What is Holistic or Complementary Medicine?

Complementary and conventional medicine adopt very different approaches toward the definition and treatment of disease. Conventional medicine is diagnosis-led; doctors use symptoms and medical tests to assess the problem, and prescribe treatment accordingly. Complementary (holistic) practitioners aim to deal with the patient as a whole; for them, illness signifies a disruption of physical and mental well-being. Treatment attempts to stimulate the body's natural self-healing and self-regulating abilities. Holistic practitioners believe that the mind and body tend toward a state of balance, or homeostasis, and have a natural capacity for self-regulation. The ability to maintain equilibrium, however, can be overwhelmed when we are under strain physically or emotionally. Demands on one part of the whole affect other parts; constant emotional tension will cause physical fatigue.

A 1995 survey in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology revealed that many people turn to complementary therapies because they believe them to be more effective for their condition than conventional medicine.

An integrated approach can - and often does - combine the best in mainstream medicine and complementary therapy. Modern epidemics of long-term and stress-related diseases that only seem to be partially alleviated by conventional medicine have led many medical practitioners to question 20th century science's distinction between mind and body. Can our emotions affect our physical health?

At the very heart of science lies a phenomenon that supports the theory of holistic medicine - the placebo response in which an inactive treatment has a positive effect, providing intriguing evidence of the power of the mind over the body. The placebo response has reduced blood pressure, healed ulcers, eased swelling, overridden the effects of stimulants, and relieved arthritis, hay fever, and depression. In actively encouraging patients to participate in their own healing, practitioners may be able to exploit the power of the mind/body response.

Professor Herbert Benson of the Mind/Body Medical School reports that, when actual patient cases are studied, the success rate of the placebo response can be as high as 90%. The power of belief and expectation, he believes, may be harnessed by eliciting the "relaxation response", a mental state that triggers significant physiological changes. Any technique in which the mind is quietly focused, such as meditation, visualization, diaphragmatic breathing, biofeedback, hypnosis, qigong, or yoga, can induce the relaxation response, and conventional practitioners at medical centers in the US and UK now employ these methods to improve the well-being of their patients.

In Holistic medicine, spiritual concerns rank with those of the mind and body. For many of us, the past has been painful, the present is insecure, and the future uncertain. In the struggle to make sense of life, certain activities create a supportive framework that connects us to our "inner selves" to each other and to the world. These activities include art, literature, music, community, family, worship, and play, and they are especially important when illness present us with the reality of our vulnerability, limitations, and dependency.

Your good health is your responsibility. Enter into the Light of Awareness and avail yourself of the unlimited amount of information and methodologies available and learn how to heal your mind, body, and spirit. This website has committed to the teaching of Holistic Disciplines and has endeavored to share Holistic insights to all those who are interested.

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