Casandra In fact, the most essential difference between the two is the difference between "intervention tools" and "the underlying logic of health" - alternative therapy is a type of intervention method that is not included in the conventional Western medicine clinical system, while overall health is a core idea that views health and guides all health decisions. The two are not in the same dimension at all.
It is normal for many people to confuse the two. After all, many alternative therapies on the market are bound to the concept of "holistic conditioning", which makes it easy for people to think that the two are the same thing. Take moxibustion, which many people have tried, as an example. If you have shoulder and neck pain, don’t want to take painkillers, and don’t want to undergo physical therapy in the hospital, and you find a technician in a restaurant to do moxibustion for half an hour and you feel much better. At this time, you are using a simple alternative therapy, which has nothing to do with your overall health. ； But when the technician is doing moxibustion for you, he also reminds you that your shoulder and neck pain is not only caused by sitting for a long time, but also by whether you have been staying up late at night and have strong anger and tight trapezius muscles. You should drink less ice when you go home, and get up and move for two minutes after sitting for half an hour. He even teaches you a simple shoulder and neck relaxation breathing method. At this time, the whole service will be based on overall health.
There is indeed a lot of chaos in the industry right now. Many businesses are packaging various alternative therapies that have not been scientifically verified as "holistic health solutions" and selling them at high prices. Wearing energy bracelets to regulate endocrine and drinking fruit and vegetable paste to treat cancer have caused many people to think that overall health is pseudoscience when it comes to overall health. In fact, this is really stigmatizing overall health. The serious overall health approach does not exclude mainstream medical treatment at all. This logic is even used in the management of chronic diseases in many tertiary hospitals. For example, the intervention plan for patients with hypertension does not just prescribe antihypertensive drugs, but also includes low-salt dietary guidance, emotional stress relief, regular exercise advice, and even help in adjusting sleeping habits. The core is to treat people as a complete system, rather than fixing what is broken. This has nothing to do with whether or not alternative therapies are used.
I met a client with irritable bowel syndrome a while ago. At first, she took many detours and took various imported probiotics and herbal supplements as alternative therapies. After taking these for more than half a year, she still suffered from diarrhea when she was nervous. Later, when we adjusted the plan, we did not completely stop the regular probiotics she had taken before. Instead, we added low-intensity aerobics twice a week and anxiety relief. We even helped her change her habit of always rushing to wolf down meals. In about two months, most of her symptoms were relieved. You see, we didn’t use any strange alternative therapies here. The core was to follow the idea of overall health, not to focus on the intestines, but to bring in all the life and emotional factors that affect her condition and adjust them together.
Of course, this does not mean that all alternative therapies are unreliable. For example, acupuncture relieves postoperative pain, and massage improves muscle strain. There is enough research evidence to support it, and it can be used as a supplementary tool in an overall health plan. However, if alternative therapies are directly equated with overall health, or even considered as a "higher and healthier choice" as long as you use alternative therapies, then you are really going astray.
