If you have a serious, chronic or life-threatening illness, you are probably worried or frightened as well as sick. And you've probably been inundated with advice from well-meaning friends. Some friends may advise you to try alternative treatments rather than trusting mainstream medical treatments. How do you decide between alternative or mainstream medical treatment?
In the end the decision is up to you, but I have a few thoughts that may help you make sense of it all. I'm a firm believer in the benefit of herbs, supplements, acupuncture, massage and other treatments. However, I think sometimes people overlook a couple of important points about alternative/complementary health treatments.
The first point is this: ancient people trusted these treatments because it's all they had. It wasn't that they were somehow wiser than modern people, it's just that they used what they had available to them, to the best of their skill. Imagine how different things might be if, for instance, they had antibiotics during the plague years.
The other point is this: although herbal treatments, supplements and manual therapies are indeed often helpful, they are slow. Building your health through improved diet, nutritional supplements, herbs, body therapies and exercise takes time. If your disease is very aggressive, you might not have that time. Mainstream medical treatment may be able to give you more time, even though the treatments might be difficult to bear for a while. You might decide that the best use of both is to combine complementary treatments with medical treatments for the best of both worlds.
Finally, don't allow people to frighten you. Do some research. If someone recommends Essiac tea, for instance, there is a lot of medical research into the herbs in that tea. Learn all you can about the various treatments available to you, so that you can make your decisions from a position of knowledge. The National Institutes of Health have an office of alternative medicine and they publish a great deal of information on their website. You can also search for studies done about many different herbs and herbal combinations on the NIH website.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
NCCAM Health Topics A -- Z
Explanation of alternative and complementary health treatments
About Me
- Lisa L. Ross, HHP
- I have actively practiced as a Holistic Health Practitioner (HHP) and massage therapist since 1993 with special interest and training in the Vodder method of Manual Lymph Drainage (MLD) technique. My experience is with lymphedema disease, edema in general, pre- and post-surgery massage, cosmetic surgery edema and more. My search for a low or non impact movement modality led me to become a certified trainer in the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® I have found it to be a helpful movement modality to stimulate the Lymphatic system and other stagnation out of the body. The Gyrotonic method is the base for movement sessions used at the office. Palliative care is another direction of great interest, as many of my clients are in disease states. My mission is to provide compassionate care and resources for my clients.
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