Natural And Holistic Medicine
Holistic Health Articles, General Info

Natural medicine is the use of natural methods, herbal medicines, and traditional practices to heal ailments as part of holistic and integrative medicine. Every culture has a form of natural medicine. In ancient cultures, village medicine men served as the doctors of the community, passing on medical knowledge to the apprentices that followed them.

Usually, natural medicine refers to medical practices that were in place before the advent of modern medicine. This includes herbal medicine, or phytotherapy, which is prevalent in Chinese, Ayurvedic(or Indian), and Greek medicine.

Natural medicine can be considered as a lost art. This does not mean that it has lost efficacy over time. In some cases, natural therapy is actually better than modern medicine. This leads some doctors to seriously consider and study the possible uses of natural medicine to complement modern medication and form a holistic medicine.

It is important to note that not all the natural remedies are legitimate. It would help to only try those remedies which have been thoroughly studied and are relatively risk free. There are numerous organizations that study natural medicine. Some governments and health agencies openly advocate the use of natural methods since they are inexpensive and relatively risk-free. As their studies compile, more herbs and treatments are added to the list of accepted medicines. However, many herbs and treatments have been proven to be bogus medicine. This represents a challenge for both the user and the agencies because they have to ascertain that the treatments they use or advocate are legitimate.

Even though in the past health professionals would likely to recommend natural medicine only to deal with minor ailments such as cough, colds, fever, or skin rashes, in more cases lately the use of holistic and integrated medicine to complement modern medicine are also used on more complex medical procedures like cancer treatment or surgery.

Natural medicine should be thought of as an accompanying medicine that forms part of a holistic and integrated medicine instead of ‘one not the other’ case. Right now, the current collective medical thought suggests that natural medicine be used only to supplement accepted modern medical practices. Holistic medicine is helpful because it suggests that treatment not necessarily be given only when sick. Holistic and natural medicine strives to make each patient practice good health habits. These habits include good diet, healthy living, and the regular natural treatment.

It is this same line of thought that leads our parents to tell us to eat our vegetables. Yes, a healthy lifestyle will achieve the similar intended effect to our well-being as holistic medicine. And this is the very first basic foundation of natural medicine – may it be massage, herbal medicine, aromatherapy or others.