Making Sense of Holistic Health Practices

As popularity in holistic health care continues to grow, the importance of categorizing these methods becomes more important. First, categorizing helps us as consumers to understand that a "new" practice may likely be a different spin on a much older technique. Many techniques fall in and out of favor depending on culture, social acceptance, and politics. Secondly, as western society continues to apply its scientific methodology to holistic practices, similar mechanisms may come to light, thus blurring initial dissimilarities.

Categorizing holistic practices is artificial at best. Multifaceted approaches to match the complexities of human wellness are implicit in the definition of "holistic," even though the practical use of the term ranges from health care practices not widely used by mainstream medicine in the U.S., to practices of unproven therapeutic value. In attempting to categorize, arbitrary decisions are made depending on a specific view or expected outcome. For instance, practices might be categorized by what the look like (are they manual, passive, etc.), or by suspected mechanism, etc. One can immediately identify this as the reductionist approach that we are so fond of in the U.S., and the difficulty, if not the absurdity, of pigeonholing holistic practices. Any categorization is open to interpretation and controversy, and practitioners themselves may vary their emphasis.

The following is an example of a classification developed by the NIH, Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) in 1995 (June, NIH Information Sheet). It was meant primarily for grant-writing purposes. Most practitioners would take exception to these categories. It is an example of duplication, overlap, and misunderstanding of the holistic practices by the “authorities”, and shows that one person's "manual therapy" is another person's "mind/body control."

• Diet, Nutrition, Lifestyle Changes (Changes in Lifestyle, Diet, Nutritional Supplements, Macrobiotics, Megavitamins, etc.)
• Mind/ Body Control (Art Therapy, Relaxation, Biofeedback, Hypnotherapy, Yoga, Meditation, etc.)
• Alternative Systems of Medical Practice (Acupuncture, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Traditional Oriental Medicine, Native American and Latin American Practices, Past Life Therapy, Shamanism)
• Manual Healing (Acupressure, Alexander Technique, Aromatherapy, Chiropractic, Feldenkrais Method, Massage, Osteopathy, Reflexology, Rolfing, Therapeutic Touch, etc.)
• Pharmacological and Biological Treatments (Chelation Therapy, Oxidizing Agents, Metabolic Treatment)
• Bioelectromagnetic Applications (Electroacupuncture, Artificial Lighting, Electrostimulation, Electromagnetic Fields, etc.)
• Herbal Medicine (Echinacea, Ginko Biloba, Witch hazel, etc.)