Natural Treatments for Chronic Health Conditions Part 1

While some medications may help chronic health conditions, generally they do more harm than good with their side effects and are often overly prescribed. Chronic fatigue syndrome is a difficult condition to treat as there are a number of factors that contribute to the daily mental and physical fatigue and other symptoms. With natural therapies and remedies the underlying causes as well as the symptoms can be better treated in a holistic manner.

Below I have included a number of treatments that I have tried and some that I haven't tried. My philosophy is to try a number of therapies and treatments and see what works for you. There are likely treatments or protocols out there that I haven't included as there are so many. I will try to add the treatments most widely used and accepted among those with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Everyone will require their own unique approach when treating chronic health issues such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I hope that in this series of hubpages I can point out at least a few that might be able to help some.

Natural and holistic remedies often can help chronic health issues a lot more than conventional medicine. Conventional medicine is often overly simplistic and isn't as thorough as functional medicine especially in finding treatments and causes to a lot of chronic health issues.

Acupuncture is an ancient alternative healing art believed to have originated from ancient China. Acupuncture is the stimulation of specific acupuncture points on the skin of the body by needles, heat, pressure or laser light. Traditionally you find that most modern practitioners use acupuncture needles to do acupuncture therapy. While modern research has disputed the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy it is still widely used today and has been effective for a number of health conditions.

A growing trend among acupuncturists is to embrace it as a relief from pain and downplay certain aspect of it such as the Qi, chi or energy aspect of it. Personally I have only done acupuncture once and it helped me tremendously. Acupuncture like all therapies take some time to have an effect on your health though. You can often find discounted acupuncture deals on groupon if you look around.

Another option I have seen which may be cost effective is having an acupuncturists teach their clients how to do acupuncture with their own needles. Other methods acupuncturists may use are acupressure and cupping therapy but those could be seen as separate treatments themselves.

I have heard it is rather effective in treating chronic health issues like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (it did in my case from one treatment). After one treatment I felt better, more relaxed and felt like tapping a nap. Acupuncture for chronic health issues can be very helpful with a treatments done over time (and some at home).

Quantum K is a unique free healing experience that combines fractal geometry, harmonics and symbols. It's a unique experience that you can watch on the website or download and watch on your own. There are also options for free healing as well as items you can purchase. In 2014 a second healing experience/video was released which was free as well.

The original video is only 23 minutes long while the second healing experience is only about 8 minutes. I had originally heard of this from Magnus Tapping from his mailing list. Magnus tapping is a well known british emotional freedom technique (a treatment/healing modality I will discuss some other time).

From personal experience, quantum k does seem to help some, and it sure is relaxing. Lately though I have been having problem with the second healing video. Also there is a free manual (you can only download it by chapter though) and a free transcript of the second video as well. As far as benefit to my chronic health issues I deal with, I haven't seen much improvement but it does help relax you and get into a meditative state.

Quantum K has the potential to help a lot with chronic health issues, and the very least it will be a relaxing, meditative exercise you can do on a daily basis (or weekly basis).

You can watch the video every day for a few weeks and then start to watch it on a weekly basis thereafter.

Diamond alignment is another free online healing modality that I was introduced to by Magnus tapping via his email list/newsletter. There is a free 6 minute experience as well as paid subscriptions and products you can purchase as well.

I have only ever done the 6 minute free experience. It does seem to help and it is relaxing, and i have done it for a few years. Its almost meditative in a sense in that you listen to a flash animation with sound and its very relaxing. I think it helps to a small extent those with chronic health conditions, it only takes 6 minutes to do and not much time out of your day to do this.

Diamond alignment can help a lot with chronic health issues if you let it, it is a short meditative exercise you can do on a daily basis (up to twice a day).

Emotional freedom technique seems to be especially popular lately. I have used it for years and hasn't worked much for me. I have been told it works on a more subtle level for some (like myself), I haven't seen a huge improvement that others have claimed. That's not to say that emotional freedom technique doesn't work, just hasn't worked for me so far.

I have learned a lot from some popular emotional freedom technique practitioners such as Erika Awakening and Magnus Tapping. I learned about holosync/binaural beats from Erika Awakening and Quantum K and Diamond Alignment from Magnus tapping.

Emotional Freedom Technique is supposed to work on your beliefs by tapping the acupressure points to remove bad (or unhelpful) beliefs and install or instill new more positive ones with affirmations. There are a lot of variations on this technique and everyone seems to have their own way of doing it. Generally though it's practiced about the same from practitioner to practitioner. You can get qualified and certified through the originator and creator of Emotional Freedom Technique Gary Craig. There are several videos and tutorials online if you are interested in seeing how to do it. As far as helping chronic health issues, I haven't seen much success so far.

Emotional freedom technique can be used for chronic health issues, although with varying success. It may or may not help you out if you have chronic health issues but its worth a try to see if it helps with your own chronic health issues.

Reiki is a spiritual healing practice developed by Japanese Buddhist monk Mikao Usui in 1922. I have limited experience with this but I have gotten a Reiki/massage treatment. At the time my health issues were much worse than they are now. It didn't seem to help much at a time, although If I went back now perhaps it could help some more.

There is a lot of variation among how it is taught and used. Like in martial arts and other alternative healing techniques there are degrees and levels you can attain over time. Western and Japanese Reiki techniques appear to be very different as well. While western reiki is more systematized and uses a system of hand placements, Japanese Reiki is more intuitive and more free flowing.

Reiki practitioners use hand placements as well as hand movements near the body of the person they are practicing on to treat health issues. Treatments can last up to an hour but can be anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour long. As far as Reiki helping chronic health issues its debatable, in my case there wasn't much improvement but for others there may be more benefit.

Although there hasn't been much scientific proof, I believe that Reiki may be able to help those out with chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic health issues a lot.