Holistic care is comprehensive approach that addresses a person’s whole body and being. It offers treatment of the spirit, mind, and body of a person. It focuses more on a person’s optimal health than on the eradication of sickness in their body. It is different from what a medical doctor would examine and prescribe for their patient. For example, a lower back pain examination from a medical doctor would result in the doctor prescribing pharmaceuticals for pain managagement. However, a holistic healthcare provider would suggest lifestyle and diet changes, activities, and other unique treatments that a medical doctor would not. Such treatments emphasize a patient’s digestive health and overall wellness.
A holistic doctor uses treatment to identify the causes of ailments in a person’s body instead of just dealing with the symptoms. Most of these treatments can be covered by an employee benefits provider including services from sleep doctors, an eye doctor, and a chiropractor. Holistic care focuses on a person’s well-being and ways to prevent diseases rather than treating them. Most holistic care doctors recommend their patients indulge themselves in a day spa or visit a wellness center to get proper holistic treatments.
What Is Holistic Medicine?
Generally, holistic medicine is a combination of complementary alternative medicine and conventional medicine which are proven scientifically to be effective in treating diseases. Meditation, acupuncture, exercise, and nutrition are a few of the holistic care treatments. The main goal of holistic care is to provide the body with improvements to its natural healing capabilities and encourages a patient to be responsible for their overall well-being and health. This type of treatment considers the spiritual, social, psychological, and physical aspects of a particular disease.
Holistic care medical practitioners focus on these aspects to treat and manage the ailment of a person. Holistic doctors generally have a medical background but they focus mainly on prevention before treatment. They are knowledgeable in treatments needed to heal a person’s body and the steps a person needs to take to prevent them from contracting an illness.
What are The Principles Used In Holistic Medicine and Treatment?
Holistic Medicine and care focus on the principles outlined below.
- All persons can heal their bodies and bear the responsibility to ensure their wellbeing.
- Good health is a combination of social, spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical wellness.
- Holistic treatment addresses a person as a whole instead of focusing on a particular disease.
- Holistic care’s main goal is to treat and fix underlying causes of health conditions or diseases, as opposed to treating symptoms only.
- A patient is not defined by their health condition.
- Holistic treatment practitioners work with their patients to fully understand them and their conditions to find suitable treatments to address their illnesses.
- Preventing illness is the primary goal in holistic treatment while treatment of a condition is considered a secondary goal.
- The outcome of holistic treatment gets determined by a doctor’s relationship and the patient seeking treatment.
The Types of Holistic Treatments
Holistic care involves treatments from a variety of options such as traditional medicine, self-care, lifestyle changes, education, and complementary and alternative medicine. Holistic treatments use approaches that include:
Complementary and Alternative Medicine(CAM)
A holistic are doctor may prescribe or perform specific therapies like psychotherapy, music therapy, hypnosis, massaging, reflexology, reiki, naturopathy, chiropractic care, biomolecular therapies, manual medicine, herbal medicine, physical therapy, Chinese or orientational therapy, Ayurveda, aromatherapy, acupressure, acupuncture, and homeopathy.
Educational and Lifestyle Changes
A holistic care practitioner will educate their patients on how they can make lifestyle changes including self-care methods and fixing bad habits. They include spiritual and relationship counseling, support groups, self-massage, meditation, Tai chi, yoga, regular exercise, abstinence from certain drinks and foods, dietary supplements, diet changes, and nutrition.
Traditional Treatments
The majority of holistic doctors use a combination of surgical procedures and traditional medicines and complementary and alternative medicines. They include surgeries, radiation therapies, chemotherapy, therapy, and prescription medication among others. Holistic treatment tends to focus on traditional remedies to heal patients from their ailments and direct them in ways they can prevent contracting diseases.
The Benefits of Holistic Treatment
Holistic Care provides many benefits including the following.
Overall Health Improvement
Holistic Care mainly focuses on treatments that improve a person’s overall healing and health. This is one of the benefits of holistic care since it focuses on a patient’s well-being and the improvement of their health. The holistic treatment medical practitioner will advise the patient on practices that can perform to ensure they live a healthy lifestyle and use natural remedies to heal their diseases. The main focus of holistic treatment is healing a person’s mental health, social health, spiritual and emotional health as well as physical health.
A More Natural Approach
Treatments used in holistic care mostly include non-invasive methods, herbs, and natural medicines to heal patients from their ailments. It is important to note, however, that not all of these medicines or methods are 100 percent safe. Holistic doctors provide adequate consultation time and focus their attention on their patients’ needs. They treat their patients individually and do not focus on their patients. This enables their patients to heal from their ailments and illnesses.
Emphasis on Prevention of Health Conditions
Holistic Care mainly focuses on the prevention of health conditions before their symptoms advance in a person’s body. These alternative medical approaches are used in addition to the common approach in which illnesses are treated. Due to its specificity in locating and eradicating root causes of various illnesses, therapies that use holistic treatments help to prevent a patient from needing repetitive and expensive healthcare treatments. This helps in avoiding spending too much money on buying expensive drugs and paying highly-priced fees to get medical services. The holistic treatment provides an affordable alternative to other treatments.
Fewer Side Effects
Due to using natural remedies and procedures on patients, holistic medicine may not have many side effects on a person compared to other types of medication. Although this may not always be the case with every patient, holistic care is a good option if you are seeking to find non-invasive treatment methods for your illness or condition. It is also a great option if you find that you have adverse side effects from conventional medications. A holistic medical practitioner will recommend the best types of holistic treatments that address the kind of illness you are ailing from.
Patient Empowerment
Through specialized holistic treatments from a qualified holistic care practitioner, you can eliminate the usage of pharmaceutical medication and products. You can treat your illness by using remedies recommended to you by a holistic doctor. They will perform or prescribe the needed treatments to prevent or eliminate the sickness you are suffering from. Most holistic treatments strive to use natural remedies instead of focusing on conventional medication.
Chemical-Free Treatments
Holistic Care is effective in eliminating the usage of pharmaceutical medications that are made from chemicals. When a patient uses holistic treatments in place of conventional medication, they reduce their usage of pharmaceutical products or remove them entirely from their treatment process. Sometimes a patient can be allergic to certain pharmaceutical medications needed to treat their illness. Opting for holistic treatment could solve their problem since most treatments use natural approaches to treat or prevent ailments.
Greater Affordability
Holistic treatment can cost less compared to other treatments because it uses different remedies to curb illnesses and also prevent their symptoms from advancing. Its ability to offer patients other methods of treatment makes it an affordable choice. With holistic care, you can be able to address your illness without worrying about how expensive it will be.
It Targets a Wider Range of Health Conditions
Holistic medicine is used in treating various illnesses and conditions such as addiction, fatigue, high blood pressure, stroke, heart diseases, skin diseases, chronic pain, back pain, headaches, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and other serious health conditions like early-stage cancer or lupus. Using its remedies and treatments, holistic care can effectively treat or prevent the advancement of these illnesses.
It Enables the Body’s Ability To Heal On Its Own
Holistic medical practitioners understand that the body possesses a natural ability to heal on its own accord. They maximize this ability by providing ideal remedies and treatments to heal a patient’s body. When the spirit, body, and mind synchronize and are in healthy condition, the body’s ability to heal on its own greatly improves. Holistic care uses various treatment methods to enhance the immunity of a patient, and reduce inflammation in a patient’s body, they also regulate healing processes in a patient’s body.
Improved Patient and Doctor Relationships
One important thing about holistic care is the relationship between a patient and a holistic doctor. The patient is regarded as more than what their medical history and symptoms entail. A holistic medical practitioner puts into consideration how the patient feels, acts, and thinks based on the patient’s psychological, social, spiritual, and physical structure. Doing this will enable the holistic doctor to come up with an effective and complete treatment plan and diagnosis for a patient. They consider key areas of a patient’s lifestyle including family and medical histories as well as the patient lifestyle to get optimum treatment plans.
It Teaches By Example
Holistic doctors are aware of the importance of teaching others by example. They recommend patients lead healthy lifestyles, take ideal medications and incorporate the usage of natural remedies on their patients. They provide a good example to their patients by leading healthy lifestyles and regularly getting detoxified. This helps to build trust with their patients and enables them to heal at a fast rate. Additionally, if there are questions or concerns that the patient has, the holistic medical practitioner understands easily what the patient may be going through and offers effective advice on what they should do.
For many, holistic care offers a great way to get affordable Care for their conditions. Its usage of natural remedies makes it an ideal option for patients seeking natural-based treatments. Holistic care seeks to reduce the usage of pharmaceutical products and instead use natural treatment to enable the body to heal on its own. A holistic care doctor usually assesses a patient’s patient’s body before they can issue them ideal treatments and diagnosis.
What is important in holistic care treatment is the patient’s healing and most holistic doctors focus on the patient’s medical history to come up with an appropriate diagnosis and treatment plan for the patient. Holistic medicine understands that attitude is a key factor in how one’s health progresses. Having a positive attitude greatly enhances a person’s ability to heal from an illness. Learning how to find an ideal balance between lowering your stress levels and improving your overall outlook is key to lowering your risk to contract diseases, improving your overall health, and increasing your longevity.
Mother nature is a key factor when it comes to providing various ways to improve the health of a person and cute diseases and illnesses. For many years, human beings have looked to plants as an effective way to treat their illnesses. Many medications are reliant on natural plant extracts, fungi or mold to treat diseases. Holistic medicine highly depends on plants for its natural remedies. An important ingredient used by medicines such as aspirin is salicylic acid. This ingredient is developed in tree barks of will and myrtle. Other medicines that use plant-based ingredients are camphor, motion sickness medications, pseudoephedrine, and codeine.
Holistic care understands that patients’ lives are filled with different opportunities to grow and learn. Examples of such opportunities include death, birth, sicknesses, and joy. By guiding a patient on how to view each holistic treatment as a learning opportunity, the holistic doctor can assist their patients to pay close attention to opportunities for learning instead of the emotional aspect of events that occur in their lifetime. This method is beneficial as it helps in improving a patient’s outlook on their lives, reduces stress, and helps to promote psychological, physical, and emotional healing in a patient.
Make sure you consult with a reputable holistic medical practitioner to ensure you get the best medical care. Do extensive research on the holistic doctor you intend to book an appointment with. You can stick with local holistic medical practitioners in your area or search for reputable ones in your start or county. This will ensure you get access to needed holistic medical services.
