Herbs, Massage, and Tiny Needles - The Wide World of Alternative Medicine

It's the middle of the week, and everything at work is going crazy. You are stressed to the breaking point, and someone suggests you get a massage. Is this merely willful self-indulgence? Nope. It is actually medicine-alternative medicine.

If you're considering working in the field of alternative medicine and are undertaking a college search, you might be interested in more information about alternative medicine. Even those considering attending a top pharmacy school or even dental school should be aware of trends in alternative medicine and should consider this as part of a college search.

Science or Sham?

Professor Mary Bennett of Indiana State University conducted a pilot study and found that a half-hour massage in the morning not only created feelings of wellbeing and satisfaction in study participants, but even lowered their systolic blood pressure.

Acupuncture has been found to treat diabetes, provide pain relief, and increase pregnancy success for in-vitro patients (although scientists can't deny the success rates, they are still at a loss as to why it works).

Studies have shown that Zinc and Echinacea (a common herb, often seen in gardens and called "coneflower") can significantly shorten the duration of a cold.

All of these therapies fall into the category of alternative medicine. It is estimated that four out of ten Americans will use some form of alternative medicine in the next year, and these numbers are expected to rise in the coming years. If you have an interest in natural health, consider studying alternative medicine. After all, as more Americans integrate alternative therapies into their treatment, more practitioners will be needed.

Basic Alternative Medicine Terms

Many therapies can be considered alternative medicine, but most utilize a handful of common philosophies and language.

All of the various practices take the whole body and person into account; in other words, while you may have gone for treatment of your chronic headaches, you may find yourself answering questions about your sleeping and bathroom habits. This is considered "whole body wellness" and is common to every alternative medical regimen.

Many practices consider particular parts of the body to have significance. Oriental and Indian medicine often talk about "chakras," points in the body that can become cool or blocked and require a specific treatment to open. Acupuncture and acupressure follow a chart made thousands of years ago correlating spots on hands, feet, face and spine to various internal organs.

Homeopathic medicine (and some oriental and Indian medicine) works on a theory very similar to vaccines; it's thought that giving the body tiny, minute doses of various poisons and toxins will help stimulate the body's own immune response. In other words, a homeopathic sleep remedy may contain tiny amounts of caffeine.

Herbal therapy is probably the closest alternative medical treatment to standard western medicine. Herbs are used for their chemical elements, often in concentrated forms. Herbs are used very much like standard pills and medications.

These are just a few of the many hallmarks of alternative medicine; it's important to do your research to find out which theory and practice piques your interest.

Choosing the Practice That Is Right For You

Homeopathy, rolfing, reflexology-when you see the variety of alternative medical treatments now available, it can be difficult to determine which practice best suits your beliefs and abilities. Below is a brief list of some of the common degrees conferred in alternative medicine.

Acupuncture Physician or Certified Acupuncturist. This title comes with a certification program in some states.

Naturopathic Physician. These practitioners often combine herbal therapies with acupuncture and homeopathic medicine.

Massage Therapist. This certification program usually trains individuals in a variety of therapeutic massage techniques.

Doctor of Oriental Medicine. Using a variety of Chinese and Japanese herbal remedies, these doctors treat everything ranging from stomach ailments to arthritis.

Doctor of Ayurvedic Medicine. Similar to oriental medicine, but Indian in origin.


As alternative medicine continues to grow in popularity, formal training will become more popular and readily accessible. Already, you'll find that many career colleges are offering courses in various therapies, and specialty colleges that offer standard certification programs are more common now as well. If you want to work in a field that meets at the intersection of medicine and nature, alternative medical practice may be right for you!

http://www.collegeinfo.com/alternative-medicine

Alternative Medicine Schools - Making the Grade

Some in the conventional medical community may argue that alternative medicine is pseudoscience; but in all actuality, alternative medicine schools are beginning to enlighten society not only with their comprehensive curriculums, but also with their own scientific research that proves otherwise.

Alternative medicine schools have come of age in the past half century as more consumers are migrating toward non-invasive, natural medicine. Even traditional medical doctors are beginning to integrate alternative and complementary therapies into their patient services, such as massage, acupuncture, and chiropractics, to name a few.

It's not a matter of alternative medicine being better than conventional medicine; it's just that in some cases, alternative medicine schools (through research) have discovered that treating patients as a "whole" and not just the disease, may sometimes be more conducive for healing to occur. While many peoples may have the same disease, ultimately, there are multiple natural medicines that can be applied to meet the independent needs of each one of those individuals. More specifically, the belief that one conventional medicine therapy can treat and/or cure ALL disease is not an absolute truth.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (a division of the National Institutes for Health), in cooperation with a number of alternative medicine schools and complementary medicine schools, has performed extensive clinical trials and research in a variety of alternative therapies and treatments.

Just recently, it was discovered that the integration of complementary or alternative medicine in nursing (with therapies such as acupuncture, herbal supplements and other natural remedies), allowed patients to achieve a higher quality of life.

Furthermore, alternative medicine schools and other interdisciplinary studies have demonstrated, through clinical experiments, that "...evidence now support the idea that deficiencies or imbalance in certain highly unsaturated fatty acids may contribute to a range of common developmental disorders including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)." This particular study demonstrated that the addition of ALA-rich nutritional supplementation (flax oil) provides "a significant improvement in the symptoms of ADHD was reflected by reduction in total hyperactivity scores of ADHD children."

As a major contributor to health care, alternative medicine schools also play an integral role in the scientific community, as do most traditional medical colleges, by striving to find curative agents and treatments for common illness, diseases and other disorders.

Aside from lowered health care cost to patients, alternative medicine is also gaining headway with some health insurance providers that offer CAM coverage in certain areas such as chiropractic and acupuncture. Additionally, because quality alternative medicine schools are accredited and provide in-depth curriculums, as well as standard coursework, the professional medical community has taken note of advancements that are being made every day in the natural healing industry.

To learn more about Alternative Medicine Schools and additional learning programs, we invite you to visit our Natural Healing Directory to find more in-depth information and resources.

Reference: PMID: 16314082 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved by Media Positive Communications, Inc.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.com.

Notice to Publishers: Please feel free to use this article in your Ezine or on your Website; however, ALL links must remain intact and active.

Find Massage Schools and Massage Therapy Schools, as well as Colleges, Universities, Vocational Schools and Natural Healing Schools at SchoolsGalore.com, your educational resource to locate schools.

A Look at Alternative Medicine and Conventional Medicine

Alternative medicine and alternative therapies are therapeutic practices, which are currently not considered as an integral part of conventional medicine. Conventional medicine is the current mainstream medical system of diagnosis and treatment of disease. However, an increasing desire for wellness, in response to today's stressful lifestyle and rising incidences of cancer, disease and illness, has led to the rising demand for alternative medicine and therapies. It is true that many people are becoming disenchanted with conventional medicine's drugs and the approach to healing.

What is the difference between conventional medicine and alternative medicine? In general, conventional medicine tends to focus on the disease and employs techniques to treat it. It views the body as a war zone where battles against invading organisms are fought, and won or lost. It focuses more on techniques, technology, chemical reactions that can be measured, statistically proven and documented. Treatment is on the part of the body that is displaying the symptoms of the illness or disease.

On the other hand, alternative medicine tends to be "holistic", where an individual's health is considered as a whole and treatment not just focused on the symptoms. Alternative medicine employ "natural" methods to aid the healing powers of the body to return to a state of health. Treatment is holistic; that is it takes into account every aspect of a patient and not just on the health symptoms that he or she is experiencing.

Contrary to popular belief, alternative medicine has a history longer than conventional medicine. Much of alternative medicine is derived from ancient healing techniques. For instance, the use of herbs is practiced all over the world since a long time ago; whether in India as ayurvedic medicine, in China as traditional Chinese medicine or used as aromatherapy which can be traced back to ancient Egyptian times.

There are a full range of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. They include acupuncture, energy healing, hypnosis, flower essences therapy, EFT, homeopathy, etc - all aimed at restoring the body back to balance and thus helping an individual achieve total wellness.

It would seem that after the above explanations, alternative medicine is superior to conventional medicine. This will not be an accurate view for all health situations. Conventional medicine, does in fact, have a place in health treatment. Conventional medical interventions such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and antibiotics do bring benefits. They can prevent death, pain and give hope to people to walk again, provide instant relief, and also, provide a new functioning organ in place of a diseased and ailing one.

Also, alternative practitioners do not condemn conventional medical practices altogether. Their belief is somewhat different, however. That these conventional medical interventions should not be the first choice of treatment, as it often is. The point is that most tend to seek natural or alternative medicine as the last resort. Seeking holistic treatment as a last ditch for health and life is not a very good idea as alternative medicine takes a long time to show positive healing benefits.

For the general public, I guess it is important to realize that there are more ways than one in the aspect of health. Fortunately, with the advent of the holistic health movement over the last two decades, a growing number of conventional doctors are now recognizing that health is more than the absence of disease. Many more medical doctors practice "integrative" medicine, where they combine research-backed alternative medical treatments with the best of conventional allopathic medicine. This may just be the best way to go. The overall objective to aim in the environment of today and tomorrow is for a higher standard of health; in short, total wellness.

Evelyn Lim owns an article directory site on health and wellness. Her site is an online directory archive with more than 100 topic categories; including alternative medicine, wellness, health and medical conditions, natural remedy, fitness, weight loss, nutrition, cancer, health insurance, etc. To submit an article, please visit http://www.HealthandWellnessCentral.com today!