Kristin Many people always confuse the two when they first come into contact with the field of natural health, and even think they are the same thing. In fact, they are completely two-dimensional things - the core difference is that alternative therapy belongs to the "classification of specific intervention methods", while holistic health is the "underlying logic of looking at health". The connection between the two is that the theoretical basis of most alternative therapies is in line with the core proposition of holistic health, but the implementation of holistic health does not need to be tied to any alternative therapy.
To put it simply, alternative therapy is a concept that is opposite to modern mainstream evidence-based medicine, such as some acupuncture and moxibustion techniques that have not been fully integrated into clinical pathways, as well as Ayurvedic conditioning, natural therapy, Reiki therapy, etc., all fall into this category. There has been a lot of controversy about it in the academic circles. Supporters believe that many methods have been tested in practice for thousands of years, while opponents believe that most alternative therapies lack large-sample double-blind experimental evidence, and even hide many fraud traps. There are arguments on both sides, and there is no unified conclusion yet.
The core of overall health is actually not that mysterious. It means not to dissect a person into individual organs. A headache should not only look at the head, and a foot pain should look at more than the feet. The physiological state, psychological emotions, living habits, social relationships and even the environment should be treated as a whole that affects each other. I had previously been in contact with a girl who had suffered from chronic urticaria for three years. The antihistamines prescribed by five or six tertiary hospitals all disappeared after she took them and relapsed when she stopped taking them. Later, when she came to me for treatment, I first spent more than an hour reviewing her living conditions: staying up until 2 a.m. all year round, drinking two glasses of iced Americano and one cup of iced milk tea a day. The pressure of doing Internet operation KPIs was so great that she cried once a week, and she had no time to exercise at all. The adjustment plan was also very simple. First, she gave up all ice drinks, moved up her bedtime by one and a half hours, and did Baduanjin for 20 minutes three days a week. When she was stressed, she stopped and took five minutes of deep breathing. In addition, she combined with the moxibustion prescribed by a regular Chinese medicine hospital doctor. After more than two months, her urticaria rarely broke out. You see, the moxibustion here belongs to the category of alternative therapies, but the logic of the entire adjustment is a typical overall health idea, not just focusing on the goal of "anti-allergy."
Many people think that talking about overall health means rejecting mainstream medical care and using alternative therapies. In fact, this is a complete misunderstanding. I know an endocrinologist who is a public tertiary-level doctor and is a practitioner of overall health. When he prescribes anti-diabetic drugs to patients with diabetes, he will spend 20 minutes asking the patient who cooks at home, whether he eats heavy meals, and whether he often stays up late to socialize at work. He also distributes special sugar-control recipes to family members and teaches patients how to find time to do simple relaxation exercises at their workstations. He does not mention any alternative therapies in the whole process, but this is the most standard overall health concept. On the other hand, there are also alternative therapies that have nothing to do with overall health. A while ago, I saw someone selling a so-called "quantum energy tablet", saying that whether you have high blood pressure or diabetes, whether you stay up late and eat sugar or not, you can be cured by just sticking this tablet on your skin. This essentially treats alternative therapy as a magic medicine that can cure all diseases, and is completely contrary to the core of "whole system adjustment" for overall health.
To use an inappropriate analogy, health management is like installing a house for a lifetime. Alternative therapies are those niche building materials, such as rammed earth walls, woven straw ceilings, and solid wood floors. They are not mainstream materials such as latex paint and integrated ceilings that are used by decoration companies by default. Overall health is the decoration idea of "taking into account the usage habits of the whole family, paying attention to lighting, ventilation, and environmental protection, and not over-decorating." You can definitely use mainstream materials such as latex paint and ceramic tiles to conform to this decoration idea. On the other hand, if you blindly follow the trend and use niche building materials regardless of the apartment type and lighting, or your family's living habits, the house you end up with will be uncomfortable to live in.
In fact, for ordinary people, there is no need to worry about whether to choose alternative therapy or overall health. If you want to try alternative therapy, don’t stop the regular treatment you are doing. Just confirm the safety of the method first.； Regardless of whether you use alternative therapies or not, when you are feeling uncomfortable, don’t just think about “what medicine will make you better.” Instead, think more about whether you have slept less recently, whether you are under too much pressure, or whether you haven’t moved for a long time. In fact, you have already used the idea of whole health.
