Contemporary approaches to understanding health, disease and its treatment differ widely from the traditional way of treating health problems of individuals . For example, before the "Age of Reason", beliefs about vindictive spirits, evil and divine intervention, and practices of witchcraft and witchcraft were widespread (Porter, 1997, cited in Williams, 2003) . Another example is the practice of Greek medicine; a more naturalistic approach used by the practitioner to adjust the body through humoral theories of balance and lifestyle modification. Likewise, at this age, the combination of physical, emotional, and spiritual factors contributed to the development of the “sick man” (Williams, 2003). These medical teachings were authoritative until the 18th century. However, around the 19th century, many discoveries such as Vesalius's anatomical atlas and Harvey's process of blood circulation challenged traditional medicine, paving the way for the rise of a newer and more modern form of medicine. more systematic (Williams, 2003, p. 11). , marking the growth and supremacy of scientific medicine. The evolution of scientific medicine is well documented in several publications (Gabe, Keheller and Williams, 1994; Longino, 1998; Marcum, 2008; Morris, 2000; Quirke and Gaudillière, 2008; Williams, 2003). There has been a gradual shift from a preference for licensed or unlicensed healers to the legitimization of the medical profession and the medicalization of natural life experiences (Gabe et al., 1994). Thus, scientific medicine, commonly referred to as biomedicine, has continued to dominate the discourse on health and illness from the late 18th century to the present (Williams, 2003). Despite this perceived supremacy, does scientific medicine...... middle of article ......s of this essay apply? The Lancet, 365(9453), 82-93. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17670-8Thorpe, R.D. (2008). Integrating biomedical and CAM approaches: the experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS. Journal of Sociology of Health, 17(4), 410-418. Tonelli, MR and Callahan, TC (2001). Why alternative medicine cannot be evidence-based. Academic Medicine, 76(12), 1213-1220. Torgerson, D.J. (2003). Avoiding bias in randomized controlled trials in educational research. British Journal of Educational Studies, 51(1), 36-45. Williams, S. J. (2003). Medicine and the body. London: SAGE publications Ltd. Xue, CCL, Zhang, AL, Lin, V., Costa, CD and Story, DF (2007). Use of complementary and alternative medicine in Australia: a national population-based survey. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 13(6), 643-650. doi: 10.1089/acm.2006.6355.