What is the difference between alternative medicine and holistic health

The two are essentially concepts with completely different dimensions - overall health is a set of full-dimensional health management logic covering physiology, psychology, social relations and even mental state, while alternative therapy is a collective name for a series of intervention methods that have not been fully integrated into the conventional clinical path by mainstream evidence-based medicine. The latter is often just a tool that the former may use to achieve its goals.

To be honest, people who are new to the health field can easily confuse the two, and even think that using alternative therapies is practicing overall health. In fact, they are confusing the tools and the entire logic. I previously met a 32-year-old Internet operator girl who suffered from migraines for three years. She took several brain CT scans but no organic problems were found. She always felt side effects from taking painkillers, so she tried various alternative therapies on her own, such as crystal healing and imported aromatherapy scalp treatments. She spent less than 20,000 yuan on it, but she still had headaches. Later, when we came to us to make adjustments, we first took her three-month schedule and food records, and found out that she didn't go to bed until 2 o'clock every day, and drank 8 glasses of iced Americano a week. During that time, she was breaking up with her boyfriend, and she was always in a state of emotional stress. We didn’t give her any fancy programs. First, we adjusted her daily routine for an hour and a half, replaced the iced American coffee with up to one cup of decaffeinated coffee a day, and arranged 15 minutes of mindful breathing and relaxation three times a week. When the pain was really severe, we only assisted with acupuncture. In less than two months, the frequency of her headaches dropped from three or four times a week to once or twice a month. You see, the acupuncture used here belongs to the category of alternative therapies, but the previous set of ideas that sort out and adjust from the full dimensions of work, rest, mood, and diet is the core of overall health. The relationship between the two is like the difference between a screwdriver and a whole-house decoration plan. A screwdriver is a tool that can help you install furniture if used correctly, but it may poke your hands if used incorrectly. Whole-house decoration is a complete idea from design to construction, and the screwdriver is just one of the tools that may be used.

Controversy about the two has never stopped. Many people think that alternative therapies are all IQ taxes. After all, most alternative therapies are not supported by evidence-based large-scale double-blind experiments, and it is easy for unscrupulous merchants to promote them as magic medicines that can cure all diseases. I met an aunt with high blood pressure before. She was tricked by a health product seller into stopping her antihypertensive medicine. She drank so-called "detoxifying fruit and vegetable juices" every day. In less than half a month, her blood pressure soared to 180, and she went directly to the emergency room. However, many clinical practitioners believe that as long as the boundaries are grasped, alternative therapies can be used as an effective supplement to mainstream medicine. For example, many domestic oncology and rehabilitation departments in tertiary hospitals will also include acupuncture, Baduanjin, and auricular acupoint pressure beans, which are alternative therapies, into auxiliary treatment plans to relieve patients' vomiting and insomnia after chemotherapy, or the postoperative recovery discomfort of stroke patients. As long as the mainstream treatment is covered, and combined with comprehensive adjustments to overall health, the effects will be visible.

To put it bluntly, there is no need to separate or bind the two, and there is no need to be either/or, as long as the boundaries between them are clear: if you really encounter severe illness or clear organic disease, you should first seek mainstream medicine to solve the core problem, and don't rely on alternative therapies. If you have checked out that there are no organic problems, but are only troubled by chronic diseases, sub-health or emotional problems, you can use the idea of ​​holistic health to clarify all aspects of your life, and then choose reliable alternative therapies as auxiliary, which will save you a lot of detours.