Alternative Medicine | Choosing Your Category

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

It can be really confusing if you are debating a change in your health care needs and want to select or change to alternative medicine. How would you know which category of alternative medicine would be most beneficial and suit your requirements? You would need to be careful and understand just what your medical needs are, and then, you would in addition, need a working knowledge of the category and the kind of alternative medicine that would be most effective for your problem.

You will find there are quite a large range of categories of alternative medicine. Many of these different categories were formulated due to the fact that there is no conventional, or allopathic medicine (Western medicine is by and large an allopathic system) cure or treatment for lots of medical anomalies, or anything unusual. therefore many people are looking for something that will help them, maybe not cure them or at least not a complete cure, but a little bit of hope for their health problem. Even for diseases where a cure is sometimes attainable, alternative medicine is occasionally the more dependable option.

With a cancer patient, for instance, there are genuine studies in the research books where many cancer patients who have been through chemotherapy and radiation, and the caring oncologist has told their patient to go home and get all their affairs in order, because there was nothing more that could be done for them. Their are many patients, who have refused to just give up hope, and have turned to alternative medicine that included herbs and/or natural plant substances such as seeds, and in a short period of time, tests disclosed that the cancer was either hugely decreased in size, or had even in some cases completely disappeared. After hearing of testimonials like this, anyone would be silly not to want to attempt using any category of alternative medicine.

In addition, there are some people who would mistrust conventional medicine after an experience like this, and pass their opinions on to other people. Alternative medicine's popularity is growing by leaps and bounds, possibly due in part to bad experiences with allopathic doctors and their role as healers in our society.

Obviously, it is not possible to know how many of the successes with alternative medicine were due not only to the fact that so many categories of alternative medicine are accessible for any illness or disease conceivable, but also as medical doctors and doctors of alternative medicines have actually seen many times, the power of the mind can achieve great healing. While alternative medicine has both the range and the ability to be able to heal, how much of its success is ascribable to the fact that its fans believed they would be made well so powerfully that a virtual miasma of hope came forth from their soul to join with the branches of alternative medicine and induced a healing?

We may never know how much power our minds have when it comes to alternative medicine, however, that alternate medicine does indeed work, and it has for numerous numbers of patients, that in itself is quite sufficient.

Understanding Massage Therapy

Monday, March 30, 2009

We've all heard of massage and many of us have even experienced it, in one form or another. By a masseuse who happened to be an amature, loved one or professional. If the person knew what they were doing, you came away feeling like a million bucks. But what is massage, really!

Massage or massage therapy as it has come to be known in our time, began with the ancient Egyptians, then the Greeks and finally the Romans. Yes these ancient cultures used massage therapy for both healing and pleasure. The science of massage therapy had also spread to other early cultures such as India, China and Japan. The last three went further by integrating it to form an integral part of their systems of medicine and healing.

Massage is the organized form of touch. It is performed by the hands, elbows and forearms gliding over the skin and applying pressure to the underlying muscles by a system of movements. These movements involve stroking, rubbing, pressing and kneading. Massage is not a panacea, but can greatly aid in the normal functions of the body and restore balance as well.

How Massage Works

Massage works by the body responding to the various touch techniques given to it. These touch techniques causes the body to engage in there normal functions. Massage itself, acts like a natural stimuli for the body to respond with positive effects in many different ways. Some of these therapeutic effects are, stimulating the circulation of the blood and lymph, loosening of muscular tension, toning and firming the muscles.

When fibers stop sliding over each other easily, it's most likely the cause of people not getting enough exercise, too much exercise, physical or mental tension. These factors cause the drop of any increase in muscle tone. The waste products from muscular activity, like carbon dioxide, lactic acid and urea, build up in the muscles. Massage therapy fosters drainage of those wastes, therefore restoring there normal functions.

Massage therapy also fosters the drainage of lymph, causing better circulation of the blood. Because of this, the skin looks much better than if drainage was difficult. Why bother with the how the skin looks? Because the appearance of the skin, is usually a good indicator of a persons inner condition. In reference to muscles, massage therapy has a good effect on the fibrous tissue surrounding the joints.

The effects of massage upon the autonomic nervous system gives birth to the feeling of relaxation. How? By stimulating the sensory nerve endings located within the skin, signals are sent to the brain by the central nervous system. This in turn produces the experience of feeling good. Once again because of this action, a new reaction takes place by causing a significant reduction in the body's stress level. When a person is relaxed, abdominal breathing becomes more natural. I can assure you, your abdominal organs appreciate this. It's quite clear that the nervous system plays a crucial role in massage therapy. It's also responsible for the vascular system, since it controls it. A decrease in efficient drainage and supply of blood, is caused by a reduction of vascular.

Massage works by reducing stress, managing the body's waste products, fostering normal bodily functions, providing a sense of well being and boosting mental health.

The Logic of Massage

The gradual development of massage therapy into a full blown art and science can be determined as only logical. When we fall, bruise or sustain any sort of physical injury, we usually tend to touch it. Even if that act produces no form of healing solution, or does it? Touch in itself is very comforting to us. It reassures us, make us feel loved and accepted. Whenever someone is in pain, we tend to want to hug, hold or touch that person in someway. Somehow sensing that the very act of physical contact will contribute to the overall holistic health of the person. Guess what? You are correct in that assumption.

Studies have shown that, touching among other comforting and intimate contact, does assist in the overall recovery and health of a person. Whether that person is in need of physical, mental, emotional or spiritual healing or comfort. In looking at the big picture, I see massage therapy continuing to play an important role in human history for a long time to come. What are you waiting for, join the minions.