Holistic Health and Achieving Whole Body Balance

The use of alternative and complimentary medicine in the United States was found in more than 50% of adults and children, according to statistics from 2007. A significantly higher acceptance is found overseas. When asking yourself why so many people are turning to alternative medicine, you find a very simple answer. More of the population are seeking health of both body and mind, and are finding it through holistic and/or alternative sources.

What Is The Holistic Approach?

Rather than using a particular type of treatment, a method of treatment is used with holistic health. This approach takes into consideration all aspects of your health, instead of treating only the symptoms physically residing in your body. The aspects taken into account are physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

If you take a cold for example, a traditional medical practitioner would treat each symptom separately. They would likely tell you to take something for fever, something else for sinus issues and yet another as a cough suppressant.

A holistic practitioner may instead look at the causes for your decreased immune system. Stress, poor diet, compromised hormone or metabolic systems, negative emotions, limiting thought patterns, past trauma and so on. They look at your entire body/mind connection to determine what is causing the illness and treat the cause. Likewise, they may look to more natural remedies to alleviate or relieve your symptoms.

The goal of the holistic approach is not just overall physical well-being but also emotional, mental and spiritual well being too. They're all intricately linked to your general well being and whole body/mind balance.

Therapies And Modalities For Whole Body/Mind Balance

There are many varieties of therapies and approaches to treatment when you consider the many holistic practitioners and how they treat their patients. Within the world of traditional medicine you will find that an osteopathic physician or a DO, rather than an MD, takes a whole body approach to treatment where an MD does not, although both are board certified and provide the same level of care.

Beyond traditional medicine, there are a number of alternative therapies or therapies which come from eastern traditions. For example:

• Energy Psychology
• Hypnosis
• Mindfulness Meditation
• Emotional Freedom Technique
• Reiki
• Massage
• Touch Therapy
• Acupuncture
• Chiropractic
• Ayurveda
• Biofeedback
• Naturopathy

Choosing the type of treatment you decide to use may have somewhat of a dependency on your approaches to healthcare as well as your current physician. More doctors have begun to accept other means of healthcare such as massage, Reiki or hypnosis, and in most cases have a few recommendations about potential choice for therapists. It may be of benefit to you to consider a combination of therapies for a whole body/mind approach, depending on what various issues you are dealing with. If you are receiving chiropractic care as well as acupuncture, in order to assist with your nutritional balance you may also want to see a naturopath.

If you have suffered from illnesses such as depression, fatigue, insomnia or digestive issues you may have been prescribed a variety of pharmaceuticals, only to find they did not solve the problem. Depression for example, can be caused by many issues such as food allergies, poor or lack of sleep or a hormonal imbalance. If treated by looking at the whole person, and not simply treating one of the issues, your chances of relieving the issue all together is a more likely occurrence.

Statistics don't lie. With more than 50% of Americans turning towards alternative care, the realization is being made that the approach of holistic health is leading to a far better outlook on health and happiness than traditional medicine. People are leaving the 'take a pill to treat a symptom' approach of traditional medicine, and embracing the benefits of balance of whole body/mind health.