GOING HOLISTIC (Part 1)

Holistic medicine involves the mind-body-spirit approach that assists the whole patient with diet, nutrition, exercise and mental health.

There are many of us who live with chronic conditions that conventional medicine cannot address. My focus on holistic health includes following a lifestyle that prevents or mitigates chronic conditions by treating on the entire person rather than the illness or a specific body part. I also expect my patients to accept responsibility for their own level of health.

Socrates said “for the part can never be well unless the whole is well.” Traditional medicine has been about simply ridding the body of the germs by taking pills to eliminate the symptoms, but not getting to the cause. The result is that we lost sight of over all health. Sometimes treatments for our ailments are worse than the disease, and often ineffective.

Here are some tips I suggest in approaching holistic health:

•Educate yourself. The more you know about your own body, the easier it will be to make adjustments when needed.

•Find a way to rid your life of negativity. Get a support system of friends and professionals who can help you keep positive and eliminate the negative forces (sometimes these are people) from your everyday life.

•Meditate to clear and calm the mind. Turn off the TV, especially the news. You can’t take on the world’s problems and make them your own.

•Get some sleep. Getting adequate sleep allows the body to rejuvenate, and helps with weight management as well.

•Cut out the junk food, including alcohol, animal proteins, artificial flavorings and preservatives, processed foods, refined sugar, and conventionally grown produce.

•Exercise. Breaking a sweat helps purge our bodies of toxins and rejuvenates your system.

•Find out what you like doing and just do it, dancing, gardening, hiking etc. There is no reason to deny the simple joys of life just because you are “too busy”.

These are the basic steps of getting your life in line with the holistic approach. In my next installment, I will get more specific on the medical aspects of going holistic.