Holistic Medicine

Holistic Medicine

Holistic Medicine, commonly referred to as “Alternative Medicine”, is a vast and rapidly growing new scientific field. It is derived mainly from ancient, traditional methods of healing that have often been practiced in the East for centuries. These include a variety of techniques from herbal healing to acupuncture to homeopathy to energy channeling. Due to the large number of methods that are covered by the term, there are various definitions of Holistic Medicine. However, all literature seems to agree that Alternative Medicine, is exactly what the name suggests: an ‘alternative’ approach to healing and medicine. It is a more personal move toward health care, which attempts to connect the mind, body and spirit.

Another way that Alternative Medicine is defined is by what the field does not cover. According to David M. Eisenberg, M.D., of Harvard Medical School, alternative medicines are “medical interventions not taught widely at U.S. medical schools or generally available at U.S. hospitals.” Therefore Holistic Healing covers most practices regularly followed in other parts of the world, although it does not include the techniques used by conventional doctors in the Western world practicing Allopathic Medicine.

Alternative medicine can also be defined as the result of a series of important changes occurring within the American health care system today. For example, health care practitioners are coming to the realization that conventional biomedicine cannot solve many of America’s health problems. Therefore many doctors have begun to accept the idea that Holistic Medicine is based on, that is, that health involves more than just the physical body. They have also found many alternative medical treat...

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...ions. Eventually, the greater practice of holistic medicine in the United States will surely lead to a public that is generally healthier and surely happier.

Bibliography:

Bibliography

Anderson, Greg. (No date). A Simplified Explanation of Holistic Health [Online]. Available: http://ahha.org/Anderson.htm [1999, March 1].

Collinge, William, Ph.D., The American Holistic

Health Association Complete Guide to Alternative Medicine, New York: Warner Books, 1996.

Gordon, James S., M.D., Holistic Medicine, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.

Morton, Mary and Michael. (1997). Ten Most Commonly Asked Questions About Alternative Medicine [Online]. Available: http://www.healthy.net/library/articles/morton/ten.htm [1999, March 1].

Travis, John W., M.D. and Regina Sara Ryan, The Wellness Workbook, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1988.