GOING HOLISTIC (PART 2)

Complementary, alternative and integrative medicine-what do these terms mean?

Many people use health care approaches developed outside of conventional, medicine for specific conditions or overall health. When describing these approaches outside of conventional western thinking, people often use the words “alternative” and “complementary” interchangeably, but the two terms refer to different concepts: Complementary generally refers to using a non-mainstream approaches along with conventional methods. Alternative is a non-mainstream approach to health in place of conventional methods. True alternative medicine is rare. Most people use complimentary treatments.

Integrative Medicine may offer services such as acupuncture and meditation to help manage symptoms and side effects for patients who are receiving conventional treatments like chemotherapy. Many health care providers are integrating various practices with origins outside of mainstream medicine into treatments and preventative health measures. The integrative trend is growing among health care providers.

Integrated practices include a diverse group of procedures and techniques administered by trained professionals such as:

• Acupuncture
• Massage therapy
• Meditation
• Movement therapies including Pilates, Rolfing, Structural Integration, and Trager psychophysical integration.
• Relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, guided imagery, and progressive muscle relaxation.
• Spinal manipulation by chiropractors, osteopathic physicians, naturopathic physicians, physical therapists and some medical doctors.
• Tai chi and qi gong are practices from traditional Chinese medicine that combine specific movements or postures, coordinated breathing, and mental focus.
• Yoga, the combination of movement, breathing techniques, and meditation.
• Mind and body practices include healing touch and hypnotherapy.

The mind and body practices most commonly used are deep breathing, meditation, chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation, massage, yoga, progressive relaxation, and guided imagery. These combination therapies are potent methods for allergies, arthritis, asthma, heart disease, backaches, headaches, IBS, menopausal problems, UTIs, PTSD, cerebral palsy, strokes, cancers, AIDS, chronic fatigue, and more. And are effective in introducing the patient to the concept of body-mind and person-spirit connections.