Therapies

Holistic medicine is a term used to describe therapies that attempt to treat the patient as a whole person. That is, instead of treating the patient's symptoms (as in orthodox ‘allopathic' or 'conventional' medicine) holistic medicine looks at their overall physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional state before recommending treatment. A practitioner with a holistic approach treats the symptoms of illness as well as looking for the underlying cause of the illness.

Holistic medicine also attempts to prevent illness by placing a greater emphasis on optimizing health. The body's systems are seen as interdependent parts of the person's whole being. Its natural state is one of health, and an illness or disease is an imbalance in the body's systems. There are a number of therapies that are holistic in nature. These include , naturopathic, herbal, Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. The practice of holistic medicine does not rule out the practice of allopathic medicine; the two can complement each other, hence the popularity of the term ‘complementary' medicine.

There are no limits to the range of diseases and disorders that can be treated in a holistic way, as the principle of holistic healing is to balance the body, mind, spirit, and emotions so that the person's whole being functions smoothly. When an individual seeks holistic treatment for a particular illness or condition, other health problems improve without direct treatment, due to improvement in the performance of the immune system, which is one of the goals of holistic medicine.

The aim of holistic medicine is to bring all areas of an individual's life, and most particularly the energy flowing through the body, back into harmony. Ultimately, of course, only the patient can be responsible for this, for no practitioner can make the necessary adjustments to diet and lifestyle to achieve health.

A properly balanced holistic health regime, which takes into consideration all aspects of human health and includes noninvasive and nonpharmaceutical healing methods, can often completely eradicate even acute health conditions safely. If a patient is being treated with allopathic medicine, holistic therapies may support the body during treatment, and alleviate the symptoms that often come with drug treatments and surgery. In addition, holistic therapies aim at the underlying source of the illness, to prevent recurrence.

The Principles of Holistic Medicine

1. The primary goal of holistic medical practice is optimal health.This is the highest level of functioning and balance of the physical, environmental, mental, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of human experience - resulting in a dynamic state of being fully alive.
2. The Healing Power of Love. Holistic health care practitioners strive to meet the patient with grace, kindness, acceptance, and spirit without condition, as love is life's most powerful healer.
3. Holistic medicine considers the whole person - the unity of body, mind, spirit and the systems in which they live.
4. Holistic medicine promotes health, relieves symptoms and seeks to prevent illness by raising awareness of disease in our lives rather than merely managing symptoms.
5. Holistic medicine is based upon a belief that alll people have innate powers of healing in their bodies, minds and spirits. Practitioners help patients utilize these powers to affect the healing process.
6. Holistic practitioners embrace a lifetime of learning about all safe and effective methods of treatment. These methods come from a variety of traditions, and are selected in order to best meet the unique needs of the patient. The realm of choices may include lifestyle modification and complementary approaches as well as conventional drugs and surgery.
7. The ideal practitioner-patient relationship is a partnership which encourages patient autonomy, and values the needs and insights of both parties.
8. Holistic practitioners focus patient care on the unique needs and nature of the person who has an illness rather than the illness itself.
9. Holistic practitioners continually work toward the personal incorporation of the principles of holistic health, teaching their patients by example.
10. All life experiences including birth, joy, suffering and the dying process are profound learning opportunities for both patients and health care practitioners