Introduction
This book is all about hope. From ancient healing therapies to the latest American innovations, you have more options for great health today than ever before. Complementary and alternative therapies, known as CAM, are about more than just improving your health. These therapies are about helping you rediscover the joy, the wonder and the beauty of living.
Perhaps the aches and pains that caused you to stumble are caused from your body being out of alignment in some way so it’s a body issue. Maybe an emotional issue or traumatic life experience is seeking resolution by expressing itself through the body, so it could be a mind issue. Or your life force energy could be blocked in some way resulting in a physical problem so it could be a spirit or energy issue.
In this guide you’ll find information new and old and begin to see patterns between therapies that are consistent through thousands of years and across civilizations around the world.
The most basic concept is that you are the sum of your Mind-Body-Spirit. Your parts cannot be disconnected so a problem in one area can mean problems in all areas. Holistic (or whole-istic) therapies are effective because they address all of you. Many of these complementary and alternative therapies work to prevent problems or correct them as soon as possible to prevent them from growing into serious issues. This is a very different approach from medicine in America today which is based on fee-for-service.
Once you start talking with friends and family about these new options it seems like everybody knows somebody who’s experienced success, sometimes miraculous success, with a complementary or alternative therapy. While writing this book, I’ve been amazed at the stories from friends and yet we still seem to talk about CAM in whispers, as if it’s something normal people don’t discuss in public. I hope this book brings complementary and alternative therapies out of the shadows and into the light of day so more people can discover a healthier, happier new life.
According to the 2007 NCCAM report on complementary and alternative medicine 38% of Americans used some form during the previous 12 months. This is a dramatic change from the 62% reported in the 2002 study but that’s because the government studies dropped the use of prayer as a form of CAM. Apparently the use of this ancient, some say the original, energy therapy was too popular to be included in the study because it skewed the data making it appear that CAM was too popular.
The data in the federal government reports is from the National Health Interview Survey conducted by the U. S. Department of Health& Human Services, the Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics. For the 2007 report, NHIS interviews were completed in 29,266 households, which yielded 75,764 persons in 29,915 families and a household response rate of 87.1%. Between the 2002 and 2007 government reports acupuncture, deep breathing exercises, massage therapy, meditation, naturopathy, and yoga show