Holistic Healing
What is Holistic Healing ?
Holistic healing is a form of healing that considers the whole person – spirit, mind, body, emotions in a quest for optimal health and wellness. Holistic healing, originated in Africa, dates back thousands of years and has been organised to treat the spiritual, mental and physical causes of all diseases. The body has been designed to heal itself and maintain adaptability and whenever it is overloaded or biochemically imbalanced, it tries to get rid of the toxic state through a variety of ways. The first way being through urine and bowel movements. If the urine and bowel movements are inefficient in eliminating toxins, then the skin is used, resulting in conditions like acne, bumps, herpes, rashes, smallpox etc. If this fails to cleanse the body then the lungs and nasal cavities are used to get rid of the toxins, resulting in sinuses, bronchitis, catarrh, running nose. The body also uses warning signs like headaches and pains (mostly around the spine/back) to make us aware of toxic states. In African wholistic health, the causes of these “warning signals” would be treated with a variety of methods such as; massages, acupuncture, aromatherapy, herbs and a cleansing/detox diet. However, the opposite of Holistic healing, which is Allopathic healing, also known as European healing or western healing, treats these “warning signals” as the actual “illness” and suppresses the symptoms with; antihistamines, cough suppressants, aspirin etc. This causes the body to remain in a toxic state, suppressing these warning signals and serving as a temporary fix. This keeps the person in a diseased state internally (even though they might not display these symptoms anymore). If that particular symptom has been successfully suppressed, the body adapts and finds another way to give another “warning signal” which results in more chronic illnesses and irreversible damages to organs and cells.
Holistic healing believes that he whole person is made up of interdependent parts and if one part is not working properly, all the other parts will be affected. In this way, if people have imbalances (physical, emotional, or spiritual) in their lives, it can negatively affect their overall health.
Key Principles of Holistic Healing
- good health is a combination of physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and social wellness
- prevention first, treatment second
- disease is caused by a problem with the whole body, rather than a single event or body part
- the goal of treatment is to fix the underlying cause of disease, instead of just improving the symptoms
- treatment involves a wide range of options, including education, self-care, CAM (complementary and alternate medicine), and traditional medicine
- a person is not defined by their condition.
A holistic doctor treats the body as one. They aim to find the cause behind the disease, instead of just fixing the symptoms. This could require multiple therapies.
For example, if you have eczema, a medical doctor may give you a prescription cream. But a holistic doctor may suggest dietary and lifestyle changes. The holistic doctor might also recommend using the cream, plus natural home remedies like oatmeal baths.
As we already live in a system designed to gain economic profits at the expense of our health, we are constantly ingesting all sorts of toxic substances such as; refined sugar, processed meats and carbs, beauty products, toxic air, the body is already diseased and we are almost born in a biochemically imbalanced state. This is the reason why holistic medicine believe that healing is something we should practice consistently and perpetually not just when a symptom presents itself.
Summary
- The body is designed to heal itself
- Holistic medicine seeks to target the root cause – physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally in order to seek a permanent cure for a particular illness
- Allopathic medicine seeks to suppress symptoms and provides a temporary fix by alleviating symptoms
- Holistic medicine understand “illnesses” are a warning signal by the body to make you aware that the body is in a chemically imbalanced state.
Sources and Further Reading
- African Holistic Health – Dr Llaila Afrika
- What does a Holistic Doctor do? - https://www.healthline.com/health/holistic-doctor#summary
- Kreitzer MJ. (n.d.). What are holistic practices? -takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/what-are-holistic-practices
- (n.d.). - oregon.gov/obnm/Pages/Aboutnaturopathy.aspx
- (2017) - nccih.nih.gov/health/naturopathy
- Principles of holistic medicine. (n.d.). - ahha.org/selfhelp-articles/principles-of-holistic-medicine/