Vietnamese traditional medicine (Vietnamese medicine): Syncretic medical tradition of Vietnam. It includes acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion, and scarification.

(See also: Vietnamese traditional medicine, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

alternative nutrition (alternative nutritional treatments, alternative nutrition strategies, alternative nutrition therapies): Ill-defined group of methods that apparently encompasses Chinese herbal medicine, the Chinese System of Food Cures, and nutrient pharmaco-therapy--administration of specific micronutrients in pharmacologic doses.

(See also: Alternative nutrition, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Alternative 12 Steps: Nontheistic derivative of the Twelve Steps, expounded by Martha Cleveland, Ph.D., and Arlys G. in The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide To Recovery (1992). Three of their Steps affirm spiritual resources or spiritual energy.

(See also: Alternative 12 Steps, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Cherokee healing (Cherokee Medicine): Traditional medicine of the Cherokees, a Native American people.

Its apparent principle is that, if one holds back the light in one's being, one causes:

(a)           occlusion of one's meridians and rivers of life and

(b)           suffering of mother Earth. Cherokee Medicine includes crystal healing, Eagle Medicine, Mental Medicine, the Natural Medicine Path, the Physical Medicine Path, and the Spiritual Medicine Path.

(See also: Cherokee healing, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Ayurveda (Ayurveda Medicine, Ayurvedic healing, Ayurvedic healthcare, Ayurvedic medicine, ayurvedism, Indian medicine, Science of Longevity, traditional Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine, Vedic medicine): The medical phase of Hinduism.

Ayurvedic theory posits a subtle anatomy that includes:

(a)    nadis, canals that carry prana (cosmic energy) throughout the body;

(b)    chakras, centers of consciousness that connect body and soul; and

(c)     marmas, points on the body beneath which vital structures (physical and/or subtle) intersect.

Ayurvedic diagnosis involves examination of the eyes, face, lips, tongue, nails, and pulse.

Ayurvedists associate parts of the lips and tongue, for example, with internal organs and maintain that discolorations, lines, cracks, and irritability in various areas indicate disorders in corresponding organs. The pulse is important because the heart is the seat of the underlying intelligence of nature: human consciousness.

(See also: Ayurveda, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Siddha (Saiva school of medicine, Siddha medicine, Siddha system, Siddha system of medicine): Tamil system related to Ayurveda and of divine origin. Tamil refers to an ancient tradition of southern India and northern Sri Lanka. Siddha theory posits five mahabhutas (see prakrtika cikitsa). The Sanskrit word Siddha literally means perfect, complete.

(See also: Siddha, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Schuessler biochemic system of medicine (biochemic medicine, biochemic system of medicine, biochemic system of medicines, tissue salts therapy): Homeopathic system founded in the late nineteenth century by German physician Wilhelm Heinrich Schuessler (also spelled Schussler).

Schuessler held that all curable diseases were curable with minuscule doses of one or more of a dozen inorganic compounds, called cell salts or tissue salts: the fluoride, phosphate, and sulfate salts of calcium; the chloride, phosphate, and sulfate salts of sodium and potassium; the phosphate salts of iron and magnesium; and silicon dioxide.

(See also: Schuessler biochemic system of medicine, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

classical Indian medicine (ancient Indian medicine, Ayurveda, classical Ayurveda, classic Hindu medicine, traditional Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine): A group of certain of the ancient indigenous medical ways of India that stems principally from two ancient treatises - the Caraka Samhita and the Susruta Samhita. Both describe Ayurveda's source as divine.

(See also: Classical Indian medicine, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Unani (Unani medicine, Unani system of medicine, Unani Tibb): System based on the ancient Greek theory of four basic elements - air, earth, fire, and water - and four bodily fluids (humors) - blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile (choler). The goal of Unani is the balancing of humors. Temperament stems from the dominant humor and is a determinant of diagnosis and treatment. For example, anger and irritability manifest an excess of yellow bile. Unani is the Arabic word for Greek. Hikmat and Tibe-Unani are synonymous with Unani medicine.

(See also: Unani, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

orgone therapy (medical orgone therapy, medical orgonomy, orgonomic medicine, orgonomic medicine therapy): System developed by psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), who coined the word orgone to refer to a hypothetical fundamental, omnipresent, life-sustaining, intelligent radiation.

Orgone therapy encompasses the Reich Blood Test and Reichian Therapy. The professional activities of medical orgonomists include administering orgone charged water and applying peculiar devices: The orgone field meter and the vacor tube contribute to ostensible diagnosis. The meter shows the extent and strength of the patient's orgone energy field. The vacor tube is an orgone charged glass vacuum tube that glows under the influence of the patient's orgone energy field. The medical dor-buster siphons a toxic form of orgone - dor (an acronym for deadly orgone) - from the patient's body.

(See also: Orgone therapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

naturopathy (natural healing, natural health, natural medicine, natural therapies, nature cure, naturology, naturopathic healing, naturopathic health care, naturopathic medicine): Miscellany that encompasses auriculotherapy (ear acupuncture), Ayurveda, balneotherapy, bioelectronic diagnosis, biofeedback, cupping, electroacupuncture, fasting, the Grape Cure (and other mono-diets), hair analysis, herbalism, homeopathy, hypnotherapy, internal hydrotherapy (e.g., colonic irrigation), iridology, Jin Shin Do, Jungian psychology, macrobiotics, moxibustion, Oriental medicine, Ortho-Bionomy, orthomolecular psychiatry, thalassotherapy, Tuina, and zone therapy.

Naturopathy originated in the latter half of the nineteenth century, in Germany. Dr. John H. Scheel, a German-born homeopath, coined the word naturopathy in 1895, when he opened the Sanitarium Badekur in New York. Vitalism is fundamental to naturopathy.

(See also: Naturopathy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

shamanism (shamanic healing, shamanistic medicine): Any indigenous magico-religious healing system whose core doctrine is that all healing involves a spirit world.

(See also: Shamanism, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

TCM acupuncture (New Acupuncture): Form of acupuncture that arose in the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution. Symptoms or syndromes (patterns of disharmony) are its focus. TCM stands for Traditional Chinese Medicine.

(See also: TCM acupuncture, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

cymatic therapy (cymatic medicine): Form of vibrational bioenergetics medicine developed by Sir Peter Guy Manners, M.D., D.O., Ph.D., of England. It is an acupressure-like method wherein devices send beneficial sound through the skin. This sound reestablishes healthy resonance in unhealthy tissues. Cymatics theory posits acupuncture meridians and holds that life is sound and that every part of the body vibrates at a unique audible frequency.

(See also: Cymatic therapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

geopathic therapy (geopathic medicine): Method that embraces dowsing, feng shui, and kinesiology (see below).

(See also: Geopathic therapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Nvwoti (Cherokee herbal medicine): Native American form of botanical healing that treats all human components: emotional, physical, societal, and spiritual.

(See also: Nvwoti, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

aromatherapy (aromatic medicine, conventional aromatherapy, holistic aromatherapy): Branch of herbal medicine that centers on using fragrant substances, particularly oily plant extracts, to alter mood or to improve individuals' health or appearance. The benefits of aromatherapy range from stress relief to enhancement of immunity and the unlocking of emotions from past experiences. Although aromatherapy has ancient roots, proponents did not call it aromatherapy before the 1930s. It derives from the French word aromathŽrapie, coined by RenŽ Maurice GattefossŽ, a French chemist whose book of the same name was published in 1928. After a lab explosion GattefossŽ conveniently plunged his badly burned hand into a vat of lavender oil. He noticed how well it healed, and thus began the development of modern aromatherapy, which French homeopaths Dr. and Mme. Maury revived in the 1960s.

In aromatherapy substances are essential oils (oils that are volatile, aromatic, and flammable) from flowers, fruits, grasses, leaves, roots, and wood resins. Manners of use of such oils include sniffing, ingestion, addition to bathwater, and application to the skin (typically with massage). One of aromatherapy's principles is that essential oils have a spiritual dimension and can restore balance and harmony both to one's body and to one's life. One of its principles, the doctrine of signatures, holds that a plant's visible and olfactory characteristics reveal its secret qualities. For example, because the configuration of the violet suggests shyness, aromatherapists hold that its scent engenders calmness and modesty. Some proponents have characterized essential oils as the soul or spirit of plants.

(See also: Aromatherapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

homeopathy (homeopathic medicine, homeotherapeutics, homoeopathy): Form of energy medicine (vibrational medicine) developed by German physician Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), who coined its original name.

The major homeopathic theories include:

(a)           The law of similars ("like cures like"): According to this principle, the most effective potential remedy for a particular disease is that substance which in healthy persons has effects similar to the symptoms of the disease if the substance is applied in quantities that render it bioactive.

(b)          The doctrine of individualization (the rule of the single remedy): According to this principle, the ideal potential homeopathic remedy for a particular ill person is that substance which induces in healthy persons all the health problems, mannerisms, and dispositions the ill person has related if it is applied in quantities that render it bioactive.

(c)           The doctrine of the minimum dose ("less is more"): According to this principle, selected substances trigger healing without side effects when they are applied in quantities that render them nonbioactiveor even when they are only seemingly, spiritually applied.

(d)           The doctrine of potentization (dynamization): According to this principle, successively diluting a potentially therapeutic solid spiritualizes the substance, thus increases its curativeness, and detoxifies it.

(e)           The doctrine of the vital force: According to this principle, the vital force is the source of all biological phenomena, it becomes deranged during illness, and homeopathic remedies work by restoring it.

(See also: Homeopathy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

chiropractic (chiropractic medicine, chiropraxis): A multiform approach to characterizing and treating health problems. Its centerpiece is spinal manipulation. A major chiropractic concept is that of Innate Intelligence.

(See also: Chiropractic, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Alternative medicine: This term was originally coined to describe health care approaches not taught in medical schools. It has been replaced with “complementary medicine” since Americans rarely use these approaches to the exclusion of Western, conventional medicine. Integrative medicine refers to the proactive, deliberate combination of conventional and complementary therapies.

(See also: Alternative medicine, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Alternative Medicine: Any form of medicine or healing other than the type approved by medical doctors and hospitals.

(See also: Alternative Medicine, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Alternative Medicine  - Almost any form of therapy that differs from conventional medical practices. Examples include homeopathy, chiropractic, and naturopathy. The name suggests an alternative method other than the more conventional treatment.

(See also: Alternative Medicine, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)