Natural Medicine? What is it really?
Since it can be intimidating and confusing,
I decided to formally define certain emerging wellness services, and explain my natural medicine blog passion, which involves researching natural medicine topics, offering legitimate evidence if possible, and non-medication options.
No matter what your personal beliefs regarding health care are, there is no argument that our health care system is nearing a crisis point. Since one of our largest GDP segments is health care, we profit from sickness. This simple statement defines the reason that there is little to no federal wellness investment. You have to decide to personally invest in this, knowing that your pay off is in the future.
However, as a society, we are bankrupting the system, losing necessary access for the masses, and doing little to stop preventable illness in comparison. And guess what? We are at a point where we may not be living longer, high quality lives versus previous generations. Objective statistics prove this.
When I run into people who know what I do, they will whisper something like this in my ear. “Hey have you heard of ____? I’m trying it. What’s your opinion? But keep that between you and I because I don’t want our friends to think I’m crazy.” I am going to say this. It is not crazy. Many of these options are not voodoo. There is information out there that it works. In some cases, success has been documented for centuries. If it keeps you off a long term medication, does not make you sicker, and improves your quality of life, there is nothing wrong with having an open mind.
You may be asking, what do all these wellness services really mean because I’m interested but confused. Great question!!! As it so happens, I have a couple explanations for you!
- Alternative Medicine: any non-conventional interventions that are used instead of conventional treatments. This is very rare actually, because the key word is instead. To be alternative medicine, you must be using a therapy in place of conventional medicine.
- Complementary Health Care: any alternative treatment used in conjunction with mainstream treatment. Overtime, a complementary treatment can become a standard. An example of this is chiropractic care.
- Integrative Health Care: involves bringing conventional and complementary approaches together in a coordinated way. This is a holistic patient care because it addresses all possible root causes of illness, including: lifestyle, community, environment, physical, and emotional health.
- Naturopathic Medicine: draws on traditional, scientific and empirical evidence. Most naturopathic physicians prefer to try non-conventional treatments first because conventional treatments are generally restricted to prescription drugs and surgeries, but these physicians are not against western medicine.
- Mind-Body Approach: focuses on the way emotional, mental, social, spiritual, experiential and behavioral factors affect physical health. Examples include: yoga, tai-chi, chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation, meditation, and massage therapy.
- Natural Health Care Products: Natural health care products are nutritional or dietary supplements, including herbs, that are not vitamins or minerals. These products do not require purity testing, so buyer beware. If you are using natural products, consult a licensed health-care practitioner for product advice and appropriate supplement use, particularly when using them alongside pharmaceuticals, since interactions can occur.
As always, please leave your questions, comments, and feedback! Look for my next FB live event September 10th at 8 PM EST. I’ll discuss and answer questions about my most recent blogs. I’m looking forward to “seeing” you there!
