The difference between alternative medicine and holistic health is

The core difference between alternative therapy and overall health is essentially the distinction between "technique" and "Tao" - the former is a set of specific intervention methods that are used to replace conventional evidence-based medical methods and have not been fully verified by the mainstream medical system, while the latter is a health cognitive logic that treats people as a complete system with linked physical, psychological, and social attributes, rather than a combination of isolated lesions. The two occasionally overlap at the application level, but they are completely different from the underlying attributes to the applicable boundaries.

I met the 38-year-old Sister Zhang in a health management studio two years ago. She had grade 3 breast nodules. She was supposed to follow the doctor's instructions for a reexamination every six months. But I came across the content of a health blogger who said that drinking cold-pressed fruit and vegetable juice + doing lymphatic detoxification massage every week can "overall regulate and dissipate knots" without having to go to the hospital to suffer. She really stopped the re-examination and drank fruit and vegetable juice for half a year. However, when she went for a physical examination again, the nodule had reached 4a, and she needed a puncture to check the risk of malignant transformation. Until she was sitting outside the clinic, she was still muttering: “Am I not practicing holistic health? Why is it getting more serious? ”

It’s not her fault for being confused. There are too many businesses selling health products and non-medical interventions on the market today. They like to use “holistic health” as a guise to subsidize their alternative therapies, which makes the water very muddy.

In fact, the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCIH) under the National Institutes of Health has long given a clear definition: All interventions that have not yet been incorporated into the mainstream evidence-based medical system can be classified into this category, which can be divided into two types: "complementary" and "alternative" - ​​if it is used in conjunction with conventional medical treatment, such as using acupuncture to relieve nausea after chemotherapy, or patients with chronic pain taking painkillers while doing mindfulness relaxation, this is called complementary therapy, which is reasonable in itself.； Only when such methods are claimed to be able to completely replace conventional diagnosis and treatment, such as "treating diabetes with moxibustion without insulin" or "treating tumors with herbal medicine without surgery," are they truly alternative therapies, and they are also the most risky category. Of course, there are also many supporters of alternative therapies who believe that mainstream medicine focuses too much on local lesions and ignores people’s overall feelings. This type of intervention can solve many functional problems that cannot be solved by conventional medical treatment. This view does have a certain basis in reality, provided that the safety red line of “not replacing conventional diagnosis and treatment” is not exceeded.

Many people think that overall health is a new health concept that has been hyped in recent years. In fact, it is not. It is essentially the folk expression of the "bio-psycho-social" medical model promoted by mainstream medicine. To give you the simplest example, if you go to the general clinic to see high blood pressure, a responsible doctor will not just prescribe antihypertensive drugs and send you away. He will ask you if you have stayed up late and worked overtime every day recently? Do you eat takeaways that are high in fat and salt every day? Is there anything at home that makes you angry every day? These factors that may not seem to be directly related to blood pressure are precisely the core of overall health concerns: a person is not a machine whose parts can be replaced if they break. Changes in mood, diet, and social relationships will be directly reflected in physiological indicators. When I was following a family doctor in the community for chronic disease follow-up, I met an old man who had been suffering from type 2 diabetes for 12 years. He was deceived by a health product seller. He stopped taking metformin and took "all-natural conditioning capsules", and his blood sugar soared to 18 in half a month. When his children took him to the hospital, he insisted, "I am doing holistic conditioning, which is better than taking Western medicine to damage the liver and kidneys." Later, we gave him health management and did not ask him to stop taking western medicine at all. We only changed the combination of his three meals and asked him to take a half-hour walk with his old friend after meals every day. He also played chess with us in the community activity room two days a week to relieve his emotions. After three months, his dosage was reduced by a quarter, and his fasting blood sugar stabilized at around 6. He patted his thigh and said, "It turns out that the real overall conditioning is not to prevent me from taking medicine at all, but to make me feel more comfortable while taking medicine."

Of course, there is a lot of controversy between academic circles and the public about these two concepts. There is a group of conservative clinicians who believe that holistic health is pseudoscience and a cover for alternative therapies. This is actually a big prejudice - now the chronic disease management department, general practice, and psychosomatic medicine department of domestic tertiary hospitals all use the holistic health idea for daily diagnosis and treatment, which is not metaphysics at all. There is also a group of loyal fans of alternative therapies who feel that the conditioning methods they use are everything to overall health. This actually confuses the tools with the underlying logic: holistic health is the idea that guides you in how to choose health intervention methods, and alternative therapies are only one of the optional tools, and they must be used within a safe boundary.

In fact, ordinary people don’t have to worry about the precise definitions of these terms. Remembering two simple judgment criteria will basically prevent you from getting into trouble: If someone tells you, “Don’t go to the hospital, don’t take Western medicine, use my method to cure the disease,” no matter how hyped they are about “holistic conditioning” and “natural and harmless”, they are all deceptive alternative therapies.； If someone tells you, "First follow the doctor's instructions and get the treatment you need, and then we can work together to adjust your eating habits and improve your overall condition." Regardless of whether the word "overall health" is used or not, it is a serious health management idea. After all, when we are engaged in health care, we are aiming for peace of mind and stability. The most important thing is not to get caught up in fancy terms.