Defining Holistic, Complementary, and Alternative Approaches

For the purposes of this web site, HolisticAloha.com uses Holistic in its broadest sense to include all systems, approaches, methods, techniques, and intentions, proven or unproven, which are considered either ancillary or fringe and unorthodox with respect to conventional, western health care. The bases of many practices are rooted in concepts which are foreign to western thought, logic, or experience.

From a stricter perspective, holism is a world view which respects the individual and his ability to heal himself; versus (scientific) reductionism, the view that everything, including life forms, can be understood as individual parts of the whole. From a practitioner’s perspective, Tai Chi can be performed as a holistic practice, or as a mechanistic/ reductionist movement. The intentions of the active and passive practitioners are key to a holistic outcome.

Holistic, Alternative, and Complementary "medicine" and "health care" are often used interchangeably. These terms are generally linked by their attention to balance the whole person in a state of wellness. They are also called unconventional, non-allopathic, and non-traditional medicine or health care.

The basis of Holistic Health Care is encompassed in the concept that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. As ancient as this view is, it is best explained in modern quantum physics. When applied to human beings this means that a person’s health status is more than just the effect of his disease, or his mental state, and certainly a combination of these as well as an imbalance of his emotional and spiritual well-being, his "chi," his life experience, and other elements that surpass human awareness and comprehension. The mind and body cannot be divided. The assumption is that each individual is unique, and therefore disease manifested in one individual may require a different treatment in another individual. The client participates in his own treatment regimen. The truly holistic practitioner embraces this world view to encompass many aspects of a person’s life in designing an appropriate health plan or intervention. Many alternative / traditional, ethnic systems of medicine – such as Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, from which many techniques have been taken on their own, out of context – can be considered purely holistic. In fairness, many western practitioners aspire to approach their clients holistically, recognizing that successful healing, or balance, must occur at all levels. In our culture of western medicine, many older people fondly remember earlier vestiges of the family doctor, who made house calls and came to know the entire family as an interactive unit from birth to the grave.

When we speak of Alternative Health Care we must automatically ask, "alternative to what?" Alternative health care is really comprised of complete systems, often of ethnic origin, which are the primary medical interventions. They are alternative medical systems in that they are used instead of the western medical model as we know it in the U.S. Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Native American tribal medicine, and folk medicine as practiced in remote areas such as Appalachia, are examples. These systems differ markedly from the conventional western medicine (also called allopathic medicine) in that they are often based on concepts which are culturally understood and do not readily lend themselves to scientific investigation. For instance, the Chinese concept of "chi" or life force or flow, which courses through the body in channels called "meridians," has no corollary in western medicine. Other systems, of more modern origin, include homeopathy, chiropractic, and naturopathy. These newer systems are generally not used exclusively for health care in the U.S., although clients may consider these practitioners to be their primary providers. Thus these systems may functionally span the gap between alternative and complementary.

In the U.S. consumers are increasingly more apt to avail themselves of Complementary Therapies. A therapy is a course of treatment or intervention. It is complementary when it "complements" or is used in addition to allopathic medicine to alleviate or ameliorate disease or functional conditions. For instance, a person with urinary incontinence may be under his doctor’s care and also participating in hypnosis or biofeedback therapy to promote urinary control. Complementary techniques are often derived from aspects of traditional Alternative practices. Non-doctors cannot autonomously practice medicine or diagnosis diseases under most state laws, so many complementary therapists can only participate in treatment of medical conditions by a doctor’s prescription. Many Complementary Therapies have broad, general health benefits which in themselves promote feelings of well-being and probably enhance the immune system to fight disease; and so stand as useful modalities in their own right, irrespective of any medical conditions. Manual and movement therapies are the most common examples, and are readily available for those persons wishing to promote or maintain general wellness.

The origins of modern Allopathic Medicine – of which we are usually the recipient when visiting our primary doctors – stem from a scientifically-based, disease model which reacts to disease, in contrast to the more proactive and humanistic alternative systems. Allopathic medicine is also called traditional, conventional, western, mainstream, scientific, reductionist, and biomedicine. In biomedicine the assumption is that people are basically the same, and so treatments designed to combat a pathogen or condition are replicable in each person. Allopathic medicine is unrivaled in community disease control and emergency medical procedures. The American Medical Association (AMA) represents the prevailing western model and, as the professional association for M.D.s, is the self-appointed watchdog of medical practice in the U.S.

The growth of Integrative Medicine is the response by allopathic doctors to incorporate elements of alternative and complementary therapies into mainstream practice. Its chief proponent is Dr. Andrew Weil, well-known author and lecturer. The burgeoning popularity of alternative and complementary techniques led to the formation the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) in 1991 by the U. S. National Institute of Health (NIH). This office is now known as the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). Excellent grant studies have been completed in a variety of complementary and alternative areas examining both the efficacy and caveats of application. These studies use accepted scientific procedures in those areas that lend themselves to this kind of reductionist scrutiny. Thus we see more medical doctors using acupuncture for pain control, and more widespread use of vitamins, herbs and lifestyle recommendations to stave off cardiac conditions. This melding of holistic and allopathic approaches to health, as yet controversial in mainstream medicine, might offer the best of both worlds to the consumer.