Nowadays, a growing number of people with health problems are trying alternative medicines and treatments instead of visiting their usual doctor. Do you think this is a positive or a negative development? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

In contemporary life, many with an illness opt to use alternative

medicines

and treatments

instead

of seeing a

healthcare

professional. In my opinion, doing

this

is detrimental to one's health, and is a negative development.

To begin

with, alternative

medicines

might not be approved by a

healthcare

professional, so as a consequence, they can pose serious threats to their patient's well-being. There are many

medicines

available on the market that claims to be able to

cure

many diseases, and while they might seem to be very effective, they can be detrimental to one's health.

For example

, the medicine may have underlying effects that the patients are unaware of, and those effects might only reveal themselves after a long period of treatment.

As a result

, guidance from a doctor is necessary. Another reason is that while these

medicines

might

cure

the symptoms, they may not

cure

the underlying disease. To elaborate, without seeing a

healthcare

professional, many diseases can lay undetected for years because their early signs are missed.

Then

, when diagnosed, they may have become much more severe, and in many cases, fatal. A doctor with years of experience,

however

, can detect the illness even when the symptoms are still relatively mild, and

this

would significantly increase the effectiveness of treatment.

Therefore

, it is essential that patients visit a

healthcare

expert so that

such

diseases could be prevented, or cured at an early stage. In conclusion, I believe that taking alternative

medicines

and treatments poses a serious problem to people's well-being, and should be avoided.

Thus

, people with health problems should always see a

healthcare

expert,

instead

of trying to

cure

the disease on their own.