It is a term that is bandied around these days with increasing vagueness, like ecological or alchemical. Can you have holistic holidays? Or an holistic diet? And of all the different therapies now available in the realms of alternative and complementary medicine, which ones are actually holistic?

A holistic system of medicine treats the individual as a whole person, and not as an assembly of separate disease conditions. A patient with headaches, period pains, acid reflux, arthritis and depression, who receives a different treatment for each condition, with no attempt to perceive the whole as a single individualised condition, is not being treated holistically. Note, however, that the non-holistic approach can be applied using pharmaceutical drugs, as is current practice in modern medicine, or equally, by using herbs, supplements, homoeopathic remedies, or other complementary concoctions. In other words, the style of drugs does not determine whether the treatment is holistic or not. What determines this is the approach of the practitioner.

The first question to be asked by a physician who treats her patients holistically is: what needs to be cured in this individual patient? Of course, you could argue that the GP also asks that question in order to prescribe, advise, or refer correctly. And to some extent, this would be true. But the assumption is totally different for the holistic practitioner.

A holistic perspective requires individualisation. In analysing the patient’s symptoms, the physician pays close attention to the personal, unusual aspects, which illuminate the patients unique nature and condition, so that a treatment can be applied which targets the root cause. In the case of our fictitious patient, the symptoms involve imbalances in the circulatory system, producing headaches, hormonal system producing menstrual problems, digestive system producing acidity, articulation creating arthritis and the emotional/chemical balance, resulting in depression. The patient would also be asked about their feelings, and what events in their life preceded the onset of their symptoms. The sum of all the symptoms adds up to a recognisable totality, and it is this totality that uncovers the unique pattern, which individualises the patient.
But now comes the difficulty. Even if we can see the singularity out of which the multiplicity of ailments has arisen, how is it possible to target this unitary source with treatment?
The answer is that the symptoms are not at the root of the problem, they are the various attempts by the body to harmonise or re-stabilise itself. All disease is rooted in a disturbance in the vital force, or energy body. The force which animates all living organisms, creates symptoms in our bodies as adaptation to change, especially trauma.

Holistic medicine begins with perception of the totality, and seeks to treat causes, rather than effects. It aims for the tip of the pyramid; the centre of the circle; the heart of the matter. Treatments targetted in this way can legitimately be said to be treating the whole person. Such medicine is not chemical in nature, but energetic. This approach includes various energy medicine systems, such as acupuncture, cranial osteopathy, homoeopathy and shiatsu, to name a few.

Going to the whole food shop, and filling the basket with supplements and vitamins does not constitute holistic medicine, whatever the hype on the label, (although eating nourishing food is essential for maintaining good health).

Can Western (allopathic) Medicine be practiced holistically? Although the concept has been central to human thought for millenia, medical science is unwilling to accept, and unable to observe a unifying vital force, anima, chi, or prana. Disease is regarded as pathology, and treatment is focused upon the chemical suppression or masking of the pathological symptoms. You can decide for yourself whether this is holistic.

So what about holistic holidays? Take your whole self, not just your body parts! And the holistic diet? : Eat sensibly, chew your rice.

Tony Conway, June 2007

Please send comments or feedback to: tony@remedycentre.org