Alternative Health Treatments:

What Really Works?

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Alternative Treatments I've Tried and Found Helpful

1. Nutrition - We really are what we eat. What you eat today is what will be walking and talking tomorrow. Eighty percent of my health problems probably stemmed from eating the wrong diet for my genes and body type. By traditional medical standards my former diet was very healthy - lots of whole grains, very little meat and very low fat. But in terms of what my body needed it was a diet disaster. I personally started getting healthier on a higher fat, higher meat and less grain oriented foods diet.

2. Yoga - I'm not into many of the spiritual aspects of yoga, and I don't agree with many of the yogi diet guidelines. However, practicing a tailor made set of asanas (postures) specifically designed to correct my poor posture and muscles imbalances and been a life saver (literally for me) and has helped me to overcome countless orthopedic issues including scoliosis, TMJ, a frozen shoulder and many related conditions.

3. Meditation - This does work for me. Whenever I have a tough problem I try to meditate and let my subconscious mull things over. In many cases, an obvious answer will come to mind. I find meditating does help be to be more calm and focused.

4. Trigger Point Therapy -This works great for short-term relief from pain. Many people write to me that this has helped them, especially for things like frozen shoulders, neck pain and sciatic nerve pain. For long term relief I needed yoga to improve my alignment and balance my muscles. But for short term relief from things like headaches and fibromyalgia, trigger point therapy was great.

5. Acupressure is somewhat similar to trigger point therapy, but is also helpful. The main difference that I can see is that with acupressure you press on certain points based on traditional acupressure charts depending on your malady. With trigger point therapy you search for and press on tender points. I've found both types of therapies helpful.

6. Feldenkrais - this is a type of exercise involving small movements designed to free up muscles. I thought it did help, though I got the most benefit from buying books on the subject. I went to a couple of classes and did not find them helpful as many of the exercises aggravated my preexisting conditions. But I did find specific Feldenkrais exercises from books helpful for things like my frozen shoulder and sciatica.

7. Ayurveda - This means "science of life" in Sanskrit. Ayurveda is the traditional medicine of India. There is a lot of "fluff" in Ayurveda and I'm not really interested in reading about Chakras or something that doesn't map to a real body part of function. But when you strip away a lot of the fluff, there are some really interesting diet recommendations for different diseases in Ayurveda that, in my experience, do seem to work.

For example, turmeric has long been recommended in Ayurveda for cancer, and recent medical studies to indeed confirm that turmeric does seem to stop cancer cells. So with Ayurveda I've found that some of the descriptions of why things work seem a little too cosmic, but the bottom line is that when you strip away the fluff and superfluous language, many of the diet suggestions actually work are better than Western medical advice.

8. Holistic Doctors - Overall, I have found a few to be more helpful than traditional medical doctors. At least you can talk to them about nutrition and they don't scoff at the topic like many Western traineddoctors still do. However, some of them are just big supplement pushers, so if you go to see a holistic doctor, try to find one that isn't just substituting supplements for prescription drugs.

 

Alternative Treatments I've Tried and They Didn't Work for Me

1. Homeopathy - I've always been skeptical about homeopathy and a recent study found that homeopathic remedies worked no better than placebos.

To think about it logically, we know that many diseases are linked to nutritional deficiencies such as:

No matter how many homeopathic remedies you take for any of these diseases, it simply is not going to have any impact. Medical studies just keep showing that most chronic diseases are linked to diet and lifestyle issues. And taking minuscule amounts of diluted remedies is simply not a logical substitute for a poor diet and lack of exercise.

2. Acupuncture - I tried acupuncture for my neck pain and it didn't do any good at all. In reality my issue was that my shoulder right below I had neck pain was out of balance. Acupuncture just wasn't the right treatment for that. My issue was that one of my arms was hanging two inches lower than the other, which caused a great deal of stress on my neck and jaw. Yoga, which if done correctly, can lengthen and align muscles, was the only treatment I found that helped a problem like mine. Knowing what I know now, putting needles into my body was not going raise one shoulder up two inches, but yoga can actually bring about these types of dramatic changes in the body's structure.

I should note that one of my friends developed TMJ after a car accident and felt she was helped by acupuncture. A recent study has raised some questions regarding the effectiveness of acupuncture.

3. Chiropractic work - I personally tried several chiropractors and never had any positive results. I'm more of a do-it-yourself kind of person. I like buying books and finding treatments I can do on my own like changing my diet, doing yoga and trigger point therapy. I didn't like the way chiropractors seem to want you to come in for a never ending series of visits. However, if you are not a do-it-yourself kind of person, chiropractic treatment may be right for you. Many of my friends and web site readers feel they benefit greatly from chiropractic care.

4. Aromatherapy - I tried this, but my son and I both got headaches from the scents. I try to buy as many unscented products as I can.

5. Massage therapy - I think massage therapy can work if it is done correctly. Initially, a couple of the massage therapists I went to made me worse. Then a year or so ago we found someone great through the recommendation of a friend. He has helpd both of my children with muscular pain issues as they are less inclined to do self treatments on themselves, such as yoga and trigger point therapy.