While they are becoming more prominent in treating patients, natural healing and holistic health are not new-age methods at all. Using emotional and spiritual healing to address physical ailments dates back to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practiced almost 5,000 years ago.
Practitioners of Western medicine are now more readily accepting the balance created through natural healing, and incorporating it into their daily diagnosis and treatment.
What Is Natural Healing?
Natural healing and holistic health are all about the correct balance of the physical, mental, emotional, and social aspects of a person’s whole being. Our selves and everything around us is made up of energy. By using this mind/body connection, you can identify, access, channel, balance, and manipulate energies for wellness and abundance.
Forms of Natural Healing and Holistic Health
There are many many different types of natural healing. You just have to find the practice or combination of practices that work best for you. You can perform natural healing yourself, or go to a practitioner with whom you are comfortable. Some common holistic health treatments are:
- Acupuncture
- Massage
- Chiropractic care
- Cupping
- Aromatherapy/essential oils
- Balneotherapy
The Impact of Holistic Health on the Medical Industry
The importance of natural healing is becoming better understood and is now even a part of many nursing programs. A complementary partnership is being built between natural healing and what is considered “Western medicine.”
Many physicians are trying to find alternative sources of healing and addressing the holistic aspect of the body’s health, rather than immediately turning to pharmaceuticals and/or invasive surgeries.
The changing of the concept of visiting hours is a good example of how natural healing has impacted the medical industry. It was once believed a patient needed to have complete silence and rest, so friends and family were allowed a very small window each day in order to check in on their loved one.
Today, most hospitals understand that being surrounded by the unconditional love and support of the people who care deeply is just as important, if not more so, than the medicines and machines that are helping the patient heal.
Are There Negative Impacts?
Perhaps the most negative impact is people practicing their own natural healing without full knowledge. Just because you are using a plant-based therapy, that doesn’t mean it can’t have negative side effects or that you can’t overdose on it. Education is a must.
There are also times when Western techniques like medications and surgery must be used. If you have osteoarthritis in your hips, you can try homeopathic medications to help relieve pain and even rebuild cartilage to a degree, but if you are down to bone-on-bone, surgery is necessary or you will end up doing more damage to the rest of your body.