What is Alternative Wellness?

Alternative wellness is the idea that different components of a person's existence contribute to his or her health. These include all parts of the physical body, but it also takes the mental and spiritual aspects of a person into account. Usually, the goal in seeking alternative wellness is to achieve a healthy mind-body-spirit balance. Alternative wellness also can be referred to as alternative health, complimentary health, natural health or simply "wellness."

Holistic medicine follows this same principle and often looks at all parts of the body when trying to determine the source of an illness. It recognizes the association of various parts of the body with each other. Actions and personal habits can be scrutinized and modified so that a patient can overcome negative patterns that have led to an illness.

A holistic approach to health emphasizes the importance of finding the root cause for an ailment. Mainstream doctors might treat only the symptoms of a disease or illness, but people who practice alternative wellness will try to determine the reason why a patient is experiencing symptoms and then attempt to address the root cause. This approach differs from that of mainstream doctors, who often prescribe pharmaceutical drugs to treat symptoms and can require that patients remain on pharmaceutical drugs for extended periods — even lifetimes.

Alternative wellness examines physical bodies, but it also can investigate the influence of other factors that can contribute to ill health. Some of these factors can include what a person ingests, toxins in the environment, exercise regimens and even thoughts and emotions. These things can be weighed to determine if they have negatively affected a patient's well-being. Steps can be taken to eliminate or reduce the effect that these factors have on the patient's body.

The philosophy of alternative wellness is to treat a patient's specific body and existence, so no two patients are likely to undergo the same alternative healthcare plan. Patients can be offered many suggestions regarding their personal healthcare plan. Healthcare professionals who believe in alternative wellness can incorporate nutritional counseling, acupressure, massage, homeopathy, meditation, exercise, vitamin supplementation and oxygen therapy, among other things, as part of their approaches to healing patients.

Alternative wellness has gained in popularity. Certain mental health professionals, chiropractors, naturopaths, homeopaths, environmental medicine doctors and dentists can be counted among those who practice it. Some traditional medical doctors also have begun incorporating this philosophy into their practices.