Holistic medicine is a doctrine of preventive and therapeutic medicine that emphasizes the necessity of looking at the whole person—his body, mind, emotions, and environment—rather than at an isolated function or organ and which promotes the use of a wide range of health practices and therapies. It has especially come to stress responsibility for “self-healing,” or “self-care,” by observing the traditional commonsense essentials of exercise, healthful diet, adequate sleep, good air, moderation in personal habits, and so forth.

The term holistic medicine became especially fashionable in the late 20th century (the International Association of Holistic Health Practitioners was founded in 1970, assuming its current holistic name in 1981). In its underlying philosophy, in emphasizing the provision of whole care to a person or patient, holistic medicine is not new, being inseparable from any traditional health care of good quality. Holistic medicine in extreme instances, however, has tended to equate the validity of a wide range of schools or approaches to health care, not all of them compatible and some of them competitive, some scientific and some unscientific. Although mainstream Western medical practices are not ignored, they are seen as only one part of the available therapies and by no means the only effective ones. Congresses and conferences on holistic health have thus drawn notonly representatives of medical schools and institutions but also advocates of such widely varying concepts as acupuncture, alternative childbirth, astrology, biofeedback, chiropractic, faith healing, graphology, homeopathy, macrobiotics, megavitamintherapy, naturopathy, numerology, nutrition, osteopathy, psychocalisthenics, psychotherapy, self-massage, shiatsu (or acupressure), touch encounter, and yoga.

Homeopathy (Encyclopedia Britannica 2004)

Homoeopathy, a system of therapeutics, notably popular in the 19th century, which was founded on the stated principle that “like cures like,” similia similibus curantur, and which prescribed for patients drugs or other treatments that would produce in healthy persons symptoms of the diseases being treated.

This system of therapeutics based upon the “law of similars” was introduced in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann (q.v.). He claimed that a large dose of quinine, which had been widely used for the successful treatment of malaria, produced in him effects similar to the symptoms of malaria patients. He thus concluded that all diseases were best treated by drugs that produced in healthy persons effects similar to the symptoms of those diseases. He also undertook experiments with a variety of drugs in an effort to prove this. Hahnemann believed that large doses of drugs aggravate illness and that the efficacy of medicines thus increases with dilution. Accordingly, most homeopathists believed in the action of minute doses of medicine.

To many patients and some physicians, homeopathy was a mild, welcome alternative to bleeding, purging, polypharmacy, and other heavy-handed therapies of the day. In the 20th century, however, homeopathy has been viewed with little favour and has been criticized for focusing on the symptoms rather than on the underlying causes of disease. Homeopathy still has some adherents, and there are a number of national and international societies, including the International Homoeopathic Medical League, headquartered in Bloemendaal, Neth.

Naturopathy

Osteopathy (Encyclopedia Britannica 2004)

Osteopathy is a health care profession that emphasizes the relationship between the musculoskeletal structure and organ function. Osteopathic physicians develop skill in recognizing and correcting structural problems through manipulative therapy and other treatments.

Osteopathic medicine began in the United States in the 19th century as a reform movement against the then rather primitive armamentarium of drugs and surgical techniques. The founder, Andrew Taylor Still, developed a system of osteopathic medicine in reaction to the conditions and types of treatment that he observed while serving as an army physician during the American Civil War.

After failing to persuade various medical schools to incorporate his ideas into their teachings, Still established a new medical school in 1892 in Kirksville, Mo., where he began conferring the doctor of osteopathy degree (D.O.) upon those physicians who adhered to his concepts of medicine. Still's emphasis on treating the whole man has remained an ideal of the profession.

Osteopathic medicine still has its main base in the United States. Canadian osteopathic physicians have received their training in the United States, and osteopathic medicine in the British Isles is in part a form of postgraduate specialization by holders of the M.D. degree. Most osteopathic physicians who practice elsewhere in the world have also been trained in the United States.

General osteopathic hospitals provide health care of all kinds, and specialty-oriented hospitals include maternity centres, proctology clinics, arthritis centres, emergency clinics, and alcoholism and drug-abuse centres. In the United States, osteopathic institutions are accredited by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), and most are members of the American Osteopathic Hospital Association.

Professional education leading to the degree of doctor of osteopathy is similar to that for doctors of medicine. The four years ofosteopathic medical education cover the basic sciences and clinical work, with emphasis on the importance of body mechanics and the relationship of body structure to function.

In Great Britain there are two schools of osteopathic medicine. Entrants to the British School of Osteopathy require only a secondary-school education, and their four-year course is limited to manipulative therapy and diagnosis. Upon graduation, their practice is limited to these areas. The London College of Osteopathy limits its entrants to those who possess the M.D. degree, and the 14-month course is meant to be a postgraduate training that stresses the musculoskeletal system and manipulative therapy. Graduates are accepted into the British system of socialized medicine and have unlimited practice rights.

Osteopathic physicians are licensed to practice medicine in all states of the United States and have the same professional rights and responsibilities as do holders of the M.D. degree in most states. In most cases, physicians of both schools of medical practicetake their examinations before a medical licensing board composed of both doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathy. In other countries, regulation of the practice of osteopathy varies greatly.

Osteopathic research studies include anatomy and function of nerve-and-muscle junctions, transmission of nervous impulses, somatic reflex functions, renal (kidney) growth and function, and blood-flow dynamics. There are also clinical studies of structural findings in hospitalized patients, the effects of manipulation under anesthesia for specific orthopedic problems, the effect of osteopathic manipulation on hypertension, and management of chronic obstructive lung disease by regular medical means, with and without osteopathic manipulation.

Chiropractic

Chiropractic is a system of healing based on the theory that disease in the human body results from a lack of normal nerve function. Chiropractors employ treatment by manipulation and specific adjustment of body structures, such as the spinal column, and use physical therapy when necessary. Chiropractors thus are concerned with the relationship between the musculoskeletal structures and functions of the body and the nervous system in the restoration and maintenance of health. The chiropractic method was founded in 1895 by an Iowa merchant, D.D. Palmer, who reportedly cured deafness in one individual by realigning a misaligned vertebrae. Doctors of chiropractic are trained in and through accredited chiropractic colleges. Procedures include the adjustment and manipulation of the articulations and adjacent tissues of the human body, particularly of the spinal column, and sometimes related therapies such as heat therapy, traction, and nutrition counseling.