What is the difference between alternative medicine and holistic health

In fact, the core difference between the two is that their attributes are completely different - alternative therapy is a collective name for a type of specific intervention methods that are opposite to conventional Western medicine allopathic medicine, while holistic health is a health management concept and system framework that treats people as complete individuals rather than divided organ symptoms.

I have been working as a front-line consultant in the field of natural health for 7 years. The most common misunderstanding I encountered in the first two years was to equate the two, and I even thought that using alternative therapies was equivalent to overall health conditioning. I met a 32-year-old Internet operator before. His shoulders and neck were so stiff that it was difficult to turn his head. He first went to a health center for moxibustion and bone-setting, which is a very typical alternative therapy. After the treatment, he felt relieved. However, after staying up for two long nights to catch up on projects, the pain was even worse than before.

Later, he came over to make adjustments. I did not arrange any conditioning projects for him first, but first took him to figure out his living conditions for two weeks: sitting in front of the computer for more than 10 hours a day, always typing with his arms crooked to one side, eating takeout that was heavy in oil and salt. Last week, he had an awkward dispute with the leader because of project evaluation, and he had insomnia for three consecutive days until 3 o'clock. Moxibustion was actually used in the later adjustment plan, but it was only used as an auxiliary item to relieve muscle tension once a week. More importantly, he was asked to raise the monitor at his workstation by 10 centimeters, get up and hold a glass of water for two minutes every 40 minutes, add a small spoonful of flaxseed to three meals to balance the inflammatory response, and do 5 minutes of 478 breathing before bed to calm his mood. After less than a month of adjustment, he said that the number of shoulder and neck pains was reduced by 80%, and even the migraines that he often suffered before did not come to his door.

An analogy may make it easier to understand: overall health is like taking care of a small yard. If you want the flowers to grow well, you have to consider whether the soil is fertile, whether the water is watered enough, whether there are insects, improper lighting, and even whether there are trees around to block the light. Alternative therapy is a certain organic fertilizer you buy. It may indeed replenish nutrients to the soil, but if you only apply fertilizer, regardless of the amount of watering and lighting, the flowers will wither.

Most of the current chaos in the industry comes from conceptual confusion. Many businesses package and sell single alternative therapies as "holistic health solutions", claiming that drinking herbal tea and doing energy therapy can cure diabetes and thyroid nodules. In essence, they are cutting leeks by changing the concept. There have always been differences in the application of the two in the industry: Public health practitioners with a Western medicine background mostly believe that many alternative therapies lack sufficient evidence-based medical evidence and are not recommended as primary intervention methods, and are even opposed to using alternative therapies to replace conventional treatments; while practitioners in the field of naturopathic medicine mostly believe that proven and safe alternative therapies can be used as an effective supplement in the overall health plan, helping users relieve symptoms while reducing the side effects of long-term medication.

I met an aunt with type 2 diabetes before. She believed in the "holistic health conditioning course" of an organization, stopped the anti-diabetic drugs prescribed by the doctor, and only ate the herbal powder they sold. Within half a month, she was sent to the emergency room for ketoacidosis. In fact, it was not true holistic health at all, but an unscrupulous businessman who used a single alternative therapy to cover up a holistic health to deceive people.

In fact, for ordinary users, there is no need to go into too detailed definitions of terms. When encountering related services, be more careful and avoid traps: If the other party comes up and recommends a certain treatment for you, saying it can cure all diseases, then it is most likely that it is in the name of overall health. The banner sells alternative therapies; if the other party first chats with you for a long time about your living habits, emotional state, and past medical history, and then gives you a comprehensive plan that includes diet, work and rest, emotions, and intervention methods, then it is really based on the idea of ​​whole health.