Exploring Alternative Medicine
By Dr. Liberty Santos

ATTRACTION OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

The appeal of alternative medicine is how it looks on health as a balance of body, mind and spirit, science and experience and traditional as well as a merging of cultural methods (east meets west) to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment. It also emphasizes on the wholeness concept that we as human beings are not just physical beings but we are feeling and thinking beings as well. Thus what affects our feeling and thinking affects our general health. It also has a great respect for the body’s inherent ability to heal itself.
A reductionism view of illness as simply a matter of germs to fight and destroy or a diseased organ that needs to be taken out without consideration of the whole person is now being questioned by most people as they see how this affects their bodies. This new outlook at the interplay of health and illness signals the growing consciousness of people about their health.

Alternative medicine is defined as health care practices or therapies which are outside of mainstream (modern) medicine or what is commonly called allopathic medicine.  Therapies that are used in addition to allopathic medicine are called complementary, and when used in placed of allopathic medicine as alternative.

In the USA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines complementary and alternative medicine as a “broad domain of healing resources that encompasses all health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period”. Accordingly, they define alternative therapies to include, but are not limited to the following disciplines: folk medicine, herbal medicine, diet fads, homeopathy, faith healing, new age healing, chiropractic, acupuncture, naturopathy, massage and music therapy.

In the Philippines, the growing interest in alternative medicine goes a long way back. If we trace our history, we know that several of the mentioned therapies have been in existence in our society while some have started to be available only these past few years. 

To safeguard the public and to encourage further development of these practices and therapies, the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act of 1997 and   Republic Act 8423 was passed creating the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC). Under this bill, Alternative Health Care Modalities are defined as other forms of non-allopathic, occasionally non-indigenous or imported healing methods, though not necessarily practiced for centuries nor handed down from one generation to another. Some alternative health care modalities named are reflexology, acupuncture, massage, acupressure, chiropractic, nutritional therapy and other similar methods.

POPULAR THERAPIES

What are some of the alternative medicine therapies available in the Philippines today?  Where can we find qualified practitioners?

Currently, among the more popular therapies available in the Philippines include the Alexander Technique, Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Myotherapy, and Stress Management Counseling.

Other therapies are also available in other centers in the Philippines such as anthroposophic medicine, reflexology, chelation therapy, meditation, yoga, taichi, qi-gong, craniosacral therapy, art therapy, diet therapy like macrobiotics, massages such as shiatsu, acupressure, and others. It is however advisable to make sure that you are being cared for by a qualified practitioner. 

It is becoming apparent that for people to stay healthy or at least live long “healthy” lives, health has to be about a change in perspectives in how we view life. It does not suffice anymore to define health as the absence of illness but all together to consider the other aspects of our lives, our minds, our emotional state, our physical body and our spirit.