101 Ways to Improve Your Health with Body Work E-Book

Alan E. Smith

• Herausgeber: Loving Healing Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 275

Beschreibung

Your health is your greatest possession in this life so it's smart to look for the best ways to maintain and restore it as you age. In this guide you'll find treatments and therapies designed for your body and proven effective over decades, hundreds, even thousands of years. While not every therapy will work for every person, you can find the one that you need now or in the future in these pages. Take responsibility for your health right now, it's the only body you have, and read this book!

• Most comprehensive collection of body therapies available.
• Quick, easy-to-read descriptions of each treatment.
• Websites to learn more about each listing.
• Many subjects offer podcast listings featuring leading authorities.
• Find the most ancient to the most modern therapies.
• Rediscover the joy and beauty of living.

"Alan Smith's Unbreak Your Health series provides a terrific resource for those interested in real health!"
--C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.
"Knowledge is power. And this book is a way to provide you with a one stop source for discovering complementary and alternative therapies."
"Five Stars --- Impressively organized and presented."
--Midwest Book Review
Health & Fitness: Alternative Therapies

Leseprobe

101 Ways to Improve Your Health with Body Work: Your Complete Guide to Complementary & Alternative Therapies.

Copyright © 2017 Alan E. Smith, All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the author or publisher.

Learn more about this subject and listen to our free podcasts at

www.UnBreakYourHealth.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Smith, Alan E., 1951- author.

Title: 101 ways to improve your health with body work : your complete guide to complementary & alternative therapies / by Alan E. Smith.

Other titles: One hundred one ways to improve your health with body work

Description: Ann Arbor, MI : Loving Healing Press, [2017] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017002395 (print) | LCCN 2017005779 (ebook) | ISBN 9781615993338 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781615993345 (ebk) | ISBN 9781615993345 (ePub, PDF, Kindle)

Subjects: LCSH: Alternative medicine--Popular works. | Mind and body therapies--Popular works. | Self-care, Health--Popular works.

Classification: LCC R733 .S618 2017 (print) | LCC R733 (ebook) | DDC 613--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017002395

Distributed by: Ingram Book Group, New Leaf Distributing, and Bertram’s Books (UK)

Published by:

Loving Healing Press

5145 Pontiac Trail

Ann Arbor, MI 48105

USA

www.LovingHealing.com or

[email protected]

Fax [phone]

TollFree 888-761-6268

CONTENTS

Disclaimer

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Your Map to Better Health

How to UnBreak Your Health

Chapter 2 – The Physical Landscape

Introduction to Body Category

BODY PROCESSES

ADVANCED ALLERGY THERAPEUTICS

ADVANCED JAFFE-MELLOR TECHNIQUE

ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE (AT)

ANTHROPOSOPHICALLY EXTENDED MEDICINE (AEM)

APPLIED KINESIOLOGY (AK)

AROMATHERAPY

ASIAN BODYWORK THERAPY (ABT)

AUDITORY INTERVENTION TECHNIQUE (AIT)

AUTOGENICS TRAINING (AT)

AYURVEDA

BEE-VENOM THERAPY (BVT)

BIOACOUSTICS THERAPY

BIOENERGETIC ANALYSIS

BIOFEEDBACK

BIORESONANCE THERAPY (BRT)

BONNIE PRUDDEN MYOTHERAPY®

BOWEN THERAPY

BRAIN BALANCE PROGRAM

BRAIN GYM® or Educational Kinesiology (Edu-K)

BREATHWORK

CHELATION THERAPY

CHIROPRACTIC

COLONIC HYDROTHERAPY IRRIGATION also Colonic Irrigation or Colonic Hydrotherapy

CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY (CST) also Cranial Osteopathy and Craniopathy

DIGESTIVE HEALTH THERAPY

DOULA

EAR CANDLING

ENERGY MEDICINE

ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE

FELDENKRAIS METHOD®

FLOATATION THERAPY

GERMAN NEW MEDICINE

HALOTHERAPY

HELLERWORK STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION

HERBAL BODY WRAP

HIJAMA WET CUPPING THERAPY

HULDA CLARK PROTOCOL

HYDROGEN PEROXIDE THERAPY

HYDROTHERAPY or Hydropathy

IRIDOLOGY

LYPOSSAGE

MANUAL LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE (MLD) also Lymph Drainage Therapy (LDT)

MĀORI HEALING

MASSAGE

BAREFOOT DEEP TISSUE

MEDICAL RESEARCH

MYOFASCIAL RELEASE

NAMBUDRIPAD ALLERGY ELIMINATION TECHNIQUE (NAET)

NAPRAPATHY

NATUROPATHY

NETWORK SPINAL ANALYSIS

NEUROMODULATION TECHNIQUE (NMT)

NEW BIOLOGY or Epigenetics

NUTRITION

ORNISH PROGRAM

ORTHOMOLECULAR MEDICINE

OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE

OZONE THERAPY

PILATES

PLACEBO EFFECT

RAINDROP TECHNIQUE

RELOX

ROLFING®

TAI CHI or Tai Chi Chuan or T’ai Chi Ch’üan or Taijiquan

TIBETAN MEDICINE

TRAGER® APPROACH

TTOUCH-For-You

TUINA (also TUI-NA)

WATSU

YOGA

ZEN BODYTHERAPY® or Zentherapy®

BODY DEVICES

COLD LASER THERAPY or Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) or Cold Laser Acupuncture

HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY (HBOT)

LIGHT THERAPY or Phototherapy

PERCUTANEOUS ELECTRICAL NERVE STIMULATION (PENS) also Percutaneous Neuromodulation Therapy (PNT)

PULSED-ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD THERAPY (PEMF)

RIFE TECHNOLOGY or Resonant Frequency Therapy

TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator)

BODY CATEGORY SUMMARY

Chapter 3 – Insurance

Chapter 4 – Conclusion

Chapter 5 – Recommendations

About the Author

Index

Disclaimer

This book is not intended to diagnose or prescribe any treatment for any medical or psychological condition(s), nor does it claim to prevent, diagnose, treat, mitigate, or cure any medical or psychological conditions.

It contains the ideas and opinions of its author and is intended solely to provide helpful information on a variety of subjects. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health or any other kind of personal professional services in the book.

The reader should consult his or her medical, health or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in the book.

The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, that is incurred as a consequence (directly or indirectly) of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

Introduction

This book is all about hope. From ancient healing therapies to the latest American innovations, you have more options for great health today than ever before. Complementary and alternative therapies, known as CAM, are about more than just improving your health. These therapies are about helping you rediscover the joy, the wonder and the beauty of living.

Perhaps the aches and pains that caused you to stumble are caused from your body being out of alignment in some way so it’s a body issue. Maybe an emotional issue or traumatic life experience is seeking resolution by expressing itself through the body, so it could be a mind issue. Or your life force energy could be blocked in some way resulting in a physical problem so it could be a spirit or energy issue.

In this guide you’ll find information new and old and begin to see patterns between therapies that are consistent through thousands of years and across civilizations around the world.

The most basic concept is that you are the sum of your Mind-Body-Spirit. Your parts cannot be disconnected so a problem in one area can mean problems in all areas. Holistic (or whole-istic) therapies are effective because they address all of you. Many of these complementary and alternative therapies work to prevent problems or correct them as soon as possible to prevent them from growing into serious issues. This is a very different approach from medicine in America today which is based on fee-for-service.

Once you start talking with friends and family about these new options it seems like everybody knows somebody who’s experienced success, sometimes miraculous success, with a complementary or alternative therapy. While writing this book, I’ve been amazed at the stories from friends and yet we still seem to talk about CAM in whispers, as if it’s something normal people don’t discuss in public. I hope this book brings complementary and alternative therapies out of the shadows and into the light of day so more people can discover a healthier, happier new life.

According to the 2007 NCCAM report on complementary and alternative medicine 38% of Americans used some form during the previous 12 months. This is a dramatic change from the 62% reported in the 2002 study but that’s because the government studies dropped the use of prayer as a form of CAM. Apparently the use of this ancient, some say the original, energy therapy was too popular to be included in the study because it skewed the data making it appear that CAM was too popular.

The data in the federal government reports is from the National Health Interview Survey conducted by the U. S. Department of Health & Human Services, the Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics. For the 2007 report, NHIS interviews were completed in 29,266 households, which yielded 75,764 persons in 29,915 families and a household response rate of 87.1%. Between the 2002 and 2007 government reports acupuncture, deep breathing exercises, massage therapy, meditation, naturopathy, and yoga showed significant increases.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the explosive growth and popularity of complementary and alternative therapies is the fact that people appreciate being much more than just a number on a form. Every person is a unique individual composed of mind, body and spirit (or life-force energy). All facets must be healthy and balanced for wellness and personal growth. A PBS-TV special in 2006 featured doctors talking about their hope for the trend in medicine to go back to treating patients as whole beings. Many of them wondered how Western medicine could have ever gotten so far off track to ignore the mind and spiritual components of every patient in the first place.

Complementary and alternative therapies also focus on individualized treatments, rather than assembly-line, one-size-fits-all medicine. Every person and their health problems are unique, usually resulting from a combination of factors. These therapies tend to look at the whole person for the source of the problem, not just the symptoms that bring them in the door.

In this era of entitlement, too many people have come to believe they are owed good health and this has led to a passive national attitude towards health. When we get sick, we expect the doctor to give us a pill, a shot or perform some surgery to fix us right up so we can continue living without having to make any changes in our lives or accept responsibility for our own health.

One of the major themes of complementary and alternative therapies is personal responsibility. Who better to take care of your body than YOU? After all, who has more “skin in the game” of your life than you do? These complementary and alternative therapies offer new and old ways for better health but you, the person reading this book, will have to care enough about your life to take personal responsibility for your health. Empowering yourself with information about all of the health care options available today is the first step in order for you to make the most informed decisions possible about your health care.

Another difference between standard medicine and CAM today is a focus on wellness and the ingredients for health. Among other things, we need proper diet, exercise and a way to release the stress of the day. You’ve probably already heard these recommendations from medical doctors. These aren’t new ideas; in fact they’re very old. Four hundred years ago Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, said that “The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet and Doctor Merryman.” Today, four centuries later we’re still discovering the importance to our health today of what we eat and drink, the peace that we find within ourselves and the joy that we find in life. Sad to admit but we usually take better care of our cars and our yards than we do our most precious gift, our own health.

America has neglected complementary and alternative therapies in favor of scientific Western medicine for over 100 years. While this profit-driven orientation has produced some outstanding developments, much has also been sacrificed. Today, the newest scientific equipment is confirming that we are all whole beings of mind, body and spirit, often raising more questions than providing answers. The explosion of research in neuroscience is changing the meaning of the expression “It’s all in your head” because technology is showing how the mind is related to and controls the body. We’re moving quickly from simple correlation of the mind-body connection to discovering the actual mechanisms of interaction. Epigenetics is showing us how the power of our own thoughts and feelings can change the functioning of our genes.

Because so many of these complementary and alternative therapies are based on a completely different paradigm (energy) they operate on different principles than the standard chemical model of the human body. This means they can’t be studied using the same methodology as current research. They also function as whole systems and cannot be examined piece by piece. Using existing research models for CAM is simply like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Much like quantum physics, the very act of observation influences the results. Even the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy understood this concept. The 2002 report said “Research is needed to pursue answers to questions posed by CAM that lie outside the conventional medical paradigm.”

Everything in this book will work for someone, but nothing in this book will work for everyone. The same is true with mainstream medicine. Some pills help people while the same medication may be ineffective or even harmful to someone else. There is a wide variety in the quality of medical doctors and it’s the same with the practitioners of these healing arts. Whether it’s a medical doctor or an alternative practitioner you should always research their qualifications and training and then enter into any relationship with an attitude of Buyer Beware. Remember, you are in charge of your health! Just as it’s always been recommended to seek out second opinions for diagnosis by a medical doctor, practicing the same approach would be beneficial when working with complementary or alternative therapies too.

Not every type of CAM will be found in this book. Quite frankly, some are practiced by only a few people while others are being created so quickly that it’s almost impossible to keep track. Being human, it’s possible my research has missed some valuable therapies. Some of the therapies listed are FDA approved but because they’re still ignored by most doctors, they’re still considered outside of the “norm”.

Rather than trying to swamp you with all types of therapies I’ve broken my research down into three separate books. This edition focuses on all of the Body Therapies or the physical aspect of your health. While I’ve added listings from my last guide the nature of CAM means it will never be complete because innovation is constantly adding new therapies and techniques. If you don’t feel an urge to explore one of these treatments then perhaps the answer to your health concerns will be in the Mind Therapies or Energy/Spirit Therapies editions.

What started out as a quest to improve my own Baby Boomer health has resulted in this collection of information and opportunities. Like so many people, conventional medicine ran out of ideas to help me, so I had to start looking for new options and fortunately I’ve found them. Researching this book has been an enjoyable and enlightening adventure. It’s also testimony to the fact that there is hope: you can find your own answers just as I have.

This reference guide to complementary and alternative therapies is the result of research and interpretation of each modality, or type of process. In many cases there are a variety of opinions, so please remember this is simply one opinion. With the steady stream of innovation happening today this volume is not intended as a finished work but simply a starting place for your quest for better health and a better life, which is why so many websites are included to help your quest.

Readers who also enjoy listening to learn more about complementary and alternative therapies will enjoy UnBreak Your Health - The Podcast on our website at www.unbreakyourhealth.com. We’ve built a library of 20-minute podcast interviews featuring the leading authorities in America discussing their therapy. Whenever you see the podcast microphone listed, it means there is a podcast on that subject available.

You’re going to be amazed to discover the variety of complementary and alternative therapies available today, and how effective they can be. The hope you’ve been looking for to improve your health is right here.

Chapter 1 - Your Map to Better Health

I met Karen after one of my speeches. She was in her early 50s and in generally good health but with a few chronic problems the doctors just couldn’t seem to get a handle on, frustrating both her and them. One doctor had told her to “just learn to live with it” and simply walked out of the examining room in a rush to his next patient. I told her I knew exactly how she felt because I’d been there too. When the doctor says there’s nothing more he can do for you, it’s a very lonely, even scary, place to be. Where do you go now? What can you do?

She was resigned to her health problems but still held on to a thread of hope, one that she was eager to grow into a rope so she could climb out of that unhappy place and into a healthy life. I told Karen that I’d learned that just because doctors can’t do anything, that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything left to do! There are literally hundreds of complementary and alternative therapies available today that have been proven safe and effective for decades, hundreds, even thousands of years. She smiled.

She began to tell me her symptoms expecting that I could instantly tell her which therapy would work best for her condition. I explained to her that I could show her the map of my path to better health but she would have to find her own path because she was a unique and very special human being, different from me and everyone else on the planet.

I added that finding the real source of our health problems is the first step and it’s different for every person. Using an example from my radio appearances I told her that if there are three people in the doctor’s office with allergy problems they may each have a different source of their health problem. While the doctor may prescribe the same drugs to treat their symptoms it wouldn’t deal with the source of their health problem.

Let’s say the first person is a hard-working guy in jeans, flannel shirt and boots and his allergy problem may, in fact, originate in his body. In his case a therapy like NAET would be best because it’s based on chiropractic and acupressure principles so it’s a body-type of treatment.

But the second person is a petite woman in a stylish, professional outfit and the source of her allergy is in her subconscious. That means a Body therapy wouldn’t do her any good at all. Because I’m a former PSYCH-K practitioner I told Karen about a client of mine, a woman who would get severe migraines every time she ate Mexican food, to illustrate the problem. Using PSYCH-K we discovered a relationship she’d had with a Mexican boy more than 10 years earlier was the source of her food “allergy” and with a few balances we corrected the problem. Today she eats Mexican food without any headache at all!

However the third person with an allergy problem is a young man, a student, and the source of his problem isn’t in his body or his mind, it’s in his energy system/spirit, so a body or mind therapy wouldn’t help him. He would need acupuncture, EFT or some type of energy therapy to solve his problem.

Karen looked at me with surprise, you could almost see the light bulb go on above her head. “I’ve never heard illness described that way but it makes so much sense!” she said. “Now that I have a better idea of what I’m looking for I can begin to imagine myself finally getting better health.”

She spoke with both understanding and yet uncertainty, unsure of what her next step should be. What could or should she do, how could she find her path to better health? I offered her a blank piece of paper and told her this was the beginning of her very own map to better health. With a frown she protested that there was nothing on it. I agreed but explained that’s because she had always relied on others for her health. She would fill in her own map as she discovered the truth about her health, her life and her own unique path to better health. By reading her way through this book and others she would learn all about the features of her own life and what benefits different therapies had to offer her, a necessary first step to finding out where you want to go. She would discover for herself what would work and also what wasn’t very effective. In other words, she would draw her own map in the colors of her life and find her own unique path. Once again, she smiled with understanding.

I wrote this book just as if I were talking with Karen about how to find her own map to better health. Just imagine that all of these therapy listings are like newspaper clippings, magazine articles and notes from a friend to help you, along with a few comments and suggestions of course! Because I’ve been the one sitting in the doctor’s office after being told there’s nothing more mainstream medicine can do to help I wrote a book so others would have a map to find hope. Now I know there is always hope.

There’s an old saying that religions are just different paths up the mountain to the same destination. In many ways the different types of treatments and therapies available today are like different paths up the mountain of your life to the pinnacle of health. Some paths may be smooth and easy while others may be rocky and challenging (but possibly more rewarding). Perhaps one path is a straight line for a particular health problem, other times that particular path may become winding and indirect. The most important thing to remember is that no matter which path you choose, you are the only one who can walk it. Nobody can live your life for you and no one else can walk your path to better health. We each enjoy a unique life.

Like Karen, you were probably hoping for a nice American-style book where you can just look up your condition or disease and find all of the complementary and alternative therapies for it. Sorry, but as I explained to her sitting in a corner of the meeting room that afternoon, that’s not how your health works and it’s not how most CAM therapies work either.

In order to unbreak your health you’re going to have to find the path that works for you. Before we had satellite-based GPS navigation systems people used maps to help them find their way. For thousands of years we figured out where we were, where we wanted to go and the best way to get there with paper maps. From flat to folded, from simple to full-color, civilization moved forward with maps. However to use a map effectively requires an understanding of its elements and how they must all work together to be useful.

Did you know that paper maps are better for you than GPS systems? You’ve probably heard news reports of crashes caused by GPS navigation but they’ve caused other problems like having a house in Atlanta demolished by mistake. It turns out our brains need the mental exercise of maps. In London, one of the most confusing cities in the world, cabbies spend two to four years learning “The Knowledge” of the city before they can start driving. Tests have shown the hippocampus in the brain of these cabbies is substantially larger than the average population. Scientists are concerned that reliance on GPS may even cause earlier onset of dementia in the years to come because we simply aren’t exercising our brains with maps.

We learn to navigate with maps using either a spatial strategy that involves learning relationships between various landmarks or the stimulus- response approach that encodes specific routes by memorizing a series of cues. If you have no sense of direction you may suffer from developmental topographical disorientation or DTD. The good news: it can get better with practice. So even though you may not know your way around the world of complementary and alternative medicine now, reading this book will help you learn and find your way.

This book can be your map to better health. There are going to be 3 books, each one focusing on a single area - Body, Mind and Energy/Spirit - corresponding to the functions of a map. This is the Body book which represents the physical world, the landscape of our lives. There are rivers and mountains, plains and plateaus, terrain that presents different degrees of difficulty. Finding your best path requires recognition of these challenges and their opportunities.

The Mind book corresponds to the man-made order we create to better understand the world around us. We created longitude and latitude, name countries and cities; we live in a world of artificial labels developed to help us navigate through life.

The Energy/Spirit book deals with the unseen world of magical energy. Is it really so different from the “magic” that makes a compass work? The unseen force of magnetism makes a compass point North so we can determine which direction we should go to reach our destination. There are magical energies our science is just beginning to understand that can help us find our way to better health.

To use a map effectively you need all of these features to determine where you are, where you want to go, and the best way to get there. Finding better health is your most important journey and this book is one step to help you find your way. To accomplish your goal you’ll need to recognize the landscape features that shape and color your world, the mental creations that identify your world, and finding your own compass to discover which direction you’re headed. Finding better health also usually requires unlocking the unlimited healing potential of the Body, the Mind and Energy/Spirit.

You are responsible for your own health because no one else has as much to gain or lose from your health as you do. You can’t blame your doctor, or your parents, or anybody else. It’s your life and you choose to live it the way you want every day. You make the choices that produce the health you have right now. Did you choose a path for long health with good diet, daily exercise habits and deep religious convictions or regular meditation? Or did you choose to eat fast food and put off worrying about your health until later (probably until something breaks)? Taking personal responsibility for your own health is the first step towards finding your path, you’re opening your own map. Next you have to empower yourself with knowledge so you can make the most informed decisions possible about your health care and that includes all of your options, even the world of complementary and alternative therapies.

You have many different pathways to choose from for your health and you’re the one with the ultimate responsibility of choice. For one health problem you may choose mainstream (allopathic) medicine. For a different health problem you may choose some type of complementary or alternative therapy (CAM). Your constantly changing health may require you to change direction depending on the changing terrain of your condition. You can even walk with a foot on different healing pathways to reach your destination. For example you can add a complementary therapy path alongside the steps you’re taking with mainstream medicine. The good news is you have free will and can choose whichever path you want at any time, changing direction as you desire.

One possible path you can choose is standard Western medicine, a popular choice for Americans because it also involves the least amount of personal responsibility and the largest amount of insurance coverage. Here the symptoms of your health problem will be taken care of with prescription drugs or surgery and you’re back to your old life. For many this is the tollway of health: fast and easy but expensive. (Fortunately for most people the human body has unlimited healing abilities.)

Other times the path of mainstream medicine may be more complicated, requiring you to go from specialist to specialist to specialist. When that happens this path can turn scary, strange and dark as you try to feel your way around without adequate information. Too often the current medical system fails to treat patients as people, but instead simply a number on a form.

This path can even become quite rocky if you try to share it with some type of complementary or alternative therapy. Most doctors are given little, if any, education in CAM and virtually no training. Doctors do not need any education in complementary and alternative medicine to get a medical license in America today. Most of us fear and dislike what we don’t know, regardless of its benefit, so it’s no surprise that doctors usually discourage patients from straying from the path of Western medicine. You should always talk with your doctor about your involvement with any type of CAM so he’s aware of your complete health situation, but don’t expect a sympathetic or even informed response.

A nearby path is called Integrative Medicine, a new type of medicine that tries to capitalize on some of the CAM therapies to find the best solution for an individual’s health problem. These doctors are promoting an integrated model of health care in America that incorporates body, mind and spirit. These progressive folks realize that Western medicine doesn’t have all of the answers to our health problems today. In general Integrative Medicine doctors are much more open to discussing CAM options even if it’s outside their scope of experience. Currently there are 44 member organizations of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine leading the way for better health in this country.

There are also paths that involve what I consider crossover therapies like Osteopathy, a unique American medical innovation. In my podcast interview with Dr. Philip Slocum, the Dean of the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine at A. T. Still University, we talked about how D.O.’s treat the whole patient instead of looking at them as simply a series of systems to be fixed. Osteopaths are fully-trained medical doctors with additional specialized education and training in the body’s neuromuscular-skeletal system. Manipulation of this connected system to permit the body to function correctly is critical for the body to heal itself. (Dr. A. T. Still developed Osteopathy and opened the first college of its kind in the world.Podcast interviews on this and many other therapies can be found at www.unbreakyourhealth.com.)

One of the first things you’ll notice that’s different about pathways for complementary and alternative medicine is that they’re for all of you, not just for one part or symptom of you. These therapies recognize that you’re a unique individual of mind, body and spirit and every health problem is going to involve all of you. CAM therapies also look for the real source of your health problem instead of simply treating symptoms; they have a different perspective about your health.

Do you remember the old joke about the three blind mice and the elephant? One mouse is holding on to the tail and says “An elephant is long and skinny with hair on the end.” The next mouse is touching the leg and he says, “No, an elephant is big and round.” The third mouse is on the trunk and he says, “You’re both wrong. It’s not too thick or too thin, but watch out for all of the hot air!” It’s similar when you’re trying to figure out what’s causing your pain or health problem; you need to look at your whole being for the source of your problem rather than just dealing with the individual symptoms.

Just because you may have a name for your condition doesn’t mean it’s the source of your problem, you have to see the whole elephant. Let me give you an example: let’s say you have a pain in your shoulder so you go to your friendly allopathic (mainstream) medical doctor. He checks it out and finds there is nothing broken or torn so he gives you a drug for pain, maybe one for muscle relaxation and possibly another drug to reduce inflammation. (Remember the problems caused by Vioxx?) This is simply to mask the uncomfortable symptoms while your body (hopefully) heals itself.

A practitioner of a complementary or alternative therapy is usually going to look at you as a whole system to see what’s causing the problem. Perhaps you’re moving the shoulder in an awkward manner which is causing the strain and pain. A Rolfer or Feldenkrais practitioner is going to realign your body so it moves correctly, removing the strain which eliminates the pain without drugs. (There are free podcast shows on Rolfing and the Feldenkrais Method too at unbreakyourhealth.com.)

Or perhaps there is a problem with an organ or body function that has changed your body’s energy system causing the muscles to tighten in an unusual way which puts a strain on the body. A therapy like acupuncture, EFT or BodyTalk would realign your body’s energy flow allowing the body to repair the problem.

The Alexander Method would teach you how to move with efficiency to prevent the wear and tear and pain. Or perhaps it’s stress that’s literally beating you down and putting your body into awkward positions. Tai Chi, yoga or meditation would help relieve the stress before it produces a physical problem like hunching your shoulders into a painful position. (Doctors now say that up to 80% of our physical problems could actually be stress-related.)

An example of finding the source of a health problem comes from my own life and it involves Rolf Structural Integration therapy. A few years ago I hurt my back doing yard work and when my chiropractor couldn’t resolve the situation I decided to try Rolfing. As one of the structural integration therapies the first thing the practitioner had me do was walk back and forth so she could see how my body moved as a whole. The first thing she said was that I must have terrible pain in my knees. I explained to her I’d had pain so bad for over twenty years that at times I couldn’t even walk across our local mall. I’d been to orthopedic specialists, neurology specialists ... I’d been all up and down the alphabet of medical specialties looking for help. The only one who did me any good was a podiatrist who sold me an expensive set of custom orthopedic inserts which helped with the symptoms but didn’t solve the problem.