Modern medicine examines and treats the human body in terms of chemical and mechanical dysfunction. For this reason, conventional drugs and other interventions relate purely to the physical symptoms, and frequently involve exposure to unwanted side effects. Anthroposophical doctors are conventionally qualified practioners who go on to train with a fuller picture of the human body, examining the wider dimensions which make the human organism function as an actively thinking, feeling and aware person. Using Rudolf Steiner's principles and related treatments and therapies, anthroposophical doctors often attend to cases which conventional medicine has failed to cure. By responding to the wider picture of the patient, in terms of lifestyle, temperament and sociability, they can re-establish a healthy balance while greatly reducing the use of conventional drugs.