Holistic Health



Holistic Health

Introduction

As, John Kellogg says,

”Avoid nostrums and patent medicines. The habitual use of any drug is harmful. The most eminent physicians are now agreed that very few drugs have any real curative value. The essential thing is right habits of life" (www.naturalhealers.com).

The concept of holistic health exists since thousands of years and has been in use since then for healing practices. Only recently, it has been recognized as a broader view of patient care in the mainstream medical practice. The underlying belief of this approach is that people are affected by physical as well as mental elements of life and each of these aspects shapes the personality of an individual, the effects of these aspects on person's health are inevitable. As stated by the Holistic Network, the idea behind holistic health is that the practitioner should only use those methods of diagnosis and cure which are safe, while laying stress on not only caring for the disease but for the whole person. This whole person care includes mental, physical, spiritual and emotional aspects simultaneously. This focus is common in almost all forms of natural health care (Guttmatcher, 1979).

It is a belief of alternative medicine to take into account a person's spiritual aspects, as well, while, evaluating the person's well-being on the whole. However, it is also claimed that this spiritual aspect is not connected in any religious point of view.

Discussion

The practices of holistic health include, but are not restricted to the following: Some of the practices of alternative holistic health include, but are not limited to:

Acupuncture

Breathing exercises

Exercise

Herbal remedies and natural diet

Homeopathy

Massage therapy

Meditation

Nutritional supplements

Psycho-spiritual counselling

Relaxation

In a nutshell Holistic medicine is the arts and science of healing addressing the whole body care of a person, including mind, spirit and body. Conventional and modern therapies are integrated in holistic health practices so as to treat and prevent diseases by considering the factors contributing to the disease and to encourage ideal health.

In reality, this has a meaning which says that every person is unique in his or her own way and not a sample of a particular disease. The main definition of a disease is that it occurs due to some emotional, mental, environmental, social or physical imbalance. Eventually, healing will be focusing on these aspects to bring a person back in proper health. In holistic health, the practitioner acts as a role model, a mentor or a guide; the rest is dependent on the person and/or patient. This means that a practitioner cannot change the lifestyles, old habits or beliefs of a person so as to get the patient moving towards a healthy life. All the methods may be used from medicine to meditation (Greenlaw, 2012).

Principles of Holistic Health

Following are the principles of holistic health which must be considered by the practitioners;

Optimal Health: Optimal health is the underlying principle of the practice of holistic medicine. It is a sensible approach towards attaining the highest level of the stability and functioning of the environmental, social, physical, spiritual and mental ...