Holistic healthcare encompasses the many options that exist for treating and preventing various injuries, illnesses and even attitudes. The methods of alternative medicine are many, from the more-accepted practices of chiropractics, herbalism and acupuncture to harder-to-prove techniques like chakra alignments, soul retrievals and prayers. Also known as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), many established medical institutions encourage patients to explore various evidence-based remedies for attacking medical problems — after consulting a licensed physician first, of course.
To analyze the effectiveness of various methods of alternative medicine, it is best to consult a comprehensive list. The National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine within the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) maintains an online database of the world's holistic health fields and treatments, collating many studies on each method to either quantify or debunk the method. This is one way to explore the many ways to address a particular ailment. Others first study the many standard and alternative methods for treating a particular problem, then research just those integrative therapies that have shown at least cursory success.
Alternative health often means tackling a medical problem on several fronts, instead of just the route suggested by a physician. The NIH breaks the possibilities into several camps, with many disciplines or remedies available within each. These include herbalism and other biological supplementation, prevention-related disciplines like panchakarma, anatomical manipulation treatments like chiropractics or massage, methods that combine the body and mind like yoga and even psychotherapy, biofields and bioelectromagnetics, and other fairly established health care systems besides western medicine. Some non-western societies, in fact, may view western medicine as the alternative.
A few of the more common alternative health systems that have gained a global acceptance are the Asian model combining tactics like acupuncture, Tai Chi and herbal medicine, and the Indian practice of Ayurveda, which combines meditation, yoga and herbal remedies. Several indigenous methods of alternative medicine endure in 2011. Each employ a slightly different set of remedies, with overlapping characteristics that ordinary doctors, researchers, holistic practitioners and pharmaceutical manufacturers are likely to have noted.
Herbalism attempts to combine the many natural, biological methods of alternative medicine to help alleviate symptoms, cure or prevent health problems, and promote longevity. This includes not just the well-established herbal remedies of Indian Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, but also the shamanic tinctures of the Amazon basin and the African plains. Many are established fighters like garlic for lessening the chance of contracting cancer, or turmeric for lessening the pain of arthritis. Others are more obscure and less tested.
Several other methods of alternative medicine are available. Many, like Tai Chi or meditation, deal with uniting the mind, body and spirit. Others are psychological tools, such as arts therapy or simple laughter. In the opposite direction are other holistic treatments that mine uncharted scientific disciplines like bioelectromagnetics — the alleged use of electromagnetic fields to affect cellular changes.
