Lead a healthier lifestyle with alternative medicine!

The modern conventional medicine has its own way of working. People go for a yearly checkup, take all the expensive medicines prescribed by their doctor in their sickness, and with God’s grace they get well after spending a fortune and being in bed for a calculated number of days. However, recent years have seen an effective rise in another kind of treatment known by the name of alternative medicine.

The alternative treatment is infact quite incompatible with the western conventional therapy. They are rather used in the description of the healing treatments that do not form a part of the conventional medicine. The alternative medicine includes therapies like acupuncture, herbal medicine, ayurvedic therapy that comprises dietary changes, yoga practices and massage therapy. Just because these kinds of treatments were considered outside the mainstream medicinal field by the experts, they were placed under the tag ‘alternative’.

Some health care providers also recommend another kind of health practice by the name of complementary therapy. The complementary medicine involves nontraditional medicinal practices. Though both alternative and complementary therapies use similar kind of remedies for treatment of particular health conditions, there is a basic difference between the two. While complementary medicines are used along with conventional therapy, alternative therapy is a replacement of the conventional one.

Alternative and complementary medicines work on the belief of treating the person as a whole – the body, mind and spirit. These kind of treatments use less invasive techniques as in they do not rely on conventional medications or surgery. People who have been suffering from a persistent problem that has not been cured completely by conventional method often turn to these complementary and alternative techniques. Sometimes people also use these techniques just to maintain their proper well being. For example yoga, is the most commonly used non-conventional technique that can improve the overall health of a person and can help to prevent illness.

The alternative and complimentary medicines are generally grouped in four areas. The first one is the biological based practice where the normal diet of the person is supplemented with additional nutrients, extracts and herbs. The intake of vitamins and herbal supplements fall under this category. The second group is the body-based or manipulative therapy which includes massages or treatment with a chiropractor. The yoga practices fall under the third category called mind-body interventions and the final group is the energy therapy that involves therapy like Reiki.

Apart from these, the complementary and alternative therapies include certain whole medical systems like homoeopathy, naturopathy, traditional chinese therapies and Ayurveda. Most of the times, the alternative techniques include a combination of some or more of these medical systems. These practices are usually preceded by scientific research and are hence quite reliable and effective.

At the holistic community, there are health forum for people where they can get all the information on various kinds of alternative approaches to different kinds of ailments. There are options of selecting a therapist and even gathering all therapy information before going for the final treatment. The community has a lot of health professionals who can guide people to the right kind of treatment.