medicine,alternative medicine by Cutegirl

The terms 'alternative medicine,' 'complementary medicine,' or 'unconventional medicine' refer to diagnostic methods, treatments and therapies that appear not to conform to standard medical practice, or are not generally taught at accredited medical schools. The scope of alternative medicine is broad, with widespread use among the American public of a long list of treatments and practices, such as acupuncture, homeopathy, relaxation techniques, and herbal remedies. In an editorial about alternative practices in the New England Journal of Medicine, Murray and Rubel comment, 'Many are well known, others are exotic and mysterious, and some are dangerous.'1 This report will help to clarify and categorize the alternative medical systems most often used, create a context to assess their utility (or lack thereof), and discuss how physicians and the medical profession might deal with the issues surrounding these unconventional measures in health and healing. At the turn of the last century, the effort led by the American Medical Association (AMA) to improve the quality of medical education and bring quality controls to curricula ultimately led to the landmark report by Flexner in 1910.
Types of Alternative Medicine
Many Possibilities of Holistic Healing:
"There are thousands paths to health,
your path leads to your health"
Many known types of alternative medicine came from folk wisdom, empirical researches, and experiments - over centuries, every culture has developed different therapeutic practices based on natural and traditional methods.In old days people were closer to nature and used natural healing abilities of herbs, life forces such as water, sun light, music, and the body itself.Unfortunately, they did not have scientific explanation of the nature of treatments and attained a reputation of charlatanic practices. However, today more and more new researches discovered a solid scientific base behind old alternative care health practices.
All types of alternative medicine have one common approach - they don't heal just symptoms, the whole system of the living being is taken into consideration - they restore energy-iformational and physical balance simultaneously.What would work for you? You need to understand principles and main characteristics of different healing modalities, to choose the best option for your particular situation and preferences.
There is no universal practice that can cure every illness every time in everyone.You might need to try different types of alternative medicine to find what resonates with you and brings the most benefits to you.
Eastern Types of Alternative Medicine:
Acupuncture: the most recognisable alternative healing practice in the West thanks to successful and tangible results obtained through a treatment, and results and research of doctors who succeeded in showing the pathways of meridians. Chinese medicine is derived from Tao philosophy and based on the theory of Yin and Yang, five elements, eight principles, which is not quite understood by Western people.
Acupressure: a component of traditional Chinese medicine, the form of massage by stimulating particular points of the body. This simple, non-aggressive technique demonstrates significant efficiency in treating a wide range of diseases, though the theory behind it remains controversial from the point of traditional medicine.
Ayurvedic Medicine: the complex system based on ancient Vedic texts (Chakras Samhita) inspired by divinity Brahma. It has a holistic approach that focuses on the patient more than the illness, and uses several methods of treatment (detoxication, diet, exercises, etc.)
Reiki: the information we have on Reiki dates back to the 18th century and Mikao Usui, a Japanese Christian theologian who dedicated his life to understanding the spiritual healing forces of Christ. This force is called Reiki, which represents the universal energy of life.
Naturopathic Types of Alternative Medicine:
Naturopathy: this is a modern global health reform movement. It appeared spontaneously and simultaneously in the 19th century in the United States, Central Europe, Scandinavia and Great Britain. It is a fundamental science that includes the study, knowledge, teaching and practice of the laws of life, which keep the human body healthy by using natural means.
Homeopathy: natural medicine founded by Samuel Hahnemann. The fundamental principle of homeopathy is that "like cures like" - a remedy that is given to a healthy person will produce the specific symptoms, but when given to a person who already shows these signs, the remedy will cure these same symptoms.
Aromatherapy: the use of essential oils for medical purposes. Concentrated aromatic plant extracts have relaxation, soothing, healing affect on the body. The influence of aromas on the state of mind is unquestionable - through inhalation, skin application or digestion of essential oils, the brain gets stimuli that cause to react with feelings.
Chromotherapy: known as color therapy, technique that aims to rebalance energies by projecting the colors of body's chakras. This is based on the intuitive detection of missing frequencies in ill person. This method acts on all levels: physical, mental and psychological. It helps to restore lost harmony.
Light Therapy: a method treating illnesses using artificial light. Treatments with a full spectrum of light - from infrared to ultraviolet - have a beneficial therapeutic effect in various diseases.
Flower essences: healing flowers are natural products, first introduced by Dr. Bach, based on simple flowers and spring water that restore the individual balance and emotional harmony. By acting on emotions, the elixirs facilitate the regeneration and balancing processes.
Phytotherapy (herbs): medical plans have been used for ages, and each culture has its own tradition involving them. Many herbalists believe that the therapeutic effect of the use of the herbs is explained by healing inherent in plants, rather than some chemical components.
Apitherapy: the use of various bee products for therapeutic purpose such as honey, bee pollen, propolis.
Electromagnetic Therapy: energy type of therapy based on the transmission of electric current or magnetic impulses through tissues for stimulation. These types of energy medicine demonstrate greatest effect from decreasing "energy" and increasing "informational" components of applications.
Manipulative Types of Alternative Medicine:
Osteopathy: there are two different aspects that lead to two different practices: Structural osteopathy deals with the structural elements of the body such as the skeleton, muscles, ligaments and connective tissues.Cranial osteopathy is directed at the cephalorachidian liquids contained in the cranium.
Philosophy of osteopathy goes far beyond just joint manipulation, bones and muscles adjustments. This is a complete medical care system that assists the body and the person as a unite access self-healing power and higher state of well-being through the body itself. In case of osteopathy the interrelationships of physical, mental, emotional, and higher being starts from physical - stay fit and be healthy.
Chiropractic: medicine - has the same origin and philosophy as osteopathy with the difference focusing on the spine healthy state as a primary coordinator of the nervous system. As nervous system is connected to every tissue and organ in the body, the overall optimal health can be boosted with aligning the spine which promotes an optimal nervous system balance and free flow of blood to tissues and organs.
Massage: this is probably the oldest and most spontaneous therapeutic action there is. The body is stimulated by using different manipulative techniques (hands, massage tools) and re-establish natural functions. Thanks to Per Henrik Ling, a Swedish gymnast, massage became a therapeutic practice (that's how we adopted "Swedish massage" term). Don't miss an opportunity to have regular massage sessions, there is an unexplainable magic in touch - it's nurturing, healing, pleasant, and hence the word "touching".
Psycho-Educational Types of Alternative Medicine:
Spiritual Healing: it simply can be described as transferring energy between the practitioner and the subject. These energies don't belong to the healer, but come from an external source - invisible and divine.
Hypnotherapy: the psychotherapist acts upon subconscious in order to correct and modify behaviour, thought-patterns formed by behaviour. In many cases it helps ease suffering, get rid of distractive programming. Experience of the practitioner is very important when considering a deep hypnotherapy. There are many other techniques that work effectively, yet gentle for erasing distractive programming with the patient remained in full consciousness.
Art Therapy: painting, singing, drawing, dance and theatre are powerful forms of self-expression. Today artistic activities are recognised as forms of therapy, especially for the rehabilitation with mental and emotional issues.
Holistic Healing with Informational Medicine: a form of new medicine that has come into the stage recently based on scientific concepts that there are more subtle energy field than known electromagnetic fields. Diseases took place in this informational field far before it manifested into the physical. Healing doesn't depend on time and space, as there is no time and space in the informational field.It's almost impossible to mention all types of alternative medicine that exist - every culture may have its own forms and types of alternative medicine, healing, practice, and modalities.Some of them are more popular than others - it's not the question of effectiveness of particular modality - they are all use a unique personalized approach, have many benefits to offer, and many effective remedies that really work.
The effectiveness depends on each person responsiveness and resonance to a specific type of alternative medicine.