What is Alternative Medicine?

Why try Alternative Medicine anyway?

Perhaps the better question is why not? From my own personal experience, alternative medicine (also known as complimentary or CAM, or Eastern medicine), namely massage, healing touch, yoga, meditation, acupuncture, and some others, has helped guide and assist in my recovery process. I am still recovering and I am still using these modalities on a regular basis to continue my progress to complete health. These have helped me not only physically, but emotionally and mentally. Alternative medicine has provided a way for me to begin a life anew while reinventing myself at the same time. I would not be out of bed, able to see friends, and write this blog if it had not been for alternative medicine.

Further, one tends to use alternative medicine when they are not getting relief from Western medicine (also known as mainstream medicine) techniques, and when one really desires nurturing and attention, especially since mainstream doctors only spend 15 – 20 minutes with each patient. Mainstream medicine is quite a systemic problem and can be an individual letdown. Am I against mainstream medicine? No, I have used it quite often as have many, but how are mental and physical ailments supposed to be diagnosed and discussed in an extensive nature if patients only have a maximum of 20 minutes on average with a physician, and 30 minutes with a psychiatrist?
Alternative medicine has had tremendous effects/benefits for different ailments, and it has helped cure mental and physical ailments and disease for thousands of people in varying cultures around the world. Alternative medicine has had a long history of success long before Western medicine; over 5,000 years long, while Western/mainstream medicine has been in existence for approximately 400 years. Society and media have a strong preference for pushing Western medicine on individuals and families. Other countries that have generally practised alternative medicine for a number of years are now also being pushed into Western medicine. Western medicine will be covered in another article, but in general it speaks to the use of prescription drugs, and therapies found in laboratories and rehabilitation medicine.

Alternative Medicine Explained

It has been said that over 80 million people have spent over 30 billion dollars on alternative medicine to help resolve different issues. This is a significant amount of people and money if alternative medicine supposedly doesn’t work or work that well to resolve physical and mental health challenges.

Alternative medicine is not considered part of mainstream medicine and consists of modalities such as, massage, healing touch, ayurveda, acupuncture, acupressure, aromatherapy, reiki, and many, many others that are used for a variety of physical and mental challenges. Studies have been conducted about alternative medicine and what it can provide and how it can benefit individuals. Alternative medicine not only helps to heal disease and ailments but it is very pleasing to its clients. Those practitioners that practice alternative medicine modalities spend quality time with each individual to get to the root of the issue that is causing one stress, disease, or any other mental or physical complications. In my personal experience, I have had intakes that lasted approximately 1 ½ hours so that the practitioner could completely understand my ailment. Upon intakes with physicians, again, this has ranged from 20-30 minutes!

In addition, alternative medicine has much fewer side effects. As many of you know, prescription medication for example, is used frequently in mainstream medicine and the medication tends to have several side effects that are uncomfortable and stressful. Sometimes other medications are prescribed in order to repress the side effects of the other medications being used. The side effects can even keep one home from going to work!

Alternative medicine can be used in combination with Western medicine, and used simultaneously with success. This has been very successful for me and other individuals I have come to know. By no means am I knocking Western medicine, it just lacks in certain, important areas which I have expressed and will further express in another blog entry. Lastly, but not less important, alternative medicine also tends to include one’s mind and energy in the process of healing. This is extremely important for you folks who are experiencing mental/emotional challenges, or stress related to physical and/or mental/emotional challenges. Including the body AND mind in the healing process will likely have double the positive effect because they are highly connected. How many of you have anxiety on Sundays because you know you have to go to work the next day? If you didn’t know why you had that stomach or headache, you know now!