WHAT IS HOLISTIC HEALTH?

Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D.

Throughout history, cultures have adopted a variety of explanations and philosophies in the continuing quest for health. Illness has been attributed in turn to evil spirits, divine retribution, and bugs. Our contemporary model (allopathy) is built largely on the contagion theory of disease and the suppression of symptoms, and therefore promotes medicines and counter measures that fight harmful agents and their effects. This "opposite" model of therapy is logical, but narrow. It precludes other mechanisms, such as the "like cures like" principle used in homeopathy. Here, minute quantities of the very agent that causes the symptom also causes the immune system to handle it.

The holistic approach takes the broadest possible view of illness and disease, identifying multiple causes (both internal and external), and offering multi-dimensional "healing," as opposed to specific "cures." It 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 more hardy and disease-resistant before medical intervention is necessary, and more resilient when illness does occur?

The holistic view says yes. For 80% of our modern health complaints - the lifestyle, stress, and behavioral disorders - natural, holistic self-care methods are a viable alternative to drug-dependence, side effects, and expensive, hi-tech intervention. The fundamental premise is that your body knows how to be well, given the proper support.

Taking into account one's body, mind, emotions, and spiritual life, 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, nutritional supplements, exercise, relaxation, psycho-spiritual counseling, meditation, breathing exercises, and other self-regulatory practices. It addresses not only symptoms, but the entire person, and his or her current life predicament, including family, job, and religious life. It emphasizes prevention, health maintenance, high-level wellness and longevity. It views the client as an active participant in the healing process, rather than simply a passive recipient of "health care." At once personal, ecological, and transcultural, holism has become the new health paradigm for the 21st century.