| Alternative health care is a holistic way of caring for | | | | enough in a God who cares and who can be |
| our body, mind and spirit. It is called alternative | | | | depended upon at all times. |
| because it offers a way of caring for our health that | | | | Actually we had alternative health care from the |
| is not conventional or what we are used to in the | | | | beginning of our race, since there were no synthetic |
| Western world. In the Western world caring for our | | | | drugs then. But with the advent of these drugs we |
| health is done mostly by the administration of | | | | gradually forgot alternative health care in favor of |
| medicines, many of which are synthetic, produced | | | | conventional medicine. One reason was that |
| from sources which are derivatives of nature, not | | | | conventional medicine was fast and predictable. You |
| natural in the direct sense. A simple example will | | | | do not have to search for the herb and boil it and |
| make this clear. | | | | make a concoction out of it. You just go to the |
| Most of us in the older bracket of age are familiar | | | | drugstore, present the prescription your doctor gave |
| with aspirin. I remember when I was a child, if I had a | | | | you, receive the medicine from the pharmacist or his |
| headache my father gave me aspirin to drink. When I | | | | her aide and pay for it. Upon reaching home, you just |
| had a fever, he would give me also aspirin. Aspirin is a | | | | take the medicine. It is so convenient. |
| drug in conventional medicine. Aspirin is acetylsalicylic | | | | But the recent experience of people taking |
| acid. It is a synthetic drug, meaning, it is a drug | | | | conventional drugs is that they may lead to |
| synthesized from certain acids, principally salicylic acid. | | | | dependence on these drugs and larger doses may be |
| The natural source for this is the willow bark. But the | | | | required upon subsequent intakes. Furthermore there |
| willow bark itself is not used, only a derivative from | | | | are bad effects in taking these drugs. These happen |
| this, the salicylic acid. | | | | especially with antibiotic drugs. So people began to |
| In alternative health care we do not administer aspirin. | | | | look for alternative ways of healing, one that is not |
| The person who has a headache may just need rest. | | | | heavily dependent on synthetic drugs and one that |
| So, we tell him to rest. If he has fever, this may be | | | | heals body, soul and spirit so that the person really |
| a result of something that he has eaten. So we tell | | | | become whole. |
| him to drink plenty of water to clean out what he | | | | Some of the methods of alternative health care may |
| has eaten. | | | | be enumerated thus: |
| Secondly this alternative health care is holistic. It does | | | | 1. Rest |
| not deal with the body only, but also with the mind | | | | 2. Water Therapy |
| or soul, and the spirit. In conventional health care | | | | 3. Pranic Healing |
| people think that sickness is a physical condition. So | | | | 4. Hypnosis |
| the sick person needs a material medicine to cure his | | | | 5. Acupuncture and acupressure |
| physical condition. He feels pain in his joints, so he is | | | | 6. Herbs |
| diagnosed to have flu. And he is given a medicine to | | | | 7. Magnetic Therapy |
| counteract this flu, usually an analgesic, any synthetic | | | | 8. Chiropractic medicine |
| drug which relieves pain. | | | | 9. Reflexology |
| In alternative health care we do not just look at the | | | | 10. Biofeedback |
| body, but we also inquire into the mind of the patient | | | | 11. Dieting |
| and consider his or her level of spirituality. We do not | | | | 12. Massage therapy |
| just take care of the sickness when it strikes already | | | | 13. Aromatherapy |
| but we also take precaution that it does not strike at | | | | 14. Carmenbees Synchrotheraphy |
| all. When a person experiences headache we ask | | | | 15. Mind healing |
| that person whether he has current anxieties and | | | | 16. |
| worries, whether his or her religious belief is strong | | | | |