Health & Alternative Medicine

Dear visitors,

I believe that you entered this web page with lots of question about alternative and holistic medicine and I hope that you will also find as many answers as you need. We made this web to provide you with information about alternative and holistic healthcare in general and we will describe as many concrete methods of healing as possible. After reading through this web page, you should be able to decide what (if any) method, will address your problem in best possible way.

Maybe (and we hope so) you don´t suffer from any medical condition and you ask yourself: „What can I get from reading this web? “ Well, the fact that you don´t suffer from any disease doesn´t necessarily mean that you are healthy. Before you read any further, I have a favor to ask you. In a brief moment think about definition of health. How would you define a healthy person?

Got it?

I think that most of you would answer like: „To be healthy means that I am not sick.“ Well, close enough, but you didn´t hit the jackpot. The definition of health is a little bit more complicated. There is nice definition of health declared by World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. It goes like this: Health is “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. You may now ask: „What is the difference between this and what I think? “ You probably know the difference from everyday life. All that days that are „bearable“, but they are not „fine“. All the days that you are moody, a bit irritated, all the small aches you can´t call a disease, but they bother you a bit. All these days, you are not healthy, according to WHO definition.

There is one super-important part of the WHO definition. Can you guess which I mean? It is a part about social well-being. What does the social well-being mean? It means healthy relationship with your spouse or family, your co-workers, boss and even the old lady next door, who silently steals your newspaper every single morning. You would probably (or maybe not) be amazed, how much this „social well-being “does in statistics. When „social well-being “ is counted in than between 70% and 95% of human population is considered to be „not healthy“. When the „social well-being“ is counted out these scary numbers are dropping down very significantly. If you would like to know more about this, please visit the WHO official web page.

So now most of you are convinced that you are not healthy. I am so sorry to bring you down like this, but it is not such a big deal. This web is supposed to help you – don´t worry.

I think, that another questions have risen right now. „How could alternative or holistic medicine help me?. What is alternative and holistic medicine? “. Is there any difference between these two? Before I answer this question, please allow me to throw in a few more definitions

The alternative and complementary medicine definition

“The term complementary and alternative medicine is used in some countries to refer to a broad set of health care practices that are not part of the country’s own tradition and are not integrated into the dominant health care system.”

- Dr Xiaorui Zhang, „General Guidelines for Methodologies on Research and Evaluation of Traditional Medicine“ World Health Organization, Geneva 2000

From our point of view, the second part of this definition is important. The alternative or complementary medicine are every healthcare practices that are not integrated into the dominant health care system (DHCS). There are several practices that are widely adopted by DHCS, but still are seen as alternative or complementary, such as acupuncture or acupressure. The reason can be found in previous classification of such a practice. Other reason comes from geographical differences. While in some countries one method is considered a common part of DHCS, in other countries the very same method can still be rejected by professional public.

The holistic approach – the holistic medicine

„The Whole is more than just a sum of its parts“

- Aristotle

The holistic approach to health is supposed to follow the WHO definition of health to the point. The holistic medicine is set of practices that tend to every aspect of health. That means that holistic care tends to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual part of human being. Some of the methods, considered as holistic, directly affect the social well-being of its practitioners or receivers by setting the standards of social behavior which are supposed to lead to improvement of social relationships and status. The holistic health care and alternative medicine gets often confused. Alternative medicine method doesn´t have to tend every aspect of health stated above. Some alternative methods can be focused just on the physical part, while other can be focused on the mental component of health. If any method wants to be labeled as holistic, it has to tend to every aspect of the health as stated in the WHO definition.

So, by the stating this definition I probably answered the question “What is an alternative and holistic medicine?” and “Is there any difference between these two?”. But what about the question “How could alternative or holistic medicine help me?”. Okay, let´s talk about the benefits of holistic medicine a bit. I don´t want to bother you with the miraculous recovery stuff. I just want to talk about what can holistic approach to live bring to ordinary guy or girl who are not ill and are in relatively fine shape. I used to be that guy to, so I will tell you how holistic approach changed my live. First thing I want to mention is that Holistic view made me think in worldwide scale. It started with my person. According to holistic view everything is connected. It is like the chaos theory – the butterfly waves his wings on one continent and causes a hurricane on other. At first I started to see the connections of my actions to the response of others. I started to see how my emotions and actions affected my health, or how my mood affected the mood of people I am connected with. From this point my area of understanding widened and widened. I started to see those connections everywhere, especially in history of the mankind or in international relations nowadays. The greatest teacher and example of these connections is nature.

“The ignorance brings suffering.”

- Buddha

This awareness helped to find my place in the world. I started to see why I act the way I act. I started to see where my skills and talents are and what my weaknesses and why they exist. I started to understand who I really am and that filled me with enormous joy and happiness. I was finally able to leave my job – one day I left and never came back. I left the old life in job I hated and life in discontent behind me. I even was able to put a broken relationship with my fiancé together and I all owe to the change of my old ways to new holistic ways. It wasn´t instant, but it also haven´t took the ages. In my case the road from discontent to happiness took a bit less than six month.

So, do you want to try to see the world and life the holistic way?

I hope you do and I am proud that you let me be part of it! Thank you!