Understanding what holistic medicine is:

Holistic Medicine is a wellness-based approach to medicine. It emphasizes the need to look at the whole person, including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, social, spiritual and lifestyle values. It encompasses all stated modalities of diagnosis and treatment including drugs and surgery if no safe alternative exists. Holistic medicine focuses on education and responsibility for personal efforts to achieve balance and well-being.

How it works

Within the wellness model, health care practitioners examine a patient's body, mind, and spirit. When assessing the body, practitioners review a patient's nutritional status, exercise level, and environmental exposures (to such substances as radiation, plastics, chemicals, pollution, and tobacco).

When assessing the mind, health care practitioners discuss the mind-body connection. For example, the well-established