What Types of Alternative Medicine Are Right for You?

Here are a few types of alternative medicine and although they may differ in practice and definition, the result is the same: Alternative medicine, alternative health for the entire body.

Your friends call you a health nut. You know all the foods that lower cholesterol. You only eat foods found in the 10 Healthiest Foods, especially those that give your immune system a boost. Plus, you enjoy the health benefits of drinking water, to name a few of your personal wellness practices. However, even wellness-minded people sometimes have health challenges that go beyond the basics of good nutrition. Now you need to see a doctor. As you distrust drugs, you may be considering the help of a doctor or other wellness professionals that practice “alternative medicine.” You’ve heard the words and they sound good, but really, what is alternative medicine?

Definition of Alternative Medicine

According to MedicineNet.com alternative medicine is “healing arts not taught in traditional Western medical schools that promote options to conventional medicine that is taught in these schools.”

Alternative medicine is “healing arts”. Those words make me feel better already! What a wonderful definition.

Why is Alternative Medicine So Popular?

One answer may be that these healing arts have the utmost respect, and may I say, even reverence, for the body, which is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” The repeated theme in all of the realms and among the different types of alternative medicine is that the body will heal itself given what it needs.

Alternative medicine is the ultimate second opinion when conventional medicine does not offer hope or when the treatment is harmful to the body, such as treating symptoms instead of causes and the harmful side effects of drugs.

The many success stories involving alternative medicine when conventional medicine has failed only adds to the popularity of alternative medicine.

Types of Alternative Medicine

If you are new to the benefits of alternative medicine, here are a few of the many alternative medicine specialties. Follow the links to learn more about the particular type of healing arts and to find a practitioner in your area.

QRA – These letters stands for Quantum Reflex Analysis This type of treatment uses the body’s energy fields that surround its major organs and glands to tell it what needs to heal. It is a simple and powerful way to both diagnose and heal the body.

Naturopath Doctor – NDs see the body as a whole with an innate ability to heal itself. The treatments they use blend modern medicine with traditional natural medicine to promote and restore wellness.

Chiropractor – Chiropractic is a way of allowing the body to heal itself through manipulation of the spine. There are two main types of chiropractic types of chiropractic treatment: Musculoskeletal adjustments for symptom relief and subluxation for structural correction.

Herbs – A modern herbalist is any person who studies the connection between plants and wellness. Healing is an art, but the tools are found in plants. The modern herbalist connects healing plants with the desire for wellness.

Acupuncture - Acupuncture or acupressure is an ancient Chinese medicine, based on the idea that the body’s energy must be able to flow smoothly through 14 major energy channels called “meridians.” These meridians lie along the acupuncture body points. The unifying concept of all of the alternative medicine listed above is that there is a reliance on the body’s ability to correct the problem. The body is seen as a whole. The symptoms expressed may have causes somewhere far removed from the problem site. Alternative medicine seeks to find healing for the entire body and in so doing, restore wellness.

All of the above types of alternative medicine have been in practice over many decades and in some cases, like acupuncture, over thousands of years. They have proven records of success. Although some of the healing arts cannot be fully explained scientifically (as in the case of acupuncture), the fact that it has been successfully used for thousands of years speaks for itself.

EFT - A very new type of healing, proposed in 1993, that should be considered in this topic is Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT. EFT is a type of energy healing that relies on tapping the meridians of the body as defined by ancient Chinese medicine. EFT have been employed to help such varying disorders like relief of chronic pain to breaking a smoking habit.

There are no double blind scientific studies to answer the question of how does EFT work. The body and mind are far more complex than we can imagine. Therefore, I present EFT to you along with all of the time tested and proved types of alternative medicine for your good health and wellness.

If you are interested in the powerful abilities of the mind to heal your body, either as a type of alternative medicine by itself, or as a compliment to either conventional or alternative medicine, let me suggest the website The Healing Mind.

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