I find that modern medicine tends to look at illness as a "disease-entity". In this model symptoms tend to be seen as belonging to the disease, and so, one "gets" the symptoms, and one "has" a disease. Since symptoms are seen as synonymous with disease, conventional medicine typically seeks to remove the offending symptoms. Suppressing symptoms however without necessarily removing the causes or strengthening the body merely weakens the health and can engender recurrent future problems.
Holistic medicine acknowledges and recognizes that a healthy organism produces symptoms as part of its inherent ability to defend, adapt, respond, and improve itself.
A symptom is a response mechanism that indicates that something has gone array and needs to be addressed. Symptoms are seen as belonging to people and animals and not to disease. They are not separate. From this perspective, every expression of life is a "symptom" and not necessarily an indication of "disease".
Holistic medicine aims at placing the power back into our hands instead of rendering us as passive recipients to illness. While mainstream medicine can provide wonderful symptomatic relief and can slow down the process of chronic disease, holistic medicine can offer the possibility of treating chronic disease at a deeper level of the organism.
Modern and holistic medicine are in fact the best complements to one another and should, by all means, be used together, with the consent of both parties.
Holistic medicine works with the body to promote health and normal function and does not interfere with most medical drugs. It has been shown to help diminish the side effects of the more toxic drugs such as those used in chemotherapy.
Acupuncturists attempt at finding and treating the cause/s of diseases. We will go to lengthy inquiries into all aspects of our patients, your metabolic and psychological make-up, your body type and genetic predispositions, your disease history and current symptom picture and, especially, how the current symptom/s fit into the whole picture.
We also believe that while people may share similar response patterns to a specific stimulus, the similarity is only superficial.
Racing horses benefit from acupuncture since it came in US 30 years ago.
No two symptomatic responses are in fact exactly identical. There are therefore dozens of possible treatments in any disease category and this is where acupuncture can excel. Ultimately, there should not be two same treatment for the same symptom or disease.
Acupuncture is the ultimate preventive medicine as it can neutralize and even eradicate the patterns of susceptibility and tendency before they express themselves as a specific illness. In advanced diseases, acupuncture can not only often alleviate symptoms but also provide real physical and mental relief.
I was also trained to teach what I have learned. My goal thereforeis to offer practical educative tools and to help bring people to a new level of awareness and how to best care for their pets.
Holistic medicine can definitely be of aid but the ultimate power to heal resides within each of us. Our bodies will keep on manifesting symptoms so long as we haven't made certain (positive) changes in our lives. This is no secret. We are the ones responsible for bringing quality changes into our lives.
