What is health?
Ask most people this question and there reply will probably be something like “the lack of disease” or “the absence of illness”.
In fact there is more to good health than just not being sick or diseased. The word “health” comes from the same root as the word “whole” – to be healthy is to be whole.
The world health organisation defines health as follows: “Health is a state of complete physical, psychic and social wellbeing and not merely the absences of illness and infirmities”
Conventional western medicine defines health primarily as the maintenance of certain levels of measurable values such as body temperature, pulse, blood pressure, etc. Therefore western medicine views health in a scientific statistical basis and has generally viewed the body and mind as separate.
Conventional western medicine also will seemingly stop nowhere in its attempts to classify and destroy bacteria and viruses that it sees as the main cause of disease, often using potentially harmful toxic substances to do so. These only suppress the body’s natural attempts to clear itself of disease and overload the body with toxins which later show themselves as more chronic or degenerative diseases.
Most alternative therapies, especially those with Eastern philosophies, see the mind and body as intimately related and use harmless non-toxic therapies to assist the body to perform the task of maintaining its balance and harmony on all levels.