Living A Holistic Lifestyle

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Many are turning away from Western medicine to embrace a more holistic lifestyle and finding health practitioners that align with this philosophy. Holistic doctors, dentists and therapists realize that people are not just diseases or symptoms but complex individuals in which everything is connected.

Holistic Dentistry

Although dental cavities are common and are treated regularly at most dental offices, holistic dentists do not see cavities as a normal event. Holistic dentists are concerned with the bigger picture and not just cavities.

One thing they concentrate on is balancing mouth bacteria. If your mouth is overrun with harmful bacteria, chances are the rest of your body is too. Holistic dentists also remove old fillings made of mercury and replace them with a neutral and safe material. Once considered completely safe, in actuality, mercury poisoning from old fillings is very serious and can affect every area of your body.

In holistic dentistry root canal procedures are rarely performed since they can cause infections that later become inflammation throughout the body. Instead, a holistic dentist would plan to remove the tooth instead of performing the root canal and covering it with a crown. That could eventually happen anyway since many root canals fail or cause infection. Also, leakage can occur under a crown causing decay in what is left of the original tooth.

Options after tooth removal include implants and bridges. The focus of holistic dentistry is on keeping the whole body safe with minimally invasive procedures.

Additionally, a holistic dentist will not provide or encourage the use of products containing fluoride. Although common, fluoride is now considered a neurotoxin and should not be used regularly in your mouth.

Holistic Medicine

Holistic doctors do not completely turn their backs on Western (or traditional) medicine but only use it in combination with other more natural things like herbs.

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Remembering that holistic means caring for the whole person, a holistic medical practitioner will not see you as your disease or injury. Instead, they will think about your current symptoms and how they relate to everything else about you including your spiritual and emotional aspects.

Since it’s very common for physical ailments to be caused by emotional issues, a holistic doctor will ask about that and may suggest therapy to improve physical symptoms. Likewise, emotional issues can be caused by things like chronic pain.

Typically, in Western medicine, many pills are prescribed and many invasive procedures are considered necessary. Holistic medicine prefers a more gentle approach: supplements and herbs with few or no side effects and non-traditional treatments before surgery.

Holistic practitioners may prescribe teas, herbal capsules and other non-prescription drugs. They might also encourage activities like meditation and yoga that can help bring the body back into balance.

There are also many hands-on therapies commonly approved by holistic practitioners. They can include reiki, which directs healing warmth into the area of concern. More commonly known healing techniques include acupuncture, massage, chiropractic adjustments and craniosacral therapy in which the practitioner doesn’t do the healing but encourages the body to heal itself.

Unfortunately, insurance companies are, in effect, encouraging patients to go the more traditional route by paying in part or in full for prescriptions, invasive tests and surgeries while not covering such treatments as reiki. This means that wealthier patients currently have many more choices for their treatment than those who rely on insurance to cover medical expenses.

Discouraged by prescription drug side-effects and the tendency in Western medicine to immediately decide that invasive procedures are necessary, many people are turning to a gentler form of care. Taking every aspect of a person into account before treatment plans are made makes sense because health issues do not happen in a vacuum.

Encouragingly, many traditional medical centers are now including such services as massage and chiropractic treatments. In time, alternative holistic methods should become completely accepted by both the traditional medical community and insurance companies so patients will have more choice.