Alternative Medicine is Holistic, Western Medicine is Reductionist

Alternative Medicine is Holistic, Western Medicine is Reductionist
Word Count:
662
Summary:
Alternative medicine is a label that seems to apply to many practices from acupuncture to yoga to vitamins to massage. How is alternative medicine, or holistic health, different from what we in the United States call “modern medicine?”

Keywords:
alternative medicine, reductionist, holistic, holism, wholism, integrative medicine, complementary medicine, machine, model

Article Body:
The major difference between alternative medicine, or what I'll call holistic health, and Western medicine, is in approach.
A Western doctor, or MD, sees his duty as searching out disease, diagnosing it, and treating it. If he does that correctly and effectively, he's done his job. Most often, this means the doctor prescribing a pharmaceutical drug or a surgical procedure to remedy the situation.  The patients is passive in all of this.
A holistic health practitioner sees her duty as an educator and a facilitator. She feels that the body can heal itself, and it doesn't necessarily need outside influences (drugs, surgery) to heal from an illness or to prevent an illness. In holistic health, the patient is an active participant.
This is the best and the worst thing about holistic health! The patient is actively involved in the healing process.  Everything you know about your body says that this is the right approach. It makes so much sense.  That's the good part.  The bad thing about this is that it is HARD WORK for the patient.  In most cases, the patient must make changes to their lifestyle.  Change your diet, do more exercise, stop using sugar, do these stretches, stop negative thoughts, meditate twice a day, etc.
Making lifestyle changes is immensely difficult.  The only time it's easy is when you are faced with a life-threatening disease.  When you find out you have lung cancer, it's pretty easy to quit smoking.  However, it's far too late by that time.  Lifestyle changes need to come before the illness becomes manifest.
Let's examine one of the big differences between holistic health and Western medicine: holism versus reductionism.
Holistic versus Reductionist
This is a major shift in perspective.  Taking a holistic perspective means that you cannot understand a single problem with a single part of the human body without looking at the whole person.  We use the short-hand “mind, body, spirit” to refer to the whole person.
This is not how a Western doctor is taught to see a patient.  He sees the patient as the disease.  “This is an epileptic,” it is not a whole person who has epilepsy. He feels that he can administer a drug or perform a surgery that will cure a person's liver without making any difference to the rest of the person.  Of course, this is never possible, so when the inevitable “complications” arise, the Western doctor deals with those one at a time, often causing additional problems for the person, whether in body, mind or spirit.
Even those three parts of the person are treated by separate people in Western society.  The body is the domain of the medical doctor.  The mind is the domain of the psychiatrist. Spirit is left to the priest, rabbi or pastor.  There is no overlap in roles, except for referrals from one to the other.  In our bodies, of course, there is tremendous overlap.  A loss of connection to God or the universe will cause no end of mental and physical problems.  Mental stress causes many physical diseases, as we well know.  Who can coordinate between these in the Western system?  No one.  Problems falling “through the cracks” between mind, body and spirit is a common failure of Western medicine.
A holistic practitioner understands the interconnections between mind, body and spirit.  They work on the connections, and, although the practitioner may not be an expert in all three, they focus on the overlaps rather than ignoring them.
In my opinion, a holistic approach is better in almost every case for almost every person. Understanding the linkages between mind, body and spirit is essential to understanding how to stay well and how to heal.  Western medicine can play a part within the scope of holistic health by offering emergency solutions to problems that arise quickly and need to be fixed immediately.

Alternative Medicine

Alternative Medicine
Word Count:
490
Summary:
Find out what alternative medicine means and where it started and also why it is so popur.

Keywords:
headache,alternative medicine,holistic,health,pains,cure,treatment,holistic,health,yoga,herbal,herbs,holistic health degree,holistic classes

Article Body:
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Alternative medicine means different things to different people. Alternative medicine encompasses many different approaches from massage to Chinese medicine and yoga. Alternative medicine means practices or medicines that are used instead of the usual, or standard, ways of treating diseases or illness. Examples of complementary and alternative medicine are meditation, yoga, and dietary supplements like vitamins and herbs. Alternative medicine means that it is different to the dominant health care system and potentially can replace it.
Traditional Chinese Medicine is the oldest continuously practiced medical system in the world and is used by one third of the world's population as a primary health care system. Health is defined as a state of physical well being, mental alertness, socially adjusted, and spiritually developed. Health care is not about drugs and the cost of drugs.

CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE
Conventional medicine is continuing to lose market share. More and more people want options beyond what many consider to be essentially a high-tech slash, burn and poison medicine. Conventional medicine is used to describe the services that treat the symptoms of a disease or illness with prescribed medications and surgeries. Conventional medicine treats the ailing part of the body but may not address the underlying causes of the illness or disease.
Traditional practitioners don't express hopefulness when their medicine fails as they treat diseases first and then people secondly. On the other hand alternative practitioners, often encourage patients to be hopeful even when the situation is hopeless as they aim to treat the mind, body and soul of their patient.
Medicine is directly related to the biomedicine and health sciences. The term 'Medicine' today refers to the fields of surgery, clinical medicine and the medical research. Medical mistakes appear to be increasing, and if they are not, then at the very least, the publicizing of them is increasing. It makes people wary.
HERBAL
Herbal medicine is a booming industry in the United States. The American market for herbal remedies has doubled the last couple of years. Herbs may be harmful if taken for the wrong conditions, used in excessive amounts, combined with prescription drugs or alcohol, or used by persons who don't know what they are doing. Just because an herbal remedy is natural, does not mean it is safe!
ACUPUNCTURE
Acupuncture needles are usually inserted to a depth of about a quarter of an inch into the skin. The therapist gently twists or twirls them for up to 10 minutes, leaving them in five to 20 minutes longer; or stimulates them with a weak electrical current; or heats them with a burning herb such as mugwort (see moxibustion). Acupuncture was used as an illustration of medical irrationality before James Reston's fortuitous appendicitis brought it to the United States. From the impact of the LaLeche League on the advisability of breast-feeding to current studies of botanical medicines such as ginger, echinacea and ginkgo biloba, folk and alternative medicines have continuously influenced medical research and practice.

Alleviating Anxiety With Zensight Process

Alleviating Anxiety With Zensight Process
Word Count:
1609
Summary:
Similar in some ways to hypnosis - and yet no hypnosis is used - Zensight Process is a self-help energy work technique that emphasizes the use of visualization together with "healing statements" in order to rapidly yet gently heal concerns.
This article outlines the basic steps taken in healing even persistent and pervasive experiences of anxiety.

Keywords:

Article Body:
Rachel looks in the mirror and notices a mark on her cheek.  Immediately her breath becomes shallow, her heart races, her chest tightens, and she feels nauseated.  She checks the spot more closely, and sees that it’s just a speck of dirt.  She washes it off and tells herself firmly that she is fine – it wasn’t the beginning of skin cancer, it was nothing.  It’s gone.  She is okay.
Although she keeps telling herself she is okay, hours later, Rachel still doesn’t feel okay.  What if seeing that spot was a “sign”?  What is she is about to develop skin cancer?  What if she already has skin cancer and she just hasn’t seen it yet?  Should she go see her doctor?  Recurring thoughts of cancer hover in the back of her mind for the rest of the day.  Weeks later she notices she is still spending an increased amount of time inspecting her skin for unusual marks or blemishes.
Like an estimated 13-16.5% of adults, Rachel has an anxiety disorder.  Types of anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder.
At times the symptoms of anxiety can become so debilitating that those affected will not leave their home or attend social functions – and their lives may become consumed by the effort to avoid people, places or situations which are likely to trigger feelings of anxiety.
Traditional treatment for anxiety disorder has involved medication to help to lessen the symptoms of anxiety, and behavioral therapy to assist with coping and challenging irrational thoughts.  Treatment is generally expected to be long term.
Zensight Process offers new hope to those with anxiety.  In many cases, a practitioner who is very skilled with both Zensight and in working with those with anxiety, can help someone to experience dramatic improvement – and in some cases a complete elimination of symptoms – in just a few sessions.
In most situations, many individuals will be able to use Zensight on their own – without ever consulting a practitioner at all – to considerably improve and sometimes even eliminate their symptoms altogether.  Those who do choose to work with a therapist or practitioner to help support and accelerate their healing will also benefit from doing Zensight self-healing in between sessions, in order to obtain the best results.
How to Use Zensight Process
Zensight Process involves working with the subconscious mind in a way that is similar to hypnosis – and yet no hypnosis is actually used.  Instead, we begin by creating a “healing symbol”.  This symbol can be a word, picture, or colour.  Some people choose to use a symbol such as “ocean”.  They then can focus on the word “ocean” when that feels right, and at other times may actually visualize the ocean.
When this healing symbol is used or focused upon with intent, it allows the fears, concerns, and “blocks” that someone is experiencing to gently heal and transform.
The healing symbol is then used together with healing statements and visualization, to soften, dissolve and release the concerns that are being experienced.
In a situation of anxiety, the individual is instructed to stop and notice any visual image that comes to mind when she or he thinks about one of their specific concerns – and then focus upon this image while connecting with the healing symbol that was chosen.   
This use of visualization helps to greatly accelerate healing because it does not rely upon the limits of our conscious mind and awareness.  The visual image that comes up may be an actual representation of a specific fear or issue that is being experienced, or it may be something that is metaphorical in nature.  I have had people tell me that they suddenly see a picture of themselves with their leg caught in a trap, or that they see a large grey object that they can’t identify or make sense of.  The different images that come up are highly variable and are not always understood by the person.  The beauty of it is that they don’t need to be understood.  The image is simply focused upon while connecting with the healing symbol, and is allowed to transform.
What generally happens is that the image spontaneously transforms in a way that feels healing.  The individual watches as the trap that was holding the leg simply dissolves and disappears.  They see themselves then being able to move about freely and with a sense of contentment and peace.  The big unexplained grey object morphs into a big egg which opens up and releases light and a feeling of peace that the person senses themselves absorbing as she or he watches.
If the picture doesn’t change, if no picture is seen, or in order to resolve any remaining upset, the individual uses healing statements.  After each statement, the person takes a deep breath and lets it go, and focuses upon the healing symbol.  Upsets are then healed and transformed, as positive feelings grow and strengthen.
Examples of healing statements are:
I heal all of the fears that any parts of me have, that I can’t get free of this problem
I heal any and all feelings that any parts of me have, that I am trapped.
I let all of the parts of me know, deeply and completely, that I am safe.
All of the different parts of me now experience a growing sense of peace and comfort.
My entire body is relaxing now.
Sound simple?  It is – extremely simple, and yet powerfully and deeply effective.  Best of all, the effects are lasting - providing that energetic imbalances are addressed and healed, results will in most cases be permanent.
Energy Balancing
Zensight can be used for much more than simply targeting specific symptoms.  In the case of anxiety – especially experiences of pervasive fear and anxiety – it is best to begin by targeting energetic imbalances that are most likely being experienced.
Someone who experiences frequent and/or pervasive feelings of fear has an imbalance in his or her triple warmer meridian.  The energy meridians have been widely recognized in Eastern medicine as impacting upon our emotional, physical, and mental concerns.  Acupuncture is only one of many modalities which focus upon bringing healing to the energy meridians.
The triple warmer meridian is the meridian in the body which governs the fight/flight/freeze response.  Sometimes – often in response to an original event or series of events in which the individual felt intense fear or terror – the triple warmer meridian becomes overenergized.  In the case of anxiety, the emphasis will be upon the “flight/freeze” response, and the individual will quickly respond with fear to many situations which may to others appear innocuous.
Trying to talk someone out of their fear often has little effect.  Rachel rationally knows that the mark on her face was simply dirt and was no more an indicator of cancer than is a stain on her jeans.  However, in spite of this awareness, and in spite of her logical mind which tells her she is safe and is overreacting, Rachel can not let the fear go.
The problem that Rachel is experiencing is not in her mind so much as in her body and in her energy system.  Often patterns of triple warmer overenergization begin in childhood, in response to repeated experiences of terror.  Sometimes this may be due to experiences of abuse that were either experienced or witnessed, and sometimes it may be connected with less obviously traumatic experiences that were nevertheless fear-producing for the particular child involved.
Rachel knows that she is safe – but her body and energy system need to know it too.  In a sense, they need to be reprogrammed.  With Zensight, this “reprogramming” can occur gently and easily during a rapid yet extremely relaxing process.
Other energetic imbalances may also be involved.  Homolateral energy (where the energy runs straight up and down the body rather than crossing over it) may also be involved.  Once any energetic imbalances that are involved are addressed, many symptoms of anxiety will lessen immediately.  The work then becomes focused on targeting the concerns more directly.
Bringing Healing to the “Whole” Person
The emphasis which Zensight Process places upon using both visualization and verbal “healing statements” ensures that both hemispheres of the brain are involved during the healing process.  This assists people in linking logic with emotion.  After using Zensight, not only does Rachel logically understand that the spot on her face was not a sign of impending doom – she emotionally “gets it” as well.
Zensight also addresses the experience of parts of self.  All of us have parts of self.  In many situations where healing is not experienced even when highly effective modalities are being used, the issue is that the person on some level – in some small part of them – may believe that it’s not safe to heal the concerns.  Rachel may be afraid to completely heal her anxiety because some small part of her may fear that if she stops worrying about and expecting to develop cancer, that she will pay less attention and will miss warning signs and thus be unsafe.  Zensight allows the individual to access and bring healing to – through the use of visualization and targeted healing statements – to even those parts of us that are afraid to heal, or believe it is not in our best interests to do so.
By ensuring that the individual is treated at as a whole – physically, emotionally, mentally, and energetically – Zensight enables even concerns that are usually considered to be difficult to impossible to resolve, to be as gently and quickly healed as possible.