Note: The information contained in this article is for educational purposes and is not medical advice.
Below is a list of specific health conditions with some options for self-care and professionally-assisted therapies that may help. This guide is not meant to be exhaustive or complete, but to offer suggestions that might not be mentioned elsewhere, especially self-help methods. If you are seeking health, further learning and study about your condition is recommended as there may be other effective treatments besides the ones mentioned below.
To start working with a chronic problem that is not life threatening nor quickly getting worse, it is usually a good idea to begin with inexpensive, non-invasive methods. However, it is never a mistake to consult with a physician before beginning self-help or other treatments in order to rule out the possibility that you have a life-threatening condition. If pain is severe or your condition is obviously worsening, consult a physician or knowledgeable practitioner.
Most chronic conditions have multiple causes, therefore it may take a combination of treatments, remedies, or lifestyle changes to reverse the illness. When trying to resolve a health condition, it is ultimately important to understand why you get recurrent problems and to work on the causes (not just the symptoms). For more information about your specific condition and further treatment options, see also Dr. Walt Stoll's website at www.askwaltstollmd.com.
I have written a short article about the difference between healing and curing to help you understand more about how to resolve all kinds of health problems. I suggest that you read the article first before clicking down to read about your specific condition.
Index of information on this page:
Generally people consult a health care professional or try different healing techniques because they want to be free of an illness or set of symptoms, or resolve pain. When selecting a health care professional to work with, or when choosing a method or technique to use, it is often helpful to consider whether the focus of that practitioner or method is upon healing or curing.
Curing involves concentration upon eliminating symptoms and sometimes focuses on abnormal pathological tests. The emphasis of curing is upon removing symptoms and seeking to return you to the state you were in before you became aware of an illness or were injured. Curing techniques can be very beneficial and invaluable for temporary relief of symptoms, in emergency situations, for injuries, and for individuals whose lives do not permit healing to occur.
Healing addresses symptoms in a manner that delves to their cause or root. These causes may include such things as lifestyle, environmental influences, current or past emotions, traumatic experiences, or beliefs. Healing may explore what a symptom may be telling you about yourself. Healing uses inner power and mind/body resources to restore or create a unique balance and harmony resulting in health, vitality and joy. Thus, inner balance and overall well-being may be improved with or without a specific problem being present.
Both curing and healing play an important role in health care. They can complement each other. Curing may be an important part of healing. Curing often works on the physical level. Healing may also work on the physical level, and then explore other influences upon the health problem, such as the mental-emotional connection. This connection between the body and mind is being addressed more and more by different realms of medicine and science.
Sometimes healing can be like putting together a puzzle. A person on a healing journey may need to use several self-help methods plus consult with several practitioners of different healing modalities in order to accomplish both healing and curing. Each method and practitioner might provide a different piece to the puzzle, and harmonize in working together toward the resolution of a chronic or complex issue. Using different methods at the same time can sometimes create a kind of healing "synergy" in which the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Each individual is different, so typically one protocol will not be right for all individuals with the same condition. Thus each person must individually seek exactly what is needed for oneself.
Some therapies can often both cure and heal. Massage is one example. Massage can cure by alleviating symptoms and pain on the physical level, often producing dramatic results in one session or in a series of sessions over time. Massage can also heal, because of its holistic nature. (Holistic means addressing the wholeness of a person.) Massage touches all levels of a person's being, so a person may come into a massage session with tight muscles, but leave with a whole different state of mind and emotions. Massage has a preventive role in health care as well, by helping increase your awareness to avoid future problems.
Before you select modalities and methods to use for self-healing, be an informed health-care consumer. Learn as much as you can about your own condition and about whatever healing method you wish to try. There is a wealth of information available on the web, and my Book/Video Resources List recommends books with information about different curing and healing modalities.
The book I am writing with Walt Stoll, M.D., Recapture Your Health, also includes an entire chapter about the causes of illness. This chapter is meant to help you understand how and why illness occurs, so you can become more effective in finding the remedy. The rest of the book is about several remedies that help the largest number of people succeed in seeking health.
^ IndexHeadache experts extimate that about 90% of all headaches are tension headaches (experienced by muscular tension) and 6% are migraines (experienced from constriction of blood vessels). Common triggers are emotional stress (anxiety, anger, depression, etc.), tension, eyestrain (i.e. from computer use), allergies (including foods like wheat, dairy, or chocolate), constipation, using or withdrawal from coffee or alcohol, sinus pressure, hormonal imbalance, TMJ syndrome, poor posture, trauma to the head, nutritional deficiencies, drugs or tobacco, fever or other illness, and exposure to irritants. Headaches may take various forms. They may manifest as a throbbing pain, a dull pain in one area, or general pain all over the head. Neck and shoulder stiffness often occur. Reliance on painkillers can make chronic (recurrent) headaches worse by interfering with the brain's natural ability to fight headaches.
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A condition whereby the heart must work harder to pump an adequate amount of blood to all the tissues of the body. There are usually no symptoms until complications develop. Hypertension is not a single disease, but a syndrome with multiple causes. Hypertension is generally defined as an arterial pressure of greater than 140/90 mmHg for an extended period of time.
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Hypoglycemia is a condition in which there is an abnormally low level of glucose (sugar) in the blood. Symptoms of hypoglycemia include nausea, sweating, weakness, faintness, confusion, hallucinations, headache, cold sweat, erection of the hair, hypothermia, irritability, bizarre behavior and fainting. Any or all of these symptoms (or others) may occur a few hours after eating sweets or fats. The onset and severity of symptoms are directly related to the length of time since the last meal was eaten and the type of foods that meal contained. Most often it is precipitated by an inadequate diet.
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Insomnia is habitual sleeplessness. There are different kinds of insomnia, including difficulty falling asleep, or early awakening with inability to return to sleep. Insomnia can be short-term (one night) or chronic (occurring over a long period of time). Insomnia may have multiple causes, including nutritional, lifestyle, emotional, or other factors. In many cases, resolving insomnia requires changes in lifestyle to stop overstimulating the nevous system. Following healthy habits consistently will establish a healthy sleep cycle.
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LGS occurs when the lining of the intestinal tract (from the lips to the anus) is no longer perfectly protecting the inner body from the foreign substances in the outside world. It has become permeable. Conditions related to leaky gut syndrome include allergies, candida, colon problems, dysbiosis, eczema, Crohn's, irritable bowel syndrome, GERD, gastritis, hiatal hernia, celiac disease, ulcers, parasites, psoriasis, scabies, seborrhea, thrush, and yeast infections. Healing of the gastrointestinal lining is needed to prevent the passage of peptides into the blood stream, which is accomplished by learning to relax the body and abdomen. Skilled relaxation is very effective for learning this deep relaxation.
| Self-Help | Professional Assistance |
Conditions like anxiety, nervousness, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. may be caused by a combination of chemistry imbalance and psychosocial stress.
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References:
http://lifespringarts.com
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Website Claimer and Disclaimer: In the holistic healing model, each person is responsible for one's own health and makes one's own choices in healing. The information in this website is provided for your information and education. It is not medical advice. Any application of the information is at your own discretion. If you feel you need to do so, consult with your physician or other knowledgeable health care practitioner before or while making use of this information.
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by Jan DeCourtney, CMT
