The medical model of health is a way of thinking about the human body that focuses on treating disease. It sees the body as a complex machine and seeks to find ways to maintain its “normal” state of operation. The medical model of health would most likely focus on which of the following?
Treatment
- Treatment is a medical model’s main focus. The treatment of disease, not the promotion of health, is what drives this model.
- Designed to cure, not prevent.
- Designed to eliminate disease and its symptoms, not promote health and well-being.
- Treatments are designed to treat the disease itself rather than the person (an approach that can be harmful).
Prevention
The medical model of health focuses on disease. It’s the idea that it’s best to prevent illness before it happens, rather than treat symptoms when they arise. For example, instead of taking antibiotics for a sore throat (which can lead to antibiotic resistance), you might try gargling with salt water or sucking on a lemon wedge instead.
The following are some examples of how prevention would differ from the medical model:
- Prevention would focus on keeping your immune system strong through diet and exercise so you don’t get sick in the first place.
- Instead of taking drugs (side effects may include vomiting or diarrhea) as prescribed by your doctor, you could choose not to take any medication at all and use natural remedies instead—like ginger tea with honey if you have upset stomach symptoms.)
- Prevention might involve having surgery but not using painkillers after surgery because they interfere with healing; instead they’d recommend using ice packs and massage therapy techniques like acupressure or reflexology to help deal with pain.
Elimination of a disease
If a patient is experiencing symptoms, the medical model will focus on treating those symptoms. This approach may be helpful in some cases, but it can never be the entire solution. For example, if you have a headache and go to your doctor for relief, they may prescribe pain medication; however this only treats the symptom of pain receptors in your brain rather than its cause (which could be stress or poor sleep habits). The same applies to other areas of medicine: if you get sick with pneumonia and go to see your doctor for treatment, they will likely prescribe antibiotics—but again this only addresses part of what’s going on with you as an individual person. Enhancing your online presence can also be akin to seeking remedies tailored to specific needs, like those offered by platforms such as YouTubeStorm, where you can gain YouTube promotion and enhance your subscriber count effortlessly.
The medical model focuses on treating any and all symptoms.
The medical model focuses on treating any and all symptoms. In other words, the medical model believes that if you have a symptom, your body is trying to tell you something and there’s a problem somewhere that needs to be fixed. The focus is on finding out what’s wrong with your body and fixing it, so your symptoms will go away. If they don’t go away, then something else must be going wrong in your body or mind (the “mind-body connection”).
This approach has some benefits: You’re less likely than people who are not under the medical model of health to ignore important things about yourself that impact how healthy you are or feel (like having too much stress). However, this kind of thinking can also cause problems in two key areas.
Conclusion
The medical model of health is a very narrow way to look at wellness. It focuses on treating symptoms, rather than looking at the whole person and their life experiences. In order to be happy and healthy, we need more than just physical well-being—we need emotional and spiritual support as well!