INTRODUCTION
Heavy caseloads and economic pressures mean that family doctors can only allot an average of eight minutes for each consultation, and patients accordingly have learned to summarize their complaints as briefly as possible. A quick examintaion is often followed by a prescription for a drug which will treat the specific symptom or symptoms complained of; there is no time to look at what might have caused it or any other symptoms that might be linked to it.
Very few doctors manage to ask patients in detail about their diet, whether they feel stressed at work or at home, their drinking and smoking habits, and whether they are happy with their lives - yet all these factors are absolutely crucial in causing and exacerbating illness.
Many common health problems are not caused by disease but by our weakened constitutions. The detrimental effects of pollution, overprocessed foods, lack of exercise, stressful lifestyles, and the overuse of substances such as caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and even antibiotics, make our bodies impaired and inefficient. We suffer from unidentified aches and pains, headaches, nausea, fatigue and chronic illnesses, not because the medical profession is doing less for us but because we are doing less for ourselves.
However, over the past decade or so, more and more people have developed an interest in taking care of themselves, through eating a well-balanced diet and taking regular exercise. Hand in hand with this goes a renewed and increasing interest in taking responsibility for our own healthcare and relying less on the over-stretched medical profession.
A holistic approach to medicine - treating the body as a whole and not just as a set of symptoms or patterns of disease - is once again becoming popular in the West, having always been the norm in the East.
of ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS
Acupressure (Shiatsu)
Acupuncture
Aromatherapy
Ayurveda
Bach Flower Remedies
Clinical Nutrition
Colour Therapy
Dance Therapy
Counselling (Psychotherapy)
Homoeopathy
Hydrotherapy
Iridology
Kinesiology
Massage
Medical Herbalism
Music Therapy
Naturopathy
Osteopathy
Polarity Therapy
Psychotherapy
Radionics
Reflexology
Shiatsu
T'ai Chi
Yoga
