Q.(11) I have only used traditional methods when I am ill. What is holistic and alternative medicine?
ANSWER by Dr Maddy
Both traditional, holistic and alternative medicine work well together. You must decide how and when to use alternative medicine or whether traditional or holistic medicine will serve your needs. Page53 of Power Up For Success describes what they are.
HOLISTIC VS. TRADITIONAL
The term holistic simply means that the whole entity has an existence other than the sum of its parts. The traditional way to treat disease differs from the holistic practitioner in various ways.
HOLISTIC PRACTITIONER
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Treats the patient's causes as well as the symptoms.
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Treats the physical, mental and emotional aspects.
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Believes that each individual is unique.
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Practitioner regards health as the ratio that the individual is functioning to his optimum capacity to function.
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Patients are treated constructively with nutrition, awareness, exercise and care.
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Advocates that disease comes from disharmony in the mental, emotional and physical aspects of the person.
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Practitioner promotes patient self-responsibility.
TRADITIONAL PRACTITIONER
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Treats only the symptoms of the disease.
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Patients are treated only as physical beings.
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Treats patients metabolically alike.
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Regards health as the absence of disease.
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Treats disease destructively: surgery, drugs, radiation.
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Disease comes from germs.
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Patient should self-surrender to the doctor.
The holistic point of view states that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely an absence of disease. The individual's wellness is a process that constructs a self-designed style of living that allows the person to live life to the fullest. Most people do not function at their full potential and only maintain life; whereas fully functioning people enhance life. To begin a wellness life-style, first make a commitment to yourself: assess your current life-style; and take action-investigate information, locate resources for skill development, and build a support network. These are some of the steps to fulfill for self-actualization-a drive to achieve your full potential, to be all that you can possibly be. It is the need to stretch, risk and grow.
