Holistic Medicine: The use of holistic medicine and the use of alternative therapies.

Essay by lilrich00High School, 10th gradeA, November 2005

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Millions of people around the world are living with pain that could be prevented with the use of alternative therapies. As a result many of these people use harmful or ineffective drugs and surgeries in an attempt to cure their ailments. With a steady schedule of massage therapy, acupuncture, and healthy foods, people can lead a healthy and invigorating life without drugs or surgery. During the time of the ancient Roman gladiators, massage therapy was used to treat everything from headaches to sports injures on them. Today massage therapy is widely recognized as a sensible alternative to traditional medicine, in that it relieves pain and soreness otherwise helped by taking pills or other medicines. Massage can help everyone, including premature infants according to USA Weekend, "premature infants who get regular massages in the hospital gain more weight and leave the hospital sooner then unmassaged babies"(McNichol,22). I firmly believe that massage therapy is one of the best preventative measures that a person can take to avoid most medical problems involved with aging, physical exertion, and the stress of everyday life.

Some doctors agree by saying, "If you have a massage every week, you will have 2/3 less illness" (H. Gruenn, M.D.).

There are many different types of massage therapy including relaxing Swedish massage for relieving stress, sports massage for treating sports related injuries, and therapeutic massage to name a few. Relaxing Swedish massage is one of the most effective ways to deal with that invisible killer, stress. By applying smooth gentle stokes or other non-invasive massage techniques, the Swedish massage practitioner can relieve the client of the every day stresses of life that can be fatal if not dealt with.

In sports massage, the use of more advanced massage techniques can relieve athletes of lactic acid and other wastes that accumulate...