What is Alternative Medicine

Alternative medicine is just that. It is an alternate method different than the traditional way of treating disease. In fact, it deals more with prevention than treatment. With alternative medicine the emphasis is one of whole body and mind, living a life with healthy habits, believing that when things are in balance the body will take care of itself. And, if some thing does go wrong, to find the root cause of the problem rather than just treating, or in some cases only masking, the symptoms.

For some of us it is very difficult to accept that there can be alternate solutions to our illnesses other than the methods we've become accustomed to since birth. But, keeping an open mind can open up other possibilities that may even work better and longer term. Also, simply because traditional medicine is the main form in our society does not mean it's the correct one or even the better one. All that means is that traditional medicine had more momentum and was embraced more than traditional medicine.

If you have an open mind you can see several problems with traditional medicine.

• As already stated, most of the time it deals with the symptoms rather than the true cause of the illness
• There is very little emphasis on prevention
• Very few resources are focused on finding out why certain illnesses occur
• It is very expensive to operate
• It is controlled by huge profits for very few people, which means that medicine is not developed for the benefit of the public but rather for the benefit of those that will profit from it. If there is no profit to be made then there is no motive to find a cure
• Side effects from drugs may not be known until many years later, with some of these side effects being worse than the original illness

Now, having said all this, for sure there are situations where traditional medicine has a crucial role, but many times it should not be the only possibility examined.

Being healthy is a little tricky to define, and it can mean different things to different people. For an athlete, being healthy may mean being able to participate in their sport. For the average person it can mean living disease free. But for someone with a disease, it may mean having the disease under control and be able to function in the activities they enjoy. Most people however, will agree that health is more than just physical. It involves physical, mental, emotional, and perhaps spiritual factors. It is also important to note that these factors are intertwined. When something is wrong with one of these areas other areas are usually affected as well.

There are several factors to consider when searching for the origin of an illness:

• Physical injury or infection
• Excess stress
• Inappropriate use of medications, e.g. antibiotics
• Pollution (cars, smoke, factories, even chemicals in our products)
• Genetics
• Diet
• Obesity
• Electromagnetic Fields (from electrical appliances)

Re-instating health must involve eliminating the factors that cause the illness in the first place, not just trying to eliminate the symptoms of the disease. Even if traditional medicine is needed, the cause must still be eliminated. E.g. there is no point in treating lung cancer if the patient is going to continue smoking.