Why Holistic Health Care is the Only Health Care Worth Investing In

There is a health care crisis in this country, that is not news to anyone. Rising costs, lessening care plus skyrocketing disease and chronic degeneration rates equals a recipe for absolute disaster. The US life expectancy is 42nd in the world among developed countries. The World Health Organization, in 2000, ranked the U.S. health care system as the highest in cost, 37th in overall performance and 72nd by overall level of health. 72nd in overall level of health! That should stop any one of us dead in our tracks. 62.1% of all filers for bankruptcies were due to high medical expenses. The system is broken that is obvious and cannot be denied. In no other sector of business would consumers continue to flock and spend their money, massive amounts of money none the less, on a product that was rated a dismal 72nd in overall production. In addition, it is estimated that doctors are now spending less then 10 minutes per patient per visit. How much information can a doctor gather about the total picture of what is happening within your body in less than 10 mintues? Yet with every sneeze, cough and fever we run like drones to our local medical office spending thousands of dollars, filling our bodies with overpriced toxic drugs and continuing to stay blind to the fact that although we are one of the most developed and wealthiest nations in the world we are the sickest. It may actually be because of this low level of health we each experience that we are not able to clearly see the reality of our situation or maybe it is simply we do not want to see the dismal state of our current situation.

We have become mindless in the face of medical doctors, their word is gold, they not only are god's they are in a position to not be questioned. We no longer use our own intellect, reasoning or judgement nor do we listen to our own body's wisdom. Western doctors are trained in two main areas of treatment, drugs and surgery. The pharmaceutical companies are big and they are powerful. Americans now spend a staggering $200 billion a year on prescription drugs, and that figure is growing at a rate of about 12 percent a year (down from a high of 18 percent in 1999). Drugs are the fastest-growing part of the health care bill—which itself is rising at an alarming rate. The increase in drug spending reflects, in almost equal parts, the facts that people are taking a lot more drugs than they used to, that those drugs are more likely to be expensive new ones instead of older, cheaper ones, and that the prices of the most heavily prescribed drugs are routinely jacked up, sometimes several times a year. Before its patent ran out, for example, the price of Schering-Plough’s top-selling allergy pill, Claritin, was raised thirteen times over five years, for a cumulative increase of more than 50 percent—over four times the rate of general inflation. (1) 

Yet prescrption drugs do nothing to heal a condition. In fact over time they usually make the condition worse. Symptoms are none other than a built in alarm system genuisly engineered by the body. When something is wrong the alarm is sounded. This is an alarm meant to get out attention in order to correct a problem. Prescrption drugs are not made to solve the problem causing the alarm to sound, rather they are made to silnce the alarm. What would hapen if instead of reacting and solving a fire alarm we only turned off the alarm? Would the fire be put out? Would the damage being done cease? Or would the damage escalate while the alarm was silenced? The same analogy can be used within the human body. 

The answer to our health care problem is simple yet overlooked. The answer lies in the ability to prevent disease before it occurs and heal and reverse symptoms that are present before they become worse and pervasive, extending throughout one's life. To do this you do not need a pill or a knife rather you need a mechanism that pinpoints the cause of the symptom and an approach that then removes the cause. That mechanism and approach is one and the same, holistic health care.

A holistic approach takes the broadest possible view of illness, disease and symptoms, identifying multiple root causes (both internal and external), and then offering multi-dimensional healing approaches. A holistic approach is as concerned with one's propensity towards disease as it is with its transmission. Why does one person get colds or infections more easily than another, or at different times? Can we render ourselves stronger and more disease-resistant before medical intervention is necessary, and more resilient when illness does occur? Are we able to identify the cause and then able to uproot and remove that cause rather then just removing the symptoms? The fundamental premise in holistic health care is that your body knows how to be well and will naturally align with perfect health and balance when given the proper support and when the causes of such imbalances are removed. The body was created in a state of perfect health and that is where it is most comfortable which is why the body will do everything in its power to return to a state of health when imbalance begins to occur. We can see the body's own intelligence and power when we get a simple cut. Without any instuction or outisde intervention the body will automatically begin healing and knitting together the cut and within a few days the body is restored to its original state, whole. This is the body's natural process whether it is a cut or a rouge cancerous cell. 

Holistic health takes into account the entire person, one's body, mind, emotions, and spiritual life and sees all parts as important to the process of health and sickness, rather then just looking at symptoms. Holistic health combines the best of modern scientific diagnosis and monitoring techniques with both ancient and innovative health promotion methods. These include natural diet and herbal remedies, spinal adjustment and alignment, energy work including acupuncture and reiki, nutritional supplements, exercise, relaxation, psycho-spiritual counseling, meditation, exercise, breathing exercises, and other self-balancing and healing practices. Holistic health does not only look to remove symptoms, but rather looks to bring into balance one's entire being, body, mind and spirit, and knows that when all three of these are in balance disease cannot begin or flourish. The emphasizes is on prevention, balance, and achieving the highest levels of health and well being through bringing one's life into balance and harmony. Symptoms are also not viewed independently but rather completely. Each symptoms is part of a bigger picture of imbalance and once that imbalance is corrected all symptoms begin to clear up. The responsibility is also shifted in holistic health from the practitioner or drug to the individual themselves. It views the individual as an active participant in the healing process, rather than simply a passive recipient of care. The power lies within the individual and the holistic health practitioner, in whatever form they may take, is a guide and coach that helps to activate and awaken the individual's own power and natural healing responses.

Holistic health care is also natural health care. Approaches chosen in the healing process are those that are the least invasive and the most natural. The purpose in holistic health is to facilitate the body's own natural healing process not to override that process. Foods, herbs or exercises are chosen specifically to help remove the blocks that are preventing the body from self healing and then strengthen and support the body's natural processes. Because holistic health care is based on natural sources, their cost is very low. The Earth has provided to us everything we need in order to be healthy and whole and those are all of relatively low cost.

The two systems of medicine, allopathic vs. holistic are compared in the below chart.

Two Systems of Medicine (2)

* ALLOPATHIC *	* HOLISTIC *
Focuses on MeasurementsSYMPTOMS	Focuses on ExperienceCAUSES & PATTERNS
Disease as EntityPAIN AVOIDING	Disease as ProcessPAIN READING
General Classified Diagnosis	Specific Individual Needs
Technical Tools	Integrated Therapies
Remedial / Combative/ Reactive	Preventive / Corrective/ Pro-Active
Crisis Oriented: Occasional Intervention	Lifestyle Oriented: Sustained Maintenance
Radical. Defensive.	Natural. Ecological.
Medicine As Counter-Agent	Medicine As Co-Agent
Side Effects. Chemicals, Surgery, Radiation, Replacement	Low-Risk. Conservative. Organic.Purification, Manipulation, Correction,
Emphasis: "CURE"	Emphasis: "HEALING"
Speed, Comfort, Convenience	Restoration. Regeneration. Transformation
Practitioner as Authority PACIFYING	Practitioner as Educator ACTIVATING
Patient as Passive Recipient	Patient as Source of Healing
Mechanical / Analytical/ Bio-Physical	Systemic / Multi-Dimensional/ Body-Mind-Spirit
Best For: Infectious Diseases, Trauma, Structural Damage, Organ Failure, Acute Conditions.	Best For: Degenerative, Chronic Stress & Lifestyle Disorders, Toxemia, Glandular Weakness, Systemic Imbalances, Immunity.

When we value and respect our being we understand the great power it holds for complete health and healing. Understanding that the body has its own innate self healing process we see that drugs and surgery (unless in life threatening or trauma type situations) only circumvent and override the body's own self healing process, are costly and counter productive to the body's innate and natural processes. Balance and harmony within can never be achieved by a drug or surgery no matter how much money we throw at it. The only way to truly heal our bodies and bring them back into a state of wholeness is to find the causes of imbalance and then restore balance, naturally and holistically. Holistic health care is not only less expensive it is the only form of health care that can ever support us in living at our highest levels of health, vitality and wellness. It is time we each wake up, stop being drones, take our power back and begin respecting our body's. Until we achieve our own highest levels of health and well being the ability to achieve the purpose we were sent into this life to achieve will go unfulfilled. You are important and being at your healthiest and completely whole is the only way to be truly successful!

At Align Holistic Health & Well Being our mission is to provide you with natural holistic health care. We specialize in helping you attain complete balance and wholeness through nutrition, herbs, Ayurveda and other natural healing modalities. Our vision is to help individuals prevent and heal from disease, sickness, symptoms and chronic issues through natural holistic means.

Contact us today for a complimentary 60 minute consultation to lean how holistic health care can assist you in meeting your health care needs for you and your entire family!

Much love and health!

www.alignholistichealth.com

candice@alignholistichealth.com


References 

The Truth About the Drug Companies

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2004/jul/15/the-truth-about-the-drug-companies/


What is Holistic Health?

http://www.holistic.com/holistic/learning.nsf/ed8732a8bed2f2a4872569060015ca74/6d6ad242c4e75c9c87256b8f00021919!OpenDocument