Terms such as “natural” and “alternative” medicine or cures are frequently used today, and it can be difficult to know exactly what they mean. Usually “alternative” suggests and alternative to mainstream, sometimes called allopathic medicine, which tends to rely on drugs and surgery, and also tends to diagnose “diseases” as specific entities that strike a particular organ or part of the body. Alternative or holistic medicine, on the other hand, tends to look at the body as system. There are, of course, many different kinds of “alternative” or natural medicine, from herbalism (and there are many schools of herbalism as well!), to traditional Chinese or Indian medicine. To group all of these together is very simplistic. Today, however, natural health practitioners are likely to draw on a variety of traditions. If you consult any practitioner, or even read one of their books for that matter, it’s important to get an idea of where they are coming from –what assumptions or definitions they use, what traditions they have been influenced by and so forth. You should not assume that someone who refers to themselves as holistic, natural or alternative in their approach is coming from a single school of thought. Increasingly, doctors and other health practitioners are combining various alternative systems with more modern methodologies. So you really need to do your own research and find out what you are comfortable with. Natural health choices are abundant today, but this also means that there is a lot of information to sort through!
Aug 03
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