The Holistic approach to health

For many years, the conventional approach to good health has focussed on the reduction or elimination of symptoms. Where possible, cause for symptoms will be found, and also treated. But chronic symptoms will be found and also treated. But chronic chronic symptoms, for which no cause comes to light, may linger for years, and bring about serious debilitation over time.

These days, conventional medicine recognises the need for a holistic approach to health care, but financial constraints of health services mean that provision of services still focuses on intervention only when things have gone wrong. Limited time and resources mean that the focus of treatment is often on reducing and managing symptoms, rather than treating the cause. While health education is supposedly aimed a the prevention of illness, we are still operating a reductionist method of keeping well. We have all been brought to take "our symptoms" to the doctor, rather than taking " our whole selves".

Costly technological advances and a growing population mean that things are unlikely to change in the near future. Medical training pays woefully little attention to the remarkable self healing properties of the mind and body.