Alternative Medical Treatments Blog » Art

Meditating On Alternative Therapy

Andrew — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:44:40 +0000

The list of alternative therapies that are not readily or legitimately recognized by the medical community is long. Most members of traditional medical organizations like the American Medical Association would never recommend treatments like herbal therapy, homeopathy, or acupuncture to their patients. But what is surprising is that in recent years more and more traditional medical practitioners have pushed their patients to practice meditation.

Meditation is recommended to a very wide variety of patients suffering from any number of symptoms and illnesses. For example, patients with chronic pain from severe illnesses like cancer or arthritis often will practice meditation to alter the brain’s perception of pain. Patients with emotional disorders, like Generalized Anxiety Disorder, are often prescribed meditation as a way to calm the mind during severe anxiety attacks. Other benefits of meditation are heightened self-awareness and observation as well as relaxation and concentration.

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Light Therapy as an Acne Treatment

Andrew — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:45:29 +0000

For those with severe acne problems, there are limited treatments. Some dermatologists prescribe certain acne drugs or acne facial soaps or other external treatments. But many dermatologists have taken to using blue light or red light therapies to treat acne.

Besides these two types of light, sunlight is the best acne treatment; but the UVA and UVB rays in sunlight are extremely damaging to the skin, especially during prolonged exposure. Since artificial UV didn’t work as well as real sunlight, blue and red visible rays were found to be effective and safer. These two lights actually have the ability to destroy the bacteria that cause acne in the skin. The prescribed therapy is generally 3 days of exposure; this can get rid of almost all (99.9%) of the bacteria in the skin. The only real precaution dermatologists need to take with this treatment is appropriate eye protection.

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Let the Sunshine in

Andrew — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:34:09 +0000

The number of diagnosed and treated cases of depression and seasonal affective disorder has grown over the last few years. This has, of course, brought about the development of new treatments for all types of depression. One of the newer alternative depression treatments is light therapy. The use of “light boxes”, which provide 10,000 lux of artificial light, not only has been proven to help persons with Seasonal Affective Disorder, but recently they have been shown to help all types of depression.

Though these light boxes do not cause any skin damage the way other types of light therapies � like ultraviolet light therapies � do, there has still been research into other types of light therapy for depression. The use of blue light to treat depression is just as effective as the use of light boxes for younger patients; however, it is not effective in older patients.

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Yoga as a Religious Principle

Andrew — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:46:17 +0000

Yoga is commonly known in the western world as a method of exercise. However, yoga in fact takes its root in a much different place. Yoga actually began as a part of the Hindu religion, one of the major religions practiced in India. India is, of course, where yoga really began. Yoga is defined in the Hindu religion as being closely related to asceticism and meditation. The practice of yoga actually does teach meditation in some form, even in its practice in the west.

In western countries like the United States yoga is more of a forms of exercise than it is a practice of religion. Yoga involves movements and poses that strengthen the body as well as bringing a meditative quality to the mind. There are several different types of yoga commonly practiced in the United States, especially Hatha Yoga.

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Aromatherapy: Aromatic Blending and Therapeutic Blending

Andrew — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:58:26 +0000

While the term “aromatherapy” technically refers to the use of essential oils and plant extracts to produce a therapeutic effect in a person, many people enjoy blending essential oils simply for their fragrances. Blending for fragrance is a wonderful idea, but the blender should be aware of the therapeutic uses of the oils he or she wants to use. Using oils that are contraindicated for the person’s physical or emotional issues can produce a problematic response.

The same is true in blending essential oils for therapeutic use. Beginning blenders should use established recipes for the problems they are trying to fix, and should not attempt to blend their own recipes until they have adequate experience. When blending for fragrance, it is also important to remember that duplication of manufactured fragrances is not possible as manufacturers use artificial chemicals in their scents and perfumes.

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Music Therapy and Your Emotional Wellbeing

Andrew — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:30:24 +0000

Besides its vast uses as a method of pain control by cancer patients and other people who suffer from chronic painful health conditions, music therapy can also be used for the treatment of emotional disorders. There has been particular use of music therapy in the treatment of mental disorders like anxiety and even in dementia patients, a disease that causes both mental and physical symptoms.

Dementia is not the only disease treated with music therapy because of its multiple effect symptoms; cancer patients often experience a great deal of anxiety, and their symptoms are often relieved, if only briefly, by music therapy. It is important to remember that music therapy is never the sole treatment prescribed to treat any disorder, emotional or physical; however, since the therapy doesn’t work against traditional therapies, it is safe to use in conjunction with them.

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Therapeutic Processes in Art Therapy

Andrew — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:42:33 +0000

Art therapists, like other therapists, use several different therapeutic processes to analyze and treat emotional problems in their patients. Unlike other therapists, however, art therapists‘ have therapeutic techniques that center on having the patient create and interpret art pieces. This can help the patient gain personal insight as well as help them to address personal issues.

Some of the techniques used are interpreted by the art therapist instead of the student. In these techniques, the patient’s art is analyzed according to the colors, shapes and designs used. Some techniques are used to determine the current psychological state of the patient; these techniques generally involve the patient choosing geometric shapes and then recreating them. Other techniques involve the patient drawing specific pictures and then explaining the pictures; these techniques give the art therapist clues to the personality of the patient.

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Healing Your Body Naturally: Starting at the Bottom

Andrew — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:31:13 +0000

For most things in life, be it a work project, a school assignment, or a home repair task, the best thing to do is to start at the top and work your way down. This usually ensures that everything will get done one time and correctly. Unfortunately, this is not that way that body cleansing should work. The best thing to do when you begin detoxifying your body is to start at the bottom.

Cleansing the colon is the beginning of the long process of detoxification. This is because the colon can become built up, or even backed up, with waste. And if no waste is leaving the body, you body is not cleaning itself properly. After you have used a colon cleansing method recommended by a professional natural health practitioner, you can build up your immune system and internal organs with a natural food diet.

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Types of Yoga Practice

Andrew — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:41:55 +0000

While many people think that there is only one type of yoga practice, there are actually quite a few. Some of these include Hatha yoga, Vinyasa yoga, Ashtanga yoga, and Bikram yoga. Each is unique in how they are practiced, though many teachers integrate the techniques of each into classes.

Hatha yoga is the general type of yoga done at a slow pace. If you are a beginner, this is a good place to start. Vinyasa yoga uses poses called sun salutations that are used in conjunction with breathing. Ashtanga yoga is a little more physical in that is uses coordinated patterns of repeating poses that are done in continual movement. Bikram yoga is also called hot yoga because it is performed in a very warm room; this stimulates sweating to cleanse the body and also helps to loosen tense muscles.

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Reflexology and Stress Relief

Andrew — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:54:05 +0000

While it is debatable in the professional medical community whether or not reflexology actually helps to heal the body and to cure or treat diseases, there is one that that is fairly safe to say about the practice: reflexology does provide stress relief. Most of the body’s stress is begun and held in the hands and feet. As a result, tension in these places results in tension in other parts of the body.

Reflexology, like massage therapy, provides stress relief for the patient. This will ultimately improve the patient’s overall wellbeing, if only temporarily. Reflexology as a way to relieve tension and anxiety has begun to come into fashion in hospitals. However, this is not to say that reflexology should replace conventional methods of medical treatment. Rather, reflexology should be used in conjunction with professional medical treatment.

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