Differences and connections between alternative therapies and holistic health

The two are neither subordinate nor antagonistic - alternative therapy is a collection of non-standardized interventions that are opposed to mainstream modern medicine, while holistic health is the underlying logic of health management that treats people as complete systems.； The former can become a landing tool for the latter, while the latter delineates a safe and effective application boundary for the former. The core attributes of the two are completely different, but they often complement each other in practice.

Last month I went to Hangzhou to attend a small salon of natural medicine practitioners. There was almost a quarrel at the scene - a 62-year-old aunt present said that she had a lumbar disc herniation and Western medicine recommended minimally invasive surgery. She was afraid of the sequelae, so she did moxibustion twice a week for three months. Bone-setting, combined with standing on the Hunyuan Zhuang for half an hour every day, I also changed my previous habit of staying up until midnight every day to play mahjong. I even made an appointment with my wife, who I had been arguing with for half a life, to take a walk together after dinner every day. The protruding part from the recent X-ray has actually shrunk, and my waist no longer hurts. Some people slapped the table and said that alternative therapies are more effective than Western medicine. Others rolled their eyes and said that this is obviously due to the overall health concept. What does moxibustion have to do with it?

In fact, the source of the quarrel between the two sides is that these two concepts are confused. Let’s talk about alternative therapies first. It is essentially a classification of “tool attributes”: as long as it is an intervention method that has not been verified by large-scale evidence-based medicine and has not been included in the mainstream modern medical routine diagnosis and treatment system, whether it is acupuncture and massage of traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda oil therapy in India, homeopathy and aromatherapy in Europe and the United States, or sound therapy and crystal therapy that have become popular in recent years, they are all included in the category of alternative therapies. This classification itself is controversial: evidence-based doctors always say that 90% of alternative therapies are as effective as placebos, and even have many safety risks. For example, last year I saw someone believe in folk remedies and eat raw fish gallbladder to treat internal heat, and they were admitted to the ICU for liver and kidney failure. ； But in turn, many patients suffering from chronic diseases will come forward and say that for many problems that mainstream medicine cannot cure, such as chronic pain, menstrual syndrome, and anxiety, appropriate alternative therapies are indeed useful. To put it bluntly, alternative therapy is a basket, and any non-mainstream tools can be put into it. There is no right or wrong in itself, only the difference between whether it is suitable or not, and whether it is reliable or not.

Completely different from the "tool classification" of alternative therapies, holistic health is fundamentally a way of thinking. To put it in layman’s terms, we don’t treat people like a broken washing machine, replacing which part is broken, but treat people as a complete system with living habits, emotional state, and social relationships: If you have insomnia and you can’t prescribe sleeping pills when you get up, you must first check whether you are under a lot of stress every day, whether you always drink iced coffee for dinner, whether you have conflicts with family members, and whether you live in a street that is noisy at night. When all these factors are combined to find a solution, it is called overall health. I know a doctor who practices functional medicine. He treated a girl with severe anxiety. She took anti-anxiety drugs for half a year and still collapsed at every turn. In addition to adjusting the formula of dietary supplements, he also gave additional medical instructions: "Go to the park to dance three times a week, no looking at mobile phones, hang out with your best friends for two days a month, and no talking about work." Do you think he is using mainstream therapy or alternative therapy? He doesn't dwell on this at all. In his eyes, it's never about "curing anxiety", but "getting this girl's entire state back on track." This is a typical overall health approach.

Going back to the example of the aunt at the beginning, can you now understand the relationship between the two? It is true that the moxibustion she uses for bone-setting is an alternative therapy, but if she still sits at the mahjong table until midnight every day, or quarrels with her wife every day and gets angry, even if she does moxibustion for 24 hours a day, it will be useless. In fact, she accidentally stepped on the logic of overall health and regarded alternative therapies as one of the tools to regulate the body, instead of betting all her hopes on moxibustion. To put it bluntly, alternative therapy is the claw hammer in your toolbox, and overall health is the master plan for decorating your house. Where to hit with the hammer, when to hit, and whether it can be hit, you have to follow the drawing. You can't hold a hammer and everything looks like a nail. What’s interesting is that many businesses selling alternative therapy products nowadays always like to change the concept, saying that using their moxa sticks and drinking their enzymes means practicing overall health. In essence, they are holding a hammer and saying that they can decorate and just cut leeks. I have also seen something even more outrageous: someone who had bacterial pneumonia did not prescribe antibiotics, smoked essential oils and drank herbal water at home every day, and finally went to the emergency room with a fever of 40 degrees. This is because they did not understand: the premise of overall health is to first understand the priority of the problem. When it is time to use mainstream medical treatment, do not force alternative treatments. Alternative treatments can only work within appropriate boundaries.

There are actually several factions in the industry regarding the relationship between the two: Supporters of traditional Chinese medicine always say that traditional Chinese medicine itself is a "holistic therapy." In fact, they link the holistic view of traditional Chinese medicine with the modern concept of overall health. In essence, they mean that the intervention methods of traditional Chinese medicine are originally designed to serve the overall adjustment.； Strict evidence-based scholars believe that alternative therapies should not be used as long as they are not verified. Regardless of whether they are consistent with overall health logic, safety is the first priority. ； There are also a group of middle-of-the-road practitioners, such as many rehabilitation doctors I know, who will recommend patients to practice mindfulness and Baduanjin in addition to regular rehabilitation training. Their logic is very simple: it doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, the one that can help patients get better quickly and without side effects is a good cat, as long as it does not cross the line.

At the end of the quarrel in the salon last time, it was the aunt who made everyone laugh with one sentence: "What's the point of you scholars arguing? I don’t care if it’s a replacement or a whole package. It can help me avoid back pain, walk around, eat and sleep. It doesn’t do any harm, isn’t it? 」In fact, if you think about it, we don't have to make the two black and white, nor do we need to forcefully bind the two. No matter how many tools you have in your toolbox, whether it’s pills from Western medicine, moxibustion from traditional Chinese medicine, or aromatherapy from Internet celebrities, as long as you see the complete person in your eyes instead of a painful part or an excessive indicator, you have already touched the edge of overall health. Oh, by the way, one final reminder: If you really get an emergency or serious illness, go to a regular hospital to see a mainstream doctor first, and don’t blindly try alternative treatments. This is the bottom line.