Define Holistic Medicine

With ongoing changes in health care, many Americans are turning to holistic medicine in order to ensure healthy lifestyles and to live longer and happier lives. By taking control of your physical, mental and spiritual well-being, you can aid your body in maximizing your holistic health and gain a sense of completeness combined with improved levels of energy as well as receiving optimal treatment for a variety of illnesses and medical conditions.

Function

• Holistic medicine is the comprehensive care of the mind, body and spirit of an individual combined with alternative and allopathic, or conventional, medicine in the prevention and treatment of diseases and conditions to ensure optimal health. Holistic health considers the entire person including your physical wellness, lifestyle, environment, mental and spiritual states to determine what types of treatment will be best for you.

Benefits

• According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), "Some of the types of cancer that [supporters of holistic medicine] claim can be cured by holistic methods include cancers of the bone, breast, tongue, liver, lung, throat, skin, testicle, prostate, ovary, uterus, stomach, intestine, colon, brain, pancreas, spleen, kidney, and bladder, as well as leukemia, lymphoma, and melanoma." Success stories, however, are hard to prove.

  By optimizing your holistic health, you will feel reenergized, revitalized and a complete sense of wholeness. This is one major focus of holistic medicine. Cancer patients are often asked to make healthy lifestyle changes which may improve their physical well-being.

Types

• Holistic health focuses on your wholeness in ensuring your overall health by encouraging your body to heal itself. Each holistic health practitioner offers their own variety of complimentary alternative treatments to coincide with regular medical care. Some practitioners focus on the body with the exclusion of physical needs. Treatments you may receive include a variety of herbal supplements, yoga, spiritual and emotional counseling, specific diet considerations, lifestyle changes, Reiki and acupuncture.

History

• Famous philosophers including Plato, Socrates and Hippocrates have encouraged people to allow the human body to heal itself and to live healthy lifestyles to assist the body with this process. In 1926, Jan Christiaan Smuts coined the term "holism" that allowed the alternative medical community to focus on the wholeness of the mind-body-spirit connection and on the concept of holistic medicine. This was further developed in the 1970s when the term and concept of holistic health became more popular. Today, many individuals are turning to complementary alternative medicine to allow them to live healthier and happier lives.

Considerations

• Receiving conventional medical care may be in your best interest in addition to receiving complementary alternative medicine in order to receive maximum benefits for a variety of illnesses and conditions. Do not stop taking any prescribed medications without the permission of your regular health care provider. Talk to your health care provider about all holistic health treatments and nutritional supplements that are recommended for you to ensure there are no drug interactions and to ensure your optimal health. While studies have been conducted on individual complementary alternative medicine treatments, medical research does not confirm holistic medicine can cure diseases and illnesses by itself.