Holistic Health
Health is defined by the WHO as 'a state of physical, mental and social well-being, not merely an absence of diseases or infirmity'. Flexible adjustment to the changing demands of environment is health and it is not a state.

Genuine health is the perfect functioning of the tripod of Body, Mind & Soul.
Holistic healthcare recognizes the effect of sociological, psychological, economic, ecological and even political influences on health.

Before 1960, only Allopathic medicine was considered 'scientific' and other indigenous systems, though based on empirical knowledge, were labelled as 'quackery'. Due to scramble for 'appropriate technologies', ideas have changed. Interest in Alternative Medicine is on the rise in America and other Western countries.

There are more than 180 systems of Alternative Medicine. Ayurveda is being studied deeply. Homeopathy is already being practised even by Allopathic doctors. Psychotherapy, hypnotism, Yoga Therapy, Yogic Pranayama are vying for their own place. Everything seems to be tending towards Holistic medicine in accordance with the concept of holistic health.
Physical, mental, vital, intellectual and spiritual - these are the Five Levels of Being. For medicine to be holistic, it should be universally applicable, cover all aspects of health, on all the five levels. Early Indian doctors conceived of Holistic medicine on the basis of the Vedantic Five Sheaths - physical body, vital movements, mental thoughts, intellectual convictions and emotional feelings which cover, as it were, each individual soul.
Holistic Health Concept in the Vedas

There are many mantras in the Vedas where the goal of medicine is described as the removal of the cause of death, conferring of a lengthy span of life, , purification of thoughts and actions, removal of the cause of diseases and ensuring the well-being of body, mind and soul.

Indian Holistic Medicine, Ayurveda, which is called a part of the Vedas, is attributed to the sage Bharadwaja ( 5000 BC ) and originated from Atharva Veda ( ' Atharva Vedasu Upanishadsu Pragulpannah ' ). It is said that the Greeks acquired a knowledge of Medicine only after the secrets of Atharva Veda were known to them ! Dr Robert Keith Wallace averred "It is appropriate to recognise India as the home of the most profound knowledge and the procedures for the development of Physiology" ! ( The Neurophysiology of Enlightenment ).
This popular & holistic concept of medicare & healthcare was taught even to foreign students in the Universities of Taxila, Nalanda and Varanasi during AD 500-600.
Ayurveda defines health as ' Svasthya ' ( to be one's own Divine Self'). It is a state of equilibrium of the three principles of air ( Vata ), bile (Pitta) and phlegm ( Kapha ), along with a contented state of senses, mind and soul.

Health, said Charaka, the famous Ayurveda physician ( A D 500-600 ), is an equipoised state of Body, Mind & Soul. This was to him a state of 'ease'. Contrary to this was 'disease'.
Ayurveda advocates the following to maintain health and prevent diseases. A daily routine of rising early, exercises,bathing, oil-massage, gargling and regulated sleep. These must be properly coordinated with the Six Rithus, the changing seasons. A value-based life is advocated as a prime requisite for good health.

The psychological state of the patient is an important factor in diagnosis and treatment & Ayurveda postulates that the " The doctor who does not find out the inner state of the mind of the patient by the light of his knowledge cannot find out the disease ".

Summing up, we cannot overlook the major factor contributing greatly to holistic health. Righteous Conduct, which is the Ethical Way of Living in Rhythm with Natural Law. This rests on the four important values of
Truth( Affiliation to the Divine Self, honesty, simplicity etc ),
Purity ( which includes a temperate sex-life and the sublimation of sexual energies through divine channels of philanthropy, selfless service, excellence in all activities etc ),
Self-faith ( Faith in one's own Divine Self, the repository of Absolute Being, Knowledge and Bliss ) &
Fearlessness. ( of even death )
Prakriti Therapy ( Naturopathy )
Naturopathy exists as one of the branches of Holistic Medicine.
Holistic Medicine has 2 aspects -
The Therapeutic Aspect ( Athura Vritta ) &
The Prophylactic Aspect ( Swastha Vritta )

Naturopathy is the Prophylactic or the Preventive System.
It is based on the principle " Natura Sanat " ( Nature is the Healer and Doctor). As the human body is composed of the five elements ( Earth, air, water, fire and ether ) so the Five Doctors are the Elemental Five! Fasting is the best medicine ( even diseases like ulcer can be cured by fasting ) and this is known as Ether Therapy ( Akashopasana). Sun bathing is Fire Therapy ( Tejopasana). Using Water as a therapeutic element is Water Therapy ( Jalopasana). Letting the body get fresh unpolluted air is Air Therapy ( Vayu Upasana) and eating pure fruits and vegetables is Earth Therapy ( Prithvi Upasana ) Naturopathy means returning to Nature and living in rhythm with Nature, who is infinite in her wisdom! Even Allopathic scholars have admitted " Medicus curata, natura Sanat"( The physician only treats but it is Nature that heals ) !

The main cause of all disease is overeating and man is advised to eat only once in a day and fast once in a week !
He who eats once is a great Yogi ( Divine Man )
He who eats twice is a great Bhogi ( sensual gratifier)
He who eats thrice is a great Rogi ( one plagued by illhealth )
He who eats 4 times is a great Drohi ( one who torments all )

The five major planets correspond to the Elemental Five thus
Jupiter Ether
Mars Fire
Saturn Air
Mercury Earth
Venus Water

No wonder in the Pythagorean system, the number five was given such tremendous importance!
Medical astrologers prescribe Ether Therapy if Jupiter is weak and Fire Therapy if Mars is weak etc. By means of the Great Art, health can be restored in the patient !

Modern Medicine Threat to Health

Why Modern Medicine is the Greatest Threat to Health
There is the underlying assumption that modernity translates into better health. A corollary of this logic is that we can live our lives pretty much as we want because we can always buy a repair. You know, the car won't start, the TV is broken, the telephone is dead – no problem. Just call in an expert, spend some money and all is well.

People carry this over to their thinking about health. Our ticker falters, joints creak or an unwanted growth pops up – no problem. Buy some modern medical care. If that doesn't work, it's a problem of money, better insurance, more hospital funding, more research for the "cure," more doctors, better equipment and more technology. Right? Wrong.

Don't take my word for it. Listen to the perpetrators themselves. The following is taken right from the pages of the Journal of the American Medical Association (July 26, 2000): "Of 13 countries in a recent (health) comparison, the United States (the most modern and advanced in the world) ranks an average of 12th (second from the bottom)..."
For example, the U.S. ranks:
· last for low birth weight
· last for neonatal and infant mortality overall
· 11th for post neonatal mortality
· last for years of potential life lost
· 11th for female life expectancy at one year, and next to last for males
· 10th for age adjusted mortality

The World Health Organization, using different indicators, ranked the U.S. 15th among 25 industrialized nations. (If ranked against "primitive" cultures eating and living as humans were designed, the whole industrialized world would be at the bottom of the heap.)

Some might say these dismal results are because of smoking, alcohol, cholesterol, animal fats and poor penetration of medical care. Not so. Countries where these health risks are greater have better overall health according to epidemiological studies. It's also not due to lack of technology. The U.S. is, for example, second only to Japan in the number of magnetic resonance imaging units (MRIs) and computed tomography scanners per unit of population. Neither can lack of medical personnel be blamed since the U.S. has the greatest number of employees per hospital bed in the world.
So what is the problem? Here are some clues as revealed in the same journal cited above:
· 12,000 deaths per year from unnecessary surgery
· 7,000 deaths per year from medication errors in hospitals
· 20,000 deaths per year from other hospital errors
· 80,000 deaths per year from nosocomial (originating in a hospital) infections
· 106,000 deaths per year from adverse effects of medications

That totals 225,000 deaths per year, the third leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer. Another study – we're talking just hospital related deaths here – estimates 284,000 deaths per year. An analysis of outpatient care jumps these figures by 199,000 deaths for a new total of 483,000 medically related deaths per year. And this assumes doctors and hospitals eagerly report all their mistakes. Think so?

The poor health ranking in the U.S. is in large part not because of lack of modern medical care, it is because of it! This does not deny that each person’s life choices do not impact health as well. People cannot live with abandon and then expect anybody to fix it regardless of their technology and skills. You can imagine the frustration physicians must feel faced day-to-day with patients wanting a quick fix for a lifetime of unhealthy life choices. Be that as it may, it does not deny that modern medicine in and of itself is a huge risk to those who surrender to it.

Why do we not hear more about this? It is just too difficult to come to grips with the inevitable – and unbelievable – conclusion: When all the deaths (not counting the hundreds of thousands who are maimed or otherwise harmed but don't die) reported and not reported are tallied, medical intervention is arguably the leading cause of death in our country.

Time to splash some cold water on the rely-on-modern-medicine inebriation. And remember folks, the above are just cold statistics. Take any one of these numbers and humanize it to the real pain, suffering, financial devastation, grief and family disruption, and each one is a heart rending story deserving of anyone's deep concern and sympathy. It is a tragedy of a magnitude unequalled by anything in human history. And it's repeated every year. It makes 9-11, all the deaths in all U.S. wars, deaths by auto, homicides and everything else pale in comparison. (Not to minimize the tragedy of each of those things.)

The media should be shouting about medical risks from atop their broadcast towers. But there is mostly silence, just reports in obscure (to the public) medical and scientific publications. In the meantime, trusting people keep flocking to the slaughter. From just 1995 to 2002, pharmaceutical sales jumped from $65 billion to over $200 billion. That's about one prescription for each man, woman and child in the country every month. This escalation in medical dependency is paralleled in surgeries, lab tests, emergency room admissions, elective procedures and outpatient visits.

You can do something about it. Begin today to take control of your own health destiny. The philosophical paradigm of conventional, allopathic, symptom based, reductionistic, crisis care, episodic, after-the-fact medicine is seriously flawed ... and very deadly. Good and well meaning doctors are hamstrung by wrong philosophical premises. They are crippled every bit as much as those who once believed in a flat Earth. Trying to achieve health with modern allopathic medicine is like trying to fix computers with a hammer, just because that's the only tool you were taught to use or believe in.

Don't wait for the system to change. Old ideas die too hard. The mega-medical industry is not going to be quick in either admitting error or revamping itself. Your health is at stake. Think prevention and natural holistic cure. Study, learn, grow, be skeptical, change lifestyle, be self-reliant – be a thinking person. That's your best road to health.