Holistic Medicine: Principles, Practice, and Future Directions

What Is Holistic Medicine?

Holistic medicine is a system of health care that promotes a cooperative relationship among all those involved, leading toward the optimal attainment of the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of health. It stresses the need to look at the whole person, including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, social, and spiritual lifestyle values. Holistic medicine focuses on education and personal responsibility in the effort to achieve balance and well-being (What is Holistic Medicine, n.d.).

Holistic health is an approach to life. Rather than focusing on illness or specific parts of the body, it considers the whole person and how he or she interacts with the surrounding environment. It highlights the connection of mind, body, and spirit. The goal is to achieve maximum well-being, with everything functioning at its very best. Within the holistic health model, people accept responsibility for their own level of well-being, and everyday choices become the means by which they take charge of their own health (Walter, n.d.).

Each person is considered a unique individual, rather than simply an example of a particular disease. Disease is understood as the result of physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and environmental imbalance. Healing is seen as taking place naturally when these aspects of life are brought into proper balance. The role of the practitioner is as guide, mentor, and role model. The patient must do the work — changing their lifestyle, beliefs, and old habits — in order to facilitate healing (Frequently Asked Questions, 2009).

Ancient healing traditions in India and China stressed living a healthy way of life in harmony with nature. Socrates warned against treating only one part of the body, arguing that a part can never be well unless the whole is well. Although the term holism was introduced by Jan Christian Smuts in 1926 as a way of viewing living things as entities greater than and different from the sum of their parts, it was not until the 1970s that holistic became a common adjective in modern vocabulary (Walter, n.d.).

Scientific medical advances have created a dramatic shift in the concept of health. Germs have been identified as outside sources that cause disease, and gaining health has become a process of killing microscopic invaders with synthesized drugs. People have come to believe that they can get away with unhealthy lifestyle choices and that modern medicine will fix problems as they develop. Yet for some conditions, medical cures have proven more harmful than the disease itself, and many chronic conditions do not respond to modern medical treatments. In looking for other options, people are turning to the holistic approach to health and healing. The holistic health lifestyle is regaining popularity each year, as its principles offer practical options to meet the growing desire for high levels of vitality and well-being (Walter, n.d.).

Core Principles of Holistic Health

Holistic health is based on the law of nature that a whole is made up of mutually supporting parts. A person is a whole made up of interdependent parts — the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. When one part is not functioning well, it impacts all other parts of that person. The whole person is also constantly interacting with everything in the surrounding environment. When an individual is anxious about something, that nervousness may result in a physical reaction such as a headache or a stomachache. When people suppress anger over a long period of time, they often develop a serious illness such as migraine headaches, emphysema, or even arthritis (Walter, n.d.).

The main beliefs of holistic health hold that health is more than simply the absence of sickness. A common way to view wellness is as a continuum along a line representing all possible levels of health. The far left end of the line represents early death, while the far right end represents the highest possible level of wellness, or maximum well-being. The center of the line represents a lack of disease. All levels of illness fall on the left half of the wellness continuum, while the right half demonstrates that even when no illness seems to be present, there is still considerable room for improvement. Holistic health is seen as an ongoing process requiring a personal commitment to move toward the right end of the wellness continuum. No matter what a person's current state of health, they can improve their level of well-being, and even when there are temporary setbacks, movement should always be directed toward greater wellness (Walter, n.d.).

The bulk of illnesses and premature deaths can be traced back to lifestyle choices. There are many well-known dangers connected with drugs, alcohol, nicotine, and unprotected sexual activity. Less familiar is the impact of excesses in things like sugar, caffeine, and negative attitudes. These factors, combined with deficiencies in exercise, nutritious foods, and self-esteem, gradually accumulate harmful effects. Over time they diminish the quality of the internal environment of a human being and can set the stage for illness to take hold (Walter, n.d.).

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that the key factors influencing an individual's state of health have not changed significantly over the past 20 years. Quality of medical care accounts for 10%, heredity for 18%, and environment for 19%. Everyday lifestyle choices make up 53%. The decisions that people make about their life and habits are therefore, by far, the largest factor in determining their state of wellness (Walter, n.d.).

The most obvious choices people make each day surround what they consume — both physically and mentally. The cells in a person's body are constantly being replaced with new ones, and new cells are built from what is available. A lack of necessary building blocks can result in imperfect cells that are unable to maintain health. On the non-physical level, a person's mental attitude is shaped by what they see and hear (Walter, n.d.).

While preventing illness is important, the main focus of holistic health is on reaching higher levels of wellness. The right half of the wellness continuum involves constantly exploring what everyday actions work for a person and discovering what moves them toward maximum well-being. People are motivated by how good it feels to have energy and enthusiasm for life, and by the knowledge that their daily choices will support that vitality for years to come (Walter, n.d.).

When an illness or chronic condition does present itself, the holistic approach to healing goes beyond merely eliminating surface symptoms. In holistic medicine, a symptom is considered a sign that something needs attention — a guide for looking below the surface to identify the root cause of the problem, so that the real issue can be addressed. Holistic health strives to reach higher levels of wellness while preventing illness, and people are motivated to continue this process throughout their lives as they experience the benefits of positive lifestyle changes (Walter, n.d.).

A holistic practitioner:

1. Views the patient as being ultimately responsible for his or her own well-being.

2. Fosters and maintains a partnership with the patient, using therapies with which both feel comfortable and that are effective.

3. Evaluates and recommends treatment options that address the cause of an illness, along with its symptoms.

The holistic practitioner will choose or recommend from a variety of both conventional and alternative treatments and therapies. The practitioner and the patient often work together to develop an optimal course of treatment. This partnership is a powerful approach to healing and is the foundation of the holistic philosophy (Frequently Asked Questions, 2009).

Complementary and alternative therapies are those not considered mainstream and not normally offered by conventional medical personnel. These include nutrition, herbal medicine, spinal manipulation, bodywork medicine, energy medicine, spiritual attunement, relaxation training, stress management, biofeedback, and acupuncture. This list is constantly changing as more research becomes available. As therapies demonstrate effectiveness and safety, they become part of conventional medicine (Frequently Asked Questions, 2009).