Holistic medicine by alternative medicine advocates to describe medical care that views physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of life as closely interconnected and balanced. Advocates of the holistic medicine philosophy typically seek or use a wide variety of alternative medicine practices, the most common of which include acupuncture, ayurveda, Siddha, chiropractic, naturopathy, yoga, aromatherapy, homeopathy, massage, Tai Chi, Chinese herbology, Medical cannibis and medicinal herbs.

Holistic medicine Is A Philosophy not a Modality.

The first National Conference on Holistic medicine was held with the University of California San Diego California School of Medicine in June 1975. Each year thereafter for ten years about 3,000 health professionals participated each year in a conference and forty to fifty different workshops about holistic medicine promotion in contrast to our traditional Allopathic Medical Model philosophy that is focused on treating symptoms, by prescribing drugs to elevate the symptoms and providing surgery and drugs for corrective action.

The Holistic Medicine philosophy acknowledged in the pioneering work in California is as follows: First, Holistic is not new, it has been around for thousands of years. Holistic Medicine is just new to our health care system. It refers to the theory that whole entities such as human beings have an existence and a reality greater than the sum of their parts.

Applying the term holistic medicine to concepts of health and fitness means that achieving and maintaining good health involves much more than just taking care of all the various components that make up the physical body.

When the concepts of holistic medicine are put into practice within the health care system, the approach to therapy takes on a new dimension. We see traditional medical care expanded to encompass a broad spectrum of therapies coordinated to meet that totality of a particular individual. The focus then is not just on the disease but the whole person

The ideal of Holistic medicine is the realization of our human potential as total beings, and our desire to live fulfilling and satisfying lives. The goal is not just to be “well” in the physical body, but also to be in harmony with our environment and ourselves at all levels, body, mind and spirit. Also, life-style, social responsibility and relationships are taken into consideration when creating the optimum health that Holistic Medicine is about.

Applied Kinesiology    Alternative Medicine