What is the difference between alternative medicine and holistic health

The core difference between the two is that they are not in the same dimension at all - alternative therapy is a specific set of intervention methods, while overall health is an underlying logic that views health and guides health decisions. Many people will bind or even confuse the two. The essence is to confuse "what method to use to intervene" and "what way to think about health."

You will understand if you talk about a scenario that everyone can encounter. For example, if an elderly person at home is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, he immediately stops the anti-diabetic drugs prescribed by the doctor, drinks only water boiled with "natural anti-diabetic grass" every day, and regularly undergoes the so-called "sugar metabolism energy dredging". This is an alternative therapy, which completely replaces standard treatment with unconventional medical methods. But if this old man follows the doctor's instructions and takes anti-diabetic drugs on time, checks his blood sugar regularly, adjusts his diet with a nutritionist, takes half an hour a day to square dance, and enrolls in a community calligraphy class to relieve the anxiety caused by his previous illness, the whole plan takes into account physiological treatment, exercise intervention, and emotional regulation. This is a typical practice of holistic health thinking. The whole process does not negate conventional treatment, but takes care of all health-related dimensions.

There are indeed many blurred boundaries in the industry. Many promoters of alternative therapies will package their products as "holistic health solutions." In fact, the boundaries here are very clear: if it is based on standardized treatment, supplementary therapies that have been safely verified, such as those from formal institutions, Integrating acupuncture, mindfulness meditation, and exercise rehabilitation can help patients achieve a better quality of life. This is actually in line with the idea of overall health. Now many oncology departments, pain departments, and rehabilitation departments in tertiary hospitals also do this kind of integration. Many patients have reported that it can indeed alleviate the side effects of treatment. However, if we directly deny the role of standardized medical treatment, promote unproven alternative therapies as a "root-level" overall health plan, and advise patients to stop medication and treatment, then it is complete pseudoscience. Two years ago, I came into contact with a breast cancer patient who gave up chemotherapy and drank the so-called "anti-cancer herbal juice". In less than three months, distant metastasis appeared. When he returned to the hospital, he missed the best opportunity for intervention. In the final analysis, he was fooled by the concept of sneak exchange.

To put it bluntly, overall health is more like the overall design of your house decoration. It will remind you to take into account all dimensions of lighting, waterproofing, circulation, and storage. You can't just focus on the beautiful background wall of the living room; and alternative therapy is only one of the decoration materials you can choose. You can't just take a famous Internet tile and say it is the entire decoration design, right?

Nowadays, the mainstream public health field in the world actually advocates the idea of ​​holistic health and is also promoting the implementation of integrative medicine. However, it has always been clear about alternative therapies that have no evidence-based basis and may even be harmful to health. If you really want to practice overall health, you don't need to pursue those fancy new concepts. First, you can do the most basic things such as regular physical examinations, following doctor's advice, regular work and rest, and a balanced diet. You will already exceed 80% of people.