Holistic Medicine
The notion of Holistic Medicine has been around for many years. But why now, has interest in this area skyrocketed? People are starting to prefer a more natural approach when it comes to healthcare. Holistic Health is actually an approach to life. Rather than focusing on illness or specific parts of the body, this ancient approach to health considers the whole person and how he or she interacts with his or her environment. It emphasizes the connection of mind, body, and spirit. The goal is to achieve maximum well-being, where everything is functioning at its best.
Holistic health is based on the law of nature, which is; a whole is made up of interdependent parts. The earth is made up of systems, such as air, land, water, plants and animals. If life is to be sustained the systems cannot be separated, for what is happening to one is also felt by all of the other systems. In the same way, an individual is a whole made up of interdependent parts, which are the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. When one part is not working at its best, it impacts all of the other parts of that person. Furthermore, this whole person, including all of the parts, is constantly interacting with everything in the surrounding environment. For example, when an individual is anxious about a school exam or a job interview, his or her nervousness may result in a physical reaction, such as a headache or a stomachache. When people suppress anger over a long period of time, they often develop a serious illness, such as migraine headaches, emphysema, or even arthritis. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that the key factors influencing an individual’s state of health have not changed significa...
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...ly, more effective and natural treatments, along with an emphasis on empowerment of the person, as a partner in there own health care and healing.
Today, healthcare provides and patients understand the side effects connected with drugs, surgery, and synthetic materials. While some holistic procedures are considered unorthodox by mainstream medicine, new research and patient testimonials are pointing to the fact that lacing any foreign substance in the body can have side effects. 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. As we move into the future, perhaps more people will realize that a balanced approach with “all things considered” is more beneficial than techniques and synthetic materials.
This section discusses health psychology and behavioral medicine, making positive life changes, resources for effective life change, controlling stress, behaving, and your good life. Health psychology emphasizes psychology’s role in establishing and maintaining health and preventing and treating illness. It reflects the belief that lifestyle choices, behaviors, and psychological characteristics can play important roles in health. The mind is responsible for much of what happens in the body, it is not the only factor, the body may influence the mind as well. Making positive life changes include health behaviors- practices that have an impact on physical well being. The stages of change model describes the process by which individuals give up bad habits and adopt healthier lifestyles. The model has five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation/ determination, action/ willpower, and
In the past few decades, clinical treatment has moved on from biomedical approach to the biopsychosocial approach. Scientists now believe that health of an individual is not merely due to physiological conditions but may also depend on psychological and socio-cultural perspectives(Engel, 1977). The term health psychology was developed by the American Psychological Association to describe health and wellness issues that arise from psychological problems. Health psychology stems from Systems theory, which says that human events such as injury and illness exist within several interconnected systems, such as our peer relationships, childhood experiences, personality and other factors (Schwartz, 1982).
In today’s world, many people assume that the latest medical technology and treatments are always the best option. However, all over the world, different techniques for curing diseases and aliments are being used. These methods fall under the category of complementary and alternative medicine.
Although gross medical advancements have allowed the human population to live longer and fuller lives without the threat of death from infectious diseases, it is apparent that we are now dealing with a different phenomenon that may be just as harmful to our health. The impact of psychological, social and environmental factors from our daily lives is having a drastic impression on the mental and physical wellbeing of our society. It has been shown in various studies that psychological and neurological factors influence the immune system and can have an effect on our health (Breedlove, Rosenzweig & Watson, 2010). As we allow various stressors, poisonous substances, unhealthy diets and lack of rest to overwhelm our existence, we are inevitably shortening our life span and killing our bodies.
Holistic based approaches aim to restore wellness, as well as preventing illness by addressing the mind, body, and spirit. Holistic approaches use ancient techniques, like acupuncture, Ayurvedic medicine, and homeopathy for mind-body healing (Vlieger, 2007).
For many centuries, humanity has been on an eternal quest for cures and treatments for many chronic conditions. At the present time, conventional medicine is mostly performed by doctors and other health care professionals, with the extensive use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery or radiation treatments for disease treatment. Conversely, even though not as popular, complementary and alternative medicine and treatment options are slowly gaining popularity and becoming an addition to traditional medicine.
These alternative treatments include acupuncture, meditation, and therapy among many others.There is growing evidence that the desire for alternative medicine is expanding because people undergoing procedures in today’s health care system has had unmet needs as well as feelings of being uncared for (Acari & Flanagan, 2015). Alternative medicine is able to provide patients with treatments that provide relief for hard to cure problems such as back pain, neck pain, and arthritis. Many of these alternative treatments have been shown to be successful for various problems. The use of complimentary and alternative medicine as well as the open ended communication that holistic nursing provides is gaining popularity from patients who are fed up with traditional care and hospital
Ross defines and differentiates between the terms healing and curing. She recognizes the fact that healing and curing are very intertwined and it can be hard to distinguish between the two terms. There are differences between the definitions in scholarly and general settings. She references an ethnographic study of healing versus curing conducted by anthropologists Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart in 1999 with native groups in New Guinea. The results of the study looked at how energy used by the different types of tribal healers to either cure or heal a patient. Eastern medicine focuses on how energy interacts with the healing process in connection within the mind. Whereas Western medicine is focused on the mind and the body separately. The practice is considered a holistic approach to finding cures. According to Ross (2013), healing is more a therapeutic process targeting the whole body and specific illness including emotional, mental, and social aspects in the treatment. The act of curing is a pragmatic approach that focuses on removing the problem all together. The life experiences of a person playing into how well certain treatments will heal or cure what is ailing them. These aspects can not be defined with textbook definitions. The interaction that the healing process has with energy is a variable in the success rate. Uncontrolled emotions can have a greater impact on the inside the body than a person can realize. The exploration of energy interaction within the body can be used for greater analysis of health care systems. (21-22). Are Western healthcare facilities purposely “curing” patients just so that they return are few years later? Is Western Medicine built upon a negative feedback loop? The terminolo...
There has been a growing trend over the past few years in health care using Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) or also known as Eastern medicine. The new and emerging type of health care has been around for thousands of years, but in recent years have been more accepting in Western culture. CAM is described as, “a wide range of practices, technologies and treatments not traditionally associated with the medical professions or medical curriculum” (Solomon & Adams, 2015). There are many different types of CAM health care. Some of the more popular practices include acupuncture, massage therapy, aromatherapy, reflexology, chiropractic and herbal remedies. Each of these therapies are used in different ways to help with the overall
Fain, N. C. & Lewis. N. M. (2002). Wellness: The Holistic Approach to Health. Journal of
Our life is an age of previously unimaginable medical breakthroughs. The technology we know today is one that emulated witchcraft to our great grand parents. Yet, with all that we can do, all of the healing we can accomplish by this modern medicine, we seen to be resorting back to the idea of natural holistic health care. Maybe, the Native American People had the right idea.
There are many ways to categorize illness and disease; one of the most common is chronic illness. Many chronic illnesses have been related to altered health maintenance hypertension and cardiovascular diseases are associated with diet and stress, deficient in exercise, tobacco use, and obesity (Craven 2009). Some researchers define the chronic illness as diseases which have long duration and generally slow development (WHO 2013); it usually takes 6 month or longer than 6 month, and often for the person's life. It has a sluggish onset and eras of reduction for vanishing the symptoms and exacerbation for reappear the symptoms. Some of chronic illness can be directly life-threatening. Others remain over time and need intensive management, such as diabetes, so chronic illness affects physical, emotional, logical, occupational, social, or spiritual functioning. Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, all of these diseases are the cause of mortality in the world, representing 63% of all deaths. So a chronic illness can be stressful and may change the way a person l...
Health is described as physical and mental well-being and freedom from disease, pain or defect. However, such descriptions only superficially define the actual meaning of health. There may be many occasions when individuals are not necessarily ill or in pain but may be overweight, stressed or emotionally unstable. Health is a quality of life involving dynamic interaction and interdependence among the individual’s physical state, their mental and emotional reactions, and the social context in which the individual exists. There are many factors that influence your health, but three major components contribute to general well-being: Self-awareness, a balanced diet and, regular physical activity.
There are varying descriptions from Holistic Medicine, Alternative Medicine, Natural Medicine to Complementary Medicine. They all embrace the concept of interconnectedness and that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. All aspects from the animal to human bond, environment, and lifestyle are considered when treating the
People admire good health and want to stay healthy throughout their lives. Every individual of every race and culture look for the easiest methods to be healthy and if they get sick, they start looking for the alternate ways to regain their health. Holistic health is an alternate approach to acknowledge that health depends on the wellness of the whole body, mind and spirit. In holistic health, a person is the responsible for her own treatment depending on his or her choice and belief. Holistic health would increase the further steps to approach the prevention and healing process of the illness in current health care system and will be effective to provide the better treatment for the patients.