Talking With Your Doctor About Alternative Health Solutions
You have read endless articles in your favorite magazine, you heard about it on television, your friends are talking about it, and you have even thought about an extensive online search. Is it a new movie? Perhaps a new recipe? Actually, it is alternative health solutions. It seems that it is a subject that has people buzzing but you are unsure if it is just a fad, like the all chocolate diet that proved not to be such a good idea. Even if you have decided to hop on the alternative health bandwagon, what would your regular doctor say? Do you even dare discuss such matters with them? It is always best to be an educated decision maker and this requires that same concept.
Alternative Health Terms And Terminology
Alternative medicine or natural healing means that a person relies on no conventional forms of medicine for healing and wellness; or leastwise that they incorporate non-scientifically based healing practices into modern healthcare.
There are different forms of alternative medicine that encompass this way of life. Before talking with your doctor it is very helpful to familiarize yourself with them so that you both understand what you intend to pursue (and so the safety for you personally can be evaluated).
This list of definitions will help.
• Herbal medicine –using herbs to heal, maintain wellness, and prevent disease. Herbal remedies can take the form of cooked herbs, supplements, teas, and ointments.
• Naturopathic Medicine – This involves the theory that health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being; this is a whole-person approach that recognizes that health is not just the abstinence of disease or illness, it also encompasses other aspects of well-being.
• Massage Therapy – The use of as a way to stimulate, relax, distress, and heal. There are many forms massage therapy can take, including Reiki.
• Holistic Medicine – This practice is founded in the theory that the whole person is more than, as Aristotle stated, "the sum of its parts". What this means effectively is that the body and all its parts work together, and so they should be utilized in tandem and healed together.
• Meditation – Refers to the practice of concentrating and working to move beyond the thinking mind that we are conditioned to and on into a deeper state of relaxation. Different forms focus on different goals; those goals may be a greater focus, creativity, or self-awareness.
• Chiropractic medicine – This focuses on the musculoskeletal system of the body and the belief that positive energy can be released by manipulating and adjusting various parts of the body. This release results in healing.
• Yoga – A form of alternative therapy that involves the exercise of the body and mind through breathing and stretching techniques.
• Homeopathic Medicine - Practitioners of homeopathy contend that an ill person can be treated using a substance that can produce, in a healthy person, symptoms similar to those of the illness. This is achieved by serial dilution. Shaking each dilution removes the toxic effects of the remedy. The beneficial qualities of the substance are retained by the carrier it is mixed with--water, sugar, or alcohol. Treatments are selected after consultation with the patient and all aspects are investigated, both mental and physical.
Now What?
You have done some research and found an area of alternative medicine that interests you. You have even found a licensed practitioner and gone for an informational visit, so now what do you do? The decision to tell your present practitioner is hard, but it is always best to have complete communication with your physician and your newfound practitioner.
Many modern day practices acknowledge these forms of alternative medicine and even accept their benefits. This can help keep you safe from possible dangerous interactions. For example, if you are on certain medications and do not inform your alternative health practitioner then they may suggest you take something and it would not be a good mix and the potential of harm could be great.
Remember, it is your life and you are the one in control of it. Talk openly with your physician about your concerns and your desires to incorporate alternative natural medicine with your present day regimen. It goes the other way, too; talk openly with your alternative health practitioner about your concerns. You are the one who has to live with the end result and after all, aren’t you striving for complete wellness and all that it encompasses?
