Holistic Medicine, commonly referred to as Alternative Medicine, is a vast and rapidly growing new scientific field. It is derived mainly from ancient, traditional methods of healing that have often been practiced in the East for centuries. These include a variety of techniques from herbal healing to acupuncture to homeopathy to energy channeling. Due to the large number of methods that are covered by the term, there are various definitions of Holistic Medicine. However, all literature seems to agree that Alternative Medicine, is exactly what the name suggests: an alternative approach to healing and medicine. It is a more personal move toward health care, which attempts to connect the mind, body and spirit. Another way that Alternative Medicine is defined is by what the field does not cover. According to David M. Eisenberg, M.D., of Harvard Medical School, alternative medicines are medical interventions not taught widely at U.S. medical schools or generally available at U.S. hospitals. Therefore Holistic Healing covers most practices regularly followed in other parts of the world, although it does not include the techniques used by conventional doctors in the Western world practicing Allopathic Medicine.Alternative medicine can also be defined as the result of a series of important changes occurring within the American health care system today. For example, health care practitioners are coming to the realization that conventional biomedicine cannot solve many of Americas health problems. Therefore many doctors have begun to accept the idea that Holistic Medicine is based on, that is, that health involves more than just the physical body. They have also found many alternative medical treatments are more effective, less harmful, and more economical than conventional medicine. This new awareness of the general public and the medical community is what has caused such a great plunge forward in the use of alternative treatments tod...
