Natural Medicine

Natural medicine treats whole body, prevents illness – By Kathleen Barnes

Natural medicine goes by many names: alternative medicine, complementary medicine, holistic healing, functional medicine,  traditional medicine and an endless variety of permutations of these names.

While there are shades of distinction between each of these and there is sometimes a great divergence of approaches, the bottom line is that they differ from conventional or allopathic medicine because they seek to:

• prevent illness rather than treat it
• treat the whole person – body, mind, emotions and spirit –  rather than just the symptoms
• treat the underlying causes of illness rather than simply addressing symptoms
• view the body’s natural state as one of health
• promote wellness through the use of proper nutrition and avoidance of substances that pollute body, mind or spirit

Holistic medicine isn’t new

Natural medicine is practiced by some of the Earth’s oldest cultures, including the Indian ayurvedic system, traditional Chinese medicine,  and the herbal and energy medicine used by virtually every indigenous culture on Earth of thousands of years.

The experience of thousands of years of success has somehow become characterized as “alternative” by a modern medical establishment that scoffs at them as though these therapies were invented by a bunch of 1960s hippies.

Indeed, in the United States and in much of the so-called “civilized” world, most of these therapies were unknown until those same unreconstructed hippies of the 60s insisted there was something to them. And we were right.

Western medicine laughed at acupuncture, despite the fact that this Chinese energy system has been used to induce complete pain relief, even during surgery, without side effects for thousands of years.

Big pharmaceutical companies insist that rain forest botanicals are ineffective as medicines, and at the same time decimate the rain forests for raw materials to concoct synthetic (and patentable) versions of those same substances that can be sold at astronomical prices.

Natural Medicine and conventional medicine can work together

Natural medicine does not mean that one gets into bed and prays or the healing of a broken leg, although I have personally witnessed some amazing healing. Instead, practitioners of natural medicine might work with a patient with a broken leg to eat the right foods and take the right supplements top promote healing. They might encourage massage, acupuncture and other unconventional methods of recovering health in addition to the standard surgical setting of the limb and immobilization practiced by conventional doctors.

In the case of our theoretical broken leg, an alternative practitioner might go a step farther by recommending detoxification techniques to help the body rid itself of the toxic substances used for anesthesia, pain relief and infection prevention. Chiropractic manipulation might even be recommended as part of the healing process.

A healthy body heals faster

And, of course, any holistic practitioner would probably tell you that despite the fact that “stuff happens,” a healthy body can rapidly recover from virtually any injury or other illness.

Among the major non-conventional therapies practiced in the Western world today are:

• Herbal medicine
• Homeopathy
• Naturopathic medicine
• Traditional Chinese medicine (including acupuncture)
• Ayurvedic medicine
• Nutritional therapies
• Energy medicine
• Chiropractic
• Stress reduction and meditation
• Yoga, qi gong and tai chi
• Massage

Many practitioners practice more than one of thee modalities and some conventionally trained medical doctors also embrace alternative therapies. In recent years, many medical schools have begun to offer curriculae in complementary and integrative therapies that blend the best of allopathic medicine with alternative therapies.

Old therapies are getting new respect

Where once an orthopedic surgeon might have turned up his nose at the idea that massage could speed the healing the rehabilitation of that broken leg, scientific validation has made many physicians more comfortable where these “new ideas.”

Among the many scientific validations of so-called “alternative” therapies, numerous studies have upheld the fact that simple guided imagery and visualization techniques help post-surgical patients heal faster with less need for expensive pain medications, fewer infections and shorter hospital stays.

Science even agrees now that deep breathing and meditation techniques can actually lower blood pressure—within minutes—and lower the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Use of complementary therapies is growing

The National Institutes of health estimates that 38% of Americans use some kind of alternative therapies. That figure nearly doubles if one includes those who use nutritional supplements.

This popularity has created a multi-billion dollar industry with millions of loyal customers, despite the failure of most insurance companies to pay for the more common non-conventional treatments.

Insurance companies looking at bottom line

When the bottom line is a better bottom line for the insurance companies these ideas start to gain traction.

Some insurance companies are even getting on board with the foundational concept behind most non-conventional therapies: If the body is healthy to start out with, and each of us does what we can to remain healthy, we’ll pay spend less on MRIs, elaborate surgeries, outrageously overpriced prescription drugs and for long-term treatment of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Eventually the bean counters at the insurance companies will catch on to the idea that spending as little at $10 a week for certain nutritional supplements can prevent diseases and health crises that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat.

When that happens, we’ll be on our way.

Best of all, we’ll live, healthier, happier, productive long lives. Who could possibly argue with that?