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ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
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GUIDE TO HOLISTIC & ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
The term "holistic" covers a multitude of therapeutic approaches, ranging from healing, alternative medicine and T'ai Chi to meditation, dowsing for health (radiesthesia) and medical astrology.
Interest in holistic medicine has increased tremendously in recent years, with more and more people becoming aware of the real benefits to be obtained from natural, intuitive and traditional healing methods.
The word holistc - sometimes wholistic - is derived from the Greek word holos, meaning complete or unified, and refers to an approach which recognises that living systems must be regarded in their entirety, and that an organism is more than the sum of its parts.
The holistic therapist treats the whole person, taking into account such factors as diet, environmental conditions, heredity and the psychic and psychological make-up of the individual. This approach differs radically from that of orthodox medicine, where the emphasis is on the diagnosis and treatment of the symptoms of disease, and where illness is usually regarded in terms of local disorders affecting specific organs or parts of the body. In holistic medicine, spontaneous disease is regarded as a general or overall imbalance in the individual's vital energy flow, which may be corrected using natural healing methods and by prescribing the optimum conditions in which the body's own self-healing process can take place. According to the holistic view, illness is not something you have, but something you express. An individual is not ill because he or she has an ulcer, but has developed an ulcer because he or she is ill. Whereas orthodox doctors are interested in knowing what kind of disease a person has, holistic practitioners are more interested in finding out what kind of person has that disease.
Whereas the primary aim of a conventional doctor is to diagnose the patient's illness by taking note of signs and symptoms like pain, swelling, rashes and so on, the first objective of a holistic practitioner is to find out as much as possible about the patient's background - not just their medical history, but also their lifestyle, diet, mental outlook, ambitions, creative drive and so on. Disease - and vulnerability to infection etc. - is seen as a consequence of some deeper or more general imbalance.
In holistic medicine, body and mind are regarded as one integral function, rather than separate mechanisms, and there is an emphasis on mental and emotional states and the effect these have on health and well-being.
Another feature of holistic medicine which distinguishes it from the orthodox or allopathic approach is the emphasis it places on preventative systems. Whereas most general practitioners only see their patients when they become ill, most holistic therapists prefer to see their patients on a regular basis, whether or not they feel unwell.
Holistic medicine, therefore, is aimed at eliminating the causes of disease, or strengthening the body's resistance to disease, whereas conventional medicine is largely concerned with the suppression and control of its symptoms.
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