
With alternative healing techniques gaining an ever-increasing popularity over conventional methods, especially when conventional medicine puts down its arms in the face of various rare and complex diseases, it does not come as a surprise that people are getting increasingly curious to know more about the various holistic medicines.
You must have heard the terms symptomatic treatment or treatment for symptomatic relief, many a time from practitioners of conventional medicine. Well, they precisely sum up the essence of conventional medicine – treatment of the symptoms or rather, treatment of the disease on the basis of the symptoms. This makes conventional medicine, quite a trial-and-error matter, as many illnesses may exhibit similar symptoms in their most primary stages!
For instance, a headache may be triggered by migraine, viral infection, or constipation and in such a case, when you administer an aspirin or any pain-killer to offer relief from headache, you tend to ignore the underlying cause! The headache might disappear for sometime, however, what if the root cause that still remains brewing inside the body, takes on more malefic proportions?
Well, the answer comes in the form of holistic health care techniques and medicine, which includes an array of alternative healing techniques that focus on curing the root cause of the ailment, rather than treating the symptoms. This is either done by attacking the root cause of illness directly or by making certain adjustments within the physiological functions and regulating the bodily humors such that the body itself fights off the infection and heals itself.
There are various holistic medicines and alternative healing techniques, that focus on correcting the root cause of an illness by manipulating various physiological functions and regulating the proportion of the body’s internal enzymes, and the flow of mental and biological energies to restore health and promote wellness. While some of these types are anatomy-specific healing methods, there are other holistic medicinal disciplines that deal with correcting the constitutional ills of the entire body.
Various Branches of Holistic Medicine
While many of us may have some idea about acupuncture, acupressure, aromatherapy, reiki, ayurveda, yoga, and reflexology, there remains a huge number of alternative and holistic healing methods and disciplines that we have never even heard of.
While most of these are sub disciplines of the aforementioned families of holistic medicine, there are others that are independent and are healing techniques having treatment methods and curative specifics of their own. Considering this, here is a listing of a large number of heard-and-not-heard-of alternative medicines and healing methods that heal rather than treat, and cure rather than suppress the ailment.
- Acupuncture
- Acupressure
- Alexander Technique
- Ayurveda
- Naturopathy
- Chinese/Oriental Medicine
- Sonopuncture
- Aromatherapy
- Reiki
- Reflexology
- Unani Medicine
- Homeopathy
- Applied Kinesiology
- Osteopathy
- ChiropracticTechniques
- Apitherapy
- Autogenic Training
- Bates Method
- Bach Flower Therapy
- Herbalism
- Fasting
- Hydrotherapy
- Urine Therapy
- Light Therapy
- Chromotherapy
- Laughter Therapy
- Iridology
- Hypnotherapy
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Aura Healing
- Magnetic Healing
- Music Therapy
- Body Work
- Crystal Healing
- Orthomolecular Medicine
- Electromagnetic Therapy
- Craniosacral Therapy
- Pulse Diagnosis
- Fire Cupping
- Quigong/Chi Kung
- Shiatsu
- Pranic Healing
- Kundalini Yoga
- Neuro-linguistic Programming
- Moxibustion
- Polarity Healing
- Radionics
- Sclerology
- Gua Sha/Coin Rubbing
- Plum Blossom Technique
- Tui Na/Zhi Na (Chinese Massage)
- Bikram Yoga
- Tantric Yoga
- Auriculotherapy
- Psychic Surgery
- Diet Therapies
- Ear Candling
- Collodial Silver Therapy
- Martial Arts and Meditation
- Macrobiotic Diet
- Balneotherapy
While the efficacy of many of these alternative healing techniques is a hot topic for debate, the health benefits of many others, such as, various forms of yoga, meditation, acupuncture, acupressure, ayurvedic medicine and aromatherapy have been proved to be extremely effective in treating various health conditions.
Despite the fact that the terms alternative healing and holistic medicine are met by a myriad of reactions, starting from outright skepticism and hesitant suspicion, to complete faith and heartfelt respect, there is no denying the fact that, there is some truth in the accounts of people, who claim to have benefited from these healing methods.