They are called “alternative therapies” because they represent an alternative medicine. These are forms of medical treatments that use remedies borrowed from nature to combat and prevent physical illnesses.
The wide range of alternative therapies available nowadays, inspired by ancient and distant traditions, can be subsumed under the heading of holistic medicine.
In contrast to conventional medicine, holistic medicine adopts an approach which seeks to consider the person as a whole entity. Thus, it is the person, and not the illness, that needs to be treated; it is not the symptoms of the condition that need examining, but the cause. Holistic medicine places particular emphasis on re-establishing equilibrium between body and mind, and stimulating the organism to heal itself through the use of various methods.
Let us examine some of the most common:
|
|
This therapy makes use of needles to re-establish the correct energy flows in the body. These needles act on certain points (meridians) which relate to the organ being treated.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
This treatment consists of massaging the body using certain essential oils and aromatic plants. These are inhaled by the patient, putting him a state of relaxation and permitting the treatment of various ailments.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Chiropractic was first proposed by Daniel David Palmer. It is a form of natural medicine which involves working on the spinal column to bring it back into balance and combat certain symptoms.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Patch Adams, the celebrated American physician who revolutionized the way of understanding patient care, is considered the father of comic therapy.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Crystal Therapy consists of applying certain crystals to the body which have the power to restore the balance of the 7 chakras: our centres of energy.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Bach Flower Remedies are a form of alternative treatment based on flower-therapy techniques developed by the British physician, Edward Bach.
Bach discovered that the flowers of certain wild plants had the power to rebalance our altered reaction patterns
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Moxa is a Chinese healing method meaning “the herb that burns”. The particular herb employed is Artemisia Vulgaris, which is particularly effective in treating chronic conditions and articular pain in general.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Music Therapy uses music for therapeutic purposes. It has been noticed that sound, and therefore music, has a beneficial impact on human beings and a capacity to influence their emotions.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Homeopathy is a form of natural therapy discovered by the German doctor Samuel Hahnemann towards the end of the 18th century. This type of medicine stimulates the reactive capacity of the organism by administering very dilute doses of the substances that cause the symptoms of a certain illness. In practice, this acts like a vaccine.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Sections on well-being 
