Alternative medicines

Archive for July, 2008

There is a lot that can be said for natural healing and alternative medical therapies.  While some therapies don’t have very conclusive research results, the benefits of some of these therapies are often a much better option than resulting to traditional medicine and the prescription drug market.

It is a fact that there are an increasing number of problems resulting from prescription drug abuse, overuse, and misuse.  While prescription drug abuse falls on the patient, overuse and misuse falls on the doctor and the drug companies.  Many drugs are prescribed for illnesses that will not respond to drug therapy.  Other drugs are given in doses that are higher than needed, risking the patient’s overall health.  And some physicians prescribe contraindicated drugs to a patient causing serious medical problems.  Of course this is not to say that prescription drugs are bad; they should be used for their intended, proven purposes, especially in emergencies. 

While it is debatable in the professional medical community whether or not reflexology actually helps to heal the body and to cure or treat diseases, there is one that that is fairly safe to say about the practice: reflexology does provide stress relief.  Most of the body’s stress is begun and held in the hands and feet.  As a result, tension in these places results in tension in other parts of the body.

Reflexology, like massage therapy, provides stress relief for the patient.  This will ultimately improve the patient’s overall wellbeing, if only temporarily.  Reflexology as a way to relieve tension and anxiety has begun to come into fashion in hospitals.  However, this is not to say that reflexology should replace conventional methods of medical treatment.  Rather, reflexology should be used in conjunction with professional medical treatment.

As with almost all other forms of alternative medicine and natural healing therapies, reiki is subject to some criticism.  While there are no known direct negative effects of receiving reiki treatment, some members of the professional medical community fear that recipients of reiki (and other alternative medicine therapies) might forgo conventional methods of treatment in favor of the reiki treatment.  While this is certainly a legitimate concern, many reiki practitioners have begun to advise their patients to seek conventional medical help in addition to receiving reiki.

Of course, there is no complete, definitive evidence proving the validity or efficacy of reiki.  Most of the benefits reaped from reiki are attributed to mindset and the placebo effect.  While this may be true, it is definitely not harmful to the patient.  Some of the most disturbing criticism comes from religious circles that deplore reiki as a method of communicating with “Satan” or other occult practices.  This should be viewed as subjective as reiki is not directly linked with established religion in any way.

The practice of yoga focuses on bringing balance and strength to the body by using movements and poses.  The practice of rolfing focuses on bringing balance and proper structure to the body through movements and soft tissue manipulation.  This, of course, points out the similarities between rolfing and yoga, as well as pointing out the subtle differences.  But the best part about these two practices is that they can be used – and often are used – together to produce the same effects.

Since yoga does not use soft tissue manipulation, it is thought by rolfers that it is not quite a perfect method of helping and therefore healing muscular and body structure problems.  However, combining rolfing with yoga adds the need to manipulate soft tissues to complete the lengthening process of the tissues, thus bringing the body into balance.