeli, Chinese, Korean and Indian.
What is happening today in the modern European world is a gradual return to those ideas, to a wider understanding of the nature of human beings and our place in the Universe.
In the Western industrial countries this process has led to the creation of new medical trends that still have not been properly structured and sometimes do not even have a universal name.
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE
INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE
ENERGY MEDICINE
HOLISTIC MEDICINE
SYSTEMIC MEDICINE
These titles can be seen in journal captions, in names of professional communities, in lectures at international conferences. Although there is still some confusion about the name of the trend, the trend itself has already grown mature, has manifested itself and proved its right to exist. This “novel” medicine employs an overwhelming variety of methods: from acupuncture, homeopathy, electric and magnetic therapy, to psychosocial and informational stimulations. All these different approaches are united by the one main principle – the idea of a human as a unified system, and the concept of influencing the whole hierarchy of processes uniting the material body, mind and soul.
A human being is neither a machine, nor a computer, nor a chemical laboratory – it is God’s creation, the summit of evolution of biological life on Earth.
This changes the whole goal setting of medicine as a practical discipline. The main purpose of contemporary Occidental Allopathic medicine is to cure diseases. At the same time, all physicians understand that terminating a malignant process at an early stage is much easier than doing so during acute manifestations of pathology. Many people could have been saved from heart attacks or strokes if underlying corresponding processes had been secured and understood prior to clinical manifestations. The majority of tumours discovered at early stages can be successfully treated with contemporary methods.
Therefore, one of the main tasks of the XXI century medicine is the creation of a system of early diagnostics and disease prevention, in other worlds – the transition to individual preventive medicine, a medicine of health. Preventing diseases rather than treating them – this is the goal of the ‘new’ medicine.
Everything new is old again, the saying goes. The concept of prevention has always been the foundation stone of the Eastern medicines. In ancient China, a family physician received payment only as long as all family members were healthy. Whenever someone fell ill, the payment stopped. No wonder that physicians went to great pains to preserve health of their patients. In contrast, in the Occidental Allopathic medicine we pay physicians when we are ill and consequently… (one does not wish to draw offending conclusions). Part of the Eastern health system consists of meditation techniques, relaxation exercises, massage and hydrotherapeutic procedures – our contemporary medicine has only started to approach this. A whole complex of procedures had been developed for ensuring a healthy life in old age, whereas we have only started assimilation of such methods. Another important thing is that the methods of systemic, integrative, alternative medicine employ only natural ingredients.
Modern synthetic drugs prove effective in the vast majority of cases, especially when saving the life of a patient or turning the tide of a health crisis. Not to mention such drugs as Viagra. Contemporary medicine is a battlefield, when one has to save a patient’s life, without giving much thought to possible secondary consequences.
Natural medicines operate in a much milder way. As a rule, they do not provide an immediate intense effect; they do their job over time, slowly but persistently and successfully. Plant-based medicines can cure chronic illnesses or prevent them from arising in the first place. Small doses of such medicines do not cause addiction or dependence, while functioning in an efficient manner over long-term periods. Apparently, natural substances
