Alternative medicine is a term that refers to medical practices outside of conventional medicine. Alternative solutions are sometimes new and untested in the scientific realm of conventional medicine, stamped with approval of the federal government. Also, they sometimes focus around or contain a religious, spiritual or metaphysical element. Here are some popular alternative medicinal solutions.
Acupuncture – This is the art of inserting tiny needles underneath the skin that stimulate targeted body spots. Acupuncture is most often used to relieve pain and heal the body.
Apitherapy – Better known as Bee Therapy, this practice makes use of honey and venom from the honeybee for treatments. Popular ones for health and beauty products and healing treatments are raw honey, bee pollen, royal jelly and propolis.
Biofeedback – This refers to a machine that gives feedback on the body. The feedback helps healthcare providers chart bodily functions to help with treatment. These machines are used to chart internal functions with more accuracy than a human alone is capable of, and the results are used to determine and then gauge how well the treatment is working. Biofeedback has been used to help people with their emotional disorders, digestive disorders, stress, migraines and heart irregularities. The machine alerts people to the idea of how their own emotions and thoughts can come into play with regards to illness and treatment options.
Chiropractics – This form of back treatment has been around for awhile and focuses on the vertebrae not being aligned properly, thus contributing to a variety of pain, illnesses and diseases. Many also focus on stress, overall health and lifestyle. In general, a chiropractor applies pressure in small amounts to various vertebrae, helping them realign. Plus many help treat common diseases like asthma, troubled backs and arthritis.
Feng Shui - This is a philosophy that is said to bring harmony into lives, that features not only the four basic elements of earth, fire, water and air, but a fifth; metal. By aligning these elements throughout clutter-free homes, work, outdoor and other environments, peace and tranquility are said to follow.
Healing Crystals – These minerals turned crystalline are said to boast certain healing powers. For example, ancient grave sites house them as a means of protection in the afterlife. In the modern world, many believe these crystals house healing power. For example, to treat stomach pain, some healers place charged quartz on the lower abdomen area to help restore energy there.
Herbal Remedies – Applying herbs, either home grown or store bought, to certain ailments helps with healing for many conditions. Among popular treatments are a half-and-half solution of witch hazel and water to help clear up acne, lavender scented oils and candles to sooth stress and garlic on top of warts to remove them.
There are many more alternative medicine treatments out there. Search your favorite search engine for more.
Chinese medicine is a whole holistic system that can lead to a healthier, happier and more stress free way of living. It is a system that people have benefited from for over twenty-three centuries and is used to diagnose, treat and prevent a wide variety or illnesses and problems.
The different aspects that make up Chinese medicine all basically rely on the same principle, Yin and Yang. This is basically opposites attract, such as night and day, cold and warm, inner and outer. The basis behind it is to restore harmony and peace to the mind and body; the Chinese believe that by doing so we can eliminate many diseases and illnesses.
Qi is the life force that flows uninterrupted throughout the body, similar to blood throwing throughout the veins. It is when there is a disruption in this Qi that problems and illness occurs; restoring the flow of the Qi restores harmony and dissolves the symptoms of illness.
The two main components of Chinese medicine are acupuncture and herbal remedies.
Acupuncture focuses on the Qi that flows throughout the body; it flows through points known as meridian points. While it is flowing freely we are healthy and happy, but if the channels should become blocked then the Qi stagnates and this leads to symptoms of various illnesses depending on where the Qi is blocked. It works by the acupuncturist restoring the normal flow of the Qi by stimulating certain points on the body.
Chinese herbal medicine is usually dispensed after acupuncture treatment although it can be used as a standalone. There are over a thousand common herbs that are used in combinations for various problems and illnesses. There are two main types of herbal remedies that are commonly used, these are “food herbs” and are generally eaten as part of the diet and are mainly used for prevention of disease and illness and maintenance. “Medicinal herbs” are usually prescribed by a Doctor of Chinese medicine and are specially prepared for the patient based on the individuals needs. The formula is made up from the patient’s medical condition, the environment and the constitution of the person. Medicinal herbs are usually given alongside acupuncture treatment and used in conjunction with the “re-balancing” effects of acupuncture treatment.
The benefits of Chinese medicine are numerous and is has been thought to have helped many physical conditions along with affective disorders and increases mental clarity, here are just a few of the conditions it has been known to successfully treat.
Aromatherapy, a term created in 1920, involves the use of essential oils that are compounds in their purist state. The oils are concentrated liquids derived from plants through a variety of means: distillation, solvent extraction or expression processing. And the resulting oils are then used as treatment for a variety of ailments and healing.
Aromatherapy was actually coined because of Mr. Rene Maurice Gattefosse. While he was conducting research about how oils might aid healing, his arm caught fire and subsequently poured lavender oil onto it by accidental, which in turn caused the arm to heal faster, leaving no scar.Since that time, many have delved into how aromatherapy can help with physical and emotional healing.
Some common uses for aromatherapy oils are as scents for homes and offices to help trigger relaxing feelings from occupants and to also help get rid of unwanted smells and germs. For example, lighting candles and burning wax chips made with aromatherapy oils can help rid a kitchen of smelly fried onion and other food smells.
A light fragrance can help welcome people home after a long day at the office. Popular scents are bergamot, eucalyptus, lavender, jasmine and rose.
Some of the oils can help fight bacteria, like lavender oil. And others, like camphor and menthol can help increase your metabolism and endocrine system, improve your central nervous system and boost your immune system to fight colds.
Other aromatherapy oils are used for massage treatments, too. Absorbed by the skin and muscles, the oils activate thermal receptors that result in warm relaxing feelings and calmness in the muscle groups.
And still other aromatherapy oils are used as topical aids to aid in the destruction of microbes and other fungi; the oils are simply applied to the skin. And other oils are taken internally where they can help improve antiseptic activity, stimulate your immune system and work as a diuretic aid.
When deciding about the uses of aromatherapy for your ailments and healing, use the following guidelines as precautionary measures:
On the face of it, this question of trying to cure depression without drugs seems to be futile, especially these days when most people have gotten used to the idea of being treated with prescriptions drugs. But many people are successfully turning away from prescription drugs and finding alternative methods of treatment – without drugs. Those suffering from depression, too, are taking recourse to drugless therapies, which generally do not cause any side-effects and are typically much more economical.
Depending upon the cause of your depression, you will need to choose an appropriate type of therapy. If your depressive disorder manifests itself in winter, when days are short and daylight is sparse, you may effectively make use of phototherapy. Bright light therapy, or blue light therapy, given with the help of a light box, is believed to reduce or remove the cause of this type of depression.
Psychotherapy will be helpful in cases in which psychological factors like skewed thought patterns are identified to have caused depression. In such cases, psychotherapy or counseling will work better if there is good understanding and a solid rapport between the counselor and the patient. Depending on the severity of the disorder, long and frequent counseling sessions may be necessary due to the patient’s distorted thought patterns. Thought patterns, personal relationships, and low self-esteem must be corrected. Self-loathing has to be converted onto self-love and stress has to be lowered or eliminated and so on. By and large, the most important thing is the approach the counselor brings to the table as well as the counselor-patient relationship.
Physical exercise is also considered to be very good as a cure for depression, particularly when it is combined with psychotherapy. It is an effective method to get rid of excessive stress, which may cause depression. Although it may be rather difficult to make severely depressed people physically active, persistent efforts aimed at motivating them to get involved in regular physical activities are likely to be successful. In practice, group physical activities are known to alleviate depression by cutting at its root causes like traumatic breakdown in personal relationships and stress-related factors.
In certain cases of depression, dietary supplements like those which are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids (particularly those found naturally in oily fish) work as a cure. Products containing chocolate and Vitamin B-12 are proven to work as antidepressants. Some herbal substances are also found to be effective. When depression occurs due to misuse of alcohol and other intoxicants, caffeine, sleep-inducing drugs and sedatives, the obvious cure lies in teaching the patient not to use these depression triggers.
Meditation and deep breathing exercises are being increasingly used as a means of treating depression without drugs. These have produced results proven to be very effective especially when practiced regularly over a considerable period of time. The calming effect of meditation on the mind has a positive impact for depression sufferers. Prayer and spirituality may also be useful in this regard.
Rehabilitation of depressed people is a family and social responsibility. Often times a depressed person is just looking for the attention of loved ones. Attempts to treat depression by drugs alone will not be successful. For this reason, the stigma that is associated with mental illnesses like depression has to be discarded. Loved ones must not discriminate against depressed people because this can make the problem worse. Love an support is the best way to start looking for a cure for depression.
Most of us don’t realize the true value that sleep can have on our bodies and minds and the majority of us don’t get enough of it. While for some of us this is due to suffering from a sleep disorder such as insomnia, others just stay up too late and have commitments which require us to get up early. Getting enough quality sleep is essential to getting us through our day but also for our overall health.
One of the biggest things that lack of sleep has on our bodies is our hormones; various hormones in our body work together and have an effect on our health. When we suffer from lack of sleep we begin to crave more carbohydrates and sugar, our blood sugar levels will also fluctuate. If we don’t get enough sleep it can cause problems with out adrenal glands, the adrenal glands regulate your body’s health, when our adrenal glands start suffering, and we start to suffer.
One of the main problems being an increase in hormone cortisol, cortisol helps us to resist stress, maintain our blood pressure and our moods are dependant on it. However if there is an increase in cortisol then it can cause adverse reactions within our body and is not good for us.
So what can we do to ensure that we get enough sleep? Here are some tips to help
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