The difference between alternative medicine and holistic health is whether it’s used correctly

That's right, the relationship between the two is never black and white in nature. The core difference lies in whether the premise used is correct and whether the scene is reasonable.

I have seen many medical science bloggers criticize alternative therapies as pseudoscience and saying that they have nothing to do with overall health. This is actually only half right - if you take those herbal medicines that claim to "can cure cancer" and acupuncture classes that "can lower blood sugar without taking medicine" to completely replace formal treatment, then this is not called alternative therapy, it is murderous. Of course, it is nothing like the overall health that emphasizes all-dimensional care. Two years ago, I dealt with a patient with type 2 diabetes. When he was first diagnosed, he found it troublesome to take medicine, so he secretly stopped metformin, bought nearly 10,000 yuan of "natural hypoglycemia," and followed a so-called therapist to fast and detoxify. He went to the emergency room for ketoacidosis in half a month. This is a typical example of using alternative therapies in the wrong place.

But what if we use it differently? I am still a diabetic. After I was discharged from the hospital, I followed the doctor’s instructions to take anti-diabetic drugs and control carbohydrates. At the same time, I found a regular nutritionist to adjust my diet. In my spare time, I followed the community health team to play Baduanjin. Even the white wine I drank for more than 20 years was replaced by a small cup of warm rice wine every day. After more than half a year, my blood sugar was stable and the same as that of normal people. The fatigue and numbness in my hands and feet that I often suffered before were mostly relieved. Do you think Baduanjin and dietary conditioning are considered alternative therapies? Of course it counts, but when used in the right place, it is an important part of overall health management.

To put it bluntly, it is actually like the spices you use for cooking, and alternative medicine is like that bottle of vine pepper oil. If you have to pour half the bottle to make tomato scrambled eggs, then the food you make will definitely be inedible. If you add two drops when making cold dishes, it will improve the freshness a lot. Overall health never requires you to use only one type of method, but to first grasp the main contradictions - when you should have surgery, when you should take medicine, and then choose safe and suitable supplementary methods to help your body recover faster and more comfortably. Of course, this does not mean that all alternative therapies can be used. Those who have not even done basic safety verification and claim to be "a cure-all", no matter how mysterious they are, just avoid them. After all, the core premise of overall health is always to ensure safety first, and then talk about improvement.