"What’s so great about all this alternative medicine talk?" "Why is it any different than going to the doctor, taking some pills, and feeling better?" "Who decided that it should be different?" "I’m not getting involved with all this hippie medicine stuff."

 These are all questions and statements that seem to float around when discussing alternative medicine, however on the flipside one may hear a different song.  A song that may involve things like improved health, the lack of aches, no need for that prescription, and just feeling happier. 

Before discussing all the benefits of this lifestyle, it is best to discuss what alternative medicine means.  Alternative medicine is defined as medical practices that do not fit in the mainstream of today.  This practice combines diet, exercise, mental or spiritual health with a form of alternative medicine.  Examples of alternative medicine may include  herbal therapy, acupuncture, osteopathy, and many more.

To discover the benefits of alternative medicine, it would be prudent to understand some types of alternative medicine and what they offer. To name them all would read like a dictionary, but a few examples would be:

• Herbal therapy – This therapy clearly takes the benefits of herbs and plant parts to heal and prevent certain ailments. The herb is either ingested in cooking, manipulated and made into a pill or extract, or a tea is created. Different herbs can help with different issues. This allows a person to ask nature for a helping hand before asking man to intervene and come up with a chemical compound.

• Meditation – This does not come in a bottle with a fancy label and one cannot receive a prescription and get it filled by a pharmacy. This ancient practice used by cultures and religions from around the world comes from within. It is a discipline that one attempts to get beyond the "thinking" mind, which can be conditioned by influences from all over to a deeper state of relaxation or awareness. There are different meditative disciplines that have a wide range of spiritual or psychophysical practices that may focus on different goals. All of this will aid in having a greater focus, creativity, or self-awareness. Most importantly, it allows for a more peaceful mind. When you have a peaceful mind then things that build up and cause physical negativities subside.

• Acupuncture – This type of alternative medicine falls under the category of Ancient Chinese Medicine. This dates back centuries old. This form bases its principal on the fact that the body has a flow. A vital energy flows throughout your body. Inserting needles into specific points of the body will tap into this flow and help in relieving stress and pain. How would needles prevent or aid in pain and not cause more? Well, these finite needles tap into these areas and help release good energy while blocking the nerves that cause pain.

• Osteopathy – This form of alternative medicine focuses on the musculoskeletal system when approaching health and disease. Most interventions use manual and physical treatments. This most commonly relates to musculoskeletal problems of the back and neck. In practice, focusing on those and healing those will help with other areas of the body. For example, if someone is having leg pain a skilled person of osteopathy may look a little further up the spine then just at the hips and find that the patient's spine is out of alignment and fixing that will help the leg pain. Our bodies tend to compensate for pain and the original pain will show up elsewhere. This is a true case of getting down to the bottom of the situation. Instead of taking a pain medication, this allows you to find the true source of the pain.

There are so many reasons to consider forms of alternative medicine and the benefits definitely outweigh any risk involved.  Many modern day medical practices are adding these forms of healing and prevention to their diagnosis and cure; doing a little research and speaking with your doctor will help determine the right form for you.

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