Traditional vs. Alternative Medicine

"In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Revelation 22:2

When Jesus Christ first told me not to pursue chemotherapy or radiation in treating my cancer, I ran into a virtual brick wall from the "established" medical community.

One way that they tried to discourage me was in the way that they [disdainfully] referred to other treatments.  The treatments I considered were "alternatives" while the treatments they offered were "traditional".

traditional: conventional; customary; established; handed down by, or in accordance with, tradition.

alternative: employing or following nontraditional or unconventional ideas, methods; existing outside the establishment.

This terminology itself was enough to cause concern for me.  Who was I to think I knew better than the established medical industry?   Would I trade in the training & expertise of medical doctors in favor of some potential snake oil peddled by a quack?  Why would I forsake "traditional" tried & true medicines for that which was - by implication - untried, unconventional, and untrue? Not to mention that the word "alternative" evoked images of anti-social behavior, i.e. tattoos, strange piercings, self-mutilation, etc. 

Then I began to realize how absurd their off-the-cuff categorizations were.  I was being bewitched in my thinking by simply drinking down everything they were telling me instead of using the brain the good Lord had given me.

When we truly look at what is traditional, would that be considered "modern medicine" or would that be natural herbs and plants that have been used to treat disease (and designed by God to do so) for thousands of years?  

I am not saying that older means better, for clearly we hope to make medical advances as times goes on.  I am contending that the medicines which are "traditional" are in fact those which have the longest history of use. Those are the types of medicines which have been traditionally used by mankind, not the chemicals and synthetic drugs which have only been manufactured since the 19th century.  Rather, the pharmaceuticals are the "alternatives" to such traditional treatments.