Chapter 1
WHAT IS ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE?

In the winter of 1988, San Francisco cardiologist Dean Ornish shocked the medical community when he proved that 40 advanced heart patients could actually shrink the fatty plaque deposits that were progressively blocking their coronary arteries. As the deposits disappeared, their arteries began to open and fresh oxygen was able to reach their hearts. As a result, most of the patients no longer suffered from chest pains or were at risk of having another heart attack.

There were two astonishing things about Ornish's findings. First, he was the first Western doctor to prove that a chronic disease could be reversed once it has started. Millions of people throughout the world who suffered from heart disease now realized that they were not helpless victims. What was even more amazing about Ornish's clinical experiment was the therapy he used to make the plaques disappear. Ordinarily, Western heart specialists use surgery to reopen the clogged artery or bypass the artery altogether. Instead, Ornish used the innate healing power of the body itself; his patients “reversed” their disease with yoga, meditation, a low-cholesterol diet, and group therapy. After approximately one year of lifestyle changes, their clogged heart arteries had repaired themselves. The process is described in his 1990 book, Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease .

The medical therapies Ornish incorporated into his treatment represent the nucleus of an emerging body of world medicine called “holistic medicine” —or whole body medicine. Holistic medicine attempts to treat the whole body by combining many different Eastern and Western medical specialties: Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese medicine, acupuncture and acupressure, nutrition, exercise, naturopathic medicine, homeopathic medicine, botanical medicine, chiro-practics and massage. However, just as there is no universal language, no single medical specialty—Eastern or Western, ancient or modern, scientific or unscientific—can provide the magic lantern that reveals all of the mysteries of the human body. Each specialty has its strengths and weakness, its insights and limitations. Yet taken together, the many specialties of holistic medicine offer great promise in helping people maintain optimal health.

The fact that a vast number of people are seeking new ways to stay healthy outside of surgery and drugs was confirmed in a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine which concluded that 60 million Americans used some type of alternative medical therapy in 1992, spending more than $14 billion. Holistic options are increasing for those who wish to explore whole body therapies to maintain health and prevent or treat chronic illness and disease.

An old Chinese prayer says: “When you have a disease, do not try to cure it. Find your chi and you will be healed.” Chinese medicine is based on the belief that humanity is part of a larger creation, the universe, and subject to the same laws that govern nature. All life and the entire material universe originate from a single unified source, called Tao, which is an integrated whole present in everything. Tao created two opposing forces, yin and yang—archetypical opposites that are incomplete without the other and combine to create all phenomena.

According to Dr. Yuan-Chi Lin, an Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Pediatrics at the Stanford University Medical Center, “Yin is present in the qualities of cold, rest, passivity, darkness, inwardness and decrease. Yang is associated with heat, activity, stimulation, light, outwardness and increase.” In his book, Pain in Infants, Children, and Adolescents, written with John D. Yee and Paul A. Aubuchon, Lin says, “Health requires a balance of yin and yang within a given person, while disease is characterized by a disharmony or lack of balance between these two dynamic forces.”

Within the body, the balance of yin and yang is manifest in the flow of an energy called chi (or the life force), which flows through the body in precise and orderly patterns called meridians. There are 14 meridians, 12 of which are associated with organs in the body, while two are responsible for unifying various systems. Each meridian, which runs vertically from the head to the feet, moving chi to specific parts of the body, is classified as being either yin or yang. Every part of the body is nourished with chi energy unless a meridian becomes blocked or stagnant, which causes an imbalance in the flow of life force. Certain organs, for example, can become excessive or hyperactive (yang), while others can become deficient and hypoactive (yin). There can also be excessive swelling or expansion (yang), or too much contraction (yin). Without adequate life force, tissues and organs become stagnant and can no longer eliminate waste from cells. As waste products accumulate, the blood-cleansing organs become stressed, and eventually their capacity to clean the blood is exceeded. This accumulation of toxins (such as fat, cholesterol, ammonia, uric acid, triglycerides, and carbondioxide) weakens the immune system sufficiently to allow a virus to take hold in the body. More specifically, the accumulation diminishes the life force which is the foundation of health.

In Chinese medicine, all treatment is meant to bring about harmony between efficiency and excess, or between yin and yang. Foods, herbs, and other therapeutic techniques are used to restore this balance. Thus, a Chinese doctor might use acupuncture, acupressure, herbs, Tai Chi Chuan, moxibustion (heat applied to acupuncture points), or massage to increase or decrease the chi flow as needed.

References

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Organizations

American Chiropractic Association.
1701 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22209

American Institute of Homeopathic Education and Research.
5910 Chabot Crest, Oakland, CA 44018.

American Institute of Homeopathy.
1500 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.

American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
2200 East Devon Avenue, Suite 291, Des Plaines, IL 60018.

Council on Chiropractic Education.
44011 Westown Parkway, Suite 120, West Des Moines, IA 50265.

Homeopathic Education Services.
2124 Kittredge Street, Berkeley, CA 94904.

International Chiropractors Association.
1901 L Street. N.W., Suite 800, Washington D.C. 20036.

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