Holistic medicine

Alternative medicine includes all of the approaches and techniques that until the past few years were not taught in medical schools and residencies. Alternative medicine is also referred to as complementary medicine, unconventional medicine, or holistic medicine. Some of the categories of alternative medicine... 

More and more Americans are turning to alternative medicine. The ancient art of aromatherapy has gained a tremendous following, particularly on the West Coast. Acupuncture, the traditional Chinese art of needle therapy, has doubled its number of active practitioners in the past decade. And holistic medicine—treating the whole body instead of just one part—is so popular that some HMOs now even pay for holistic care. 

Patient-centric medicine is essentially personalized medicine, but with the accent only slightly taken off the pharmacogenomics and placed on the broader picture that essentially corresponds to holistic medicine to be discussed later. These distinctions are subtle and fragile, and it is perhaps clearer and truer to say that patient-centric medicine is a corporate strategy in the IT industry. But this is good it reflects the deep recognition by the IT industry of the kinds of principles discussed in this book. 

So what is exactly is the nature of the holistic cure for mainstream medicine right now It is the scientific and engineering impact of the Internet on the holistic approach that will be highlighted in the second half of this chapter. According to David Collin, MPH, American Cancer Society, Oakland, CA, who clearly shares the vision of the link between aspects of holistic medicine and modem technology ... 

The cardiologists like Joe Flower, Leonard S. Dreifus, Alfred A. Bove, and William S. Weintraub cover our other points about the link between holistic medicine and modern technology, as described in their web article Thinking about the Future ... 

Before Western conservative medical hardliners decide to skip this chapter as pandering to unscientific faddish and cultish tastes, they should note that there are real indications that many physicians and medical scientists would at least like to turn the tide. The very conservative Royal Society of Medicine in London October 2000 had a conference on the theme Healthcare for the Whole Person Is Holistic Medicine More Healthy and it received a generally favorable opinion. The First International Conference on Holistic Healthcare was held in Copenhagen, November 1 and 2,2004 on the scientific aspects of holistic medicine and its now being perceived no longer as an occult, or naive and unscientific approach. 

As we have shown, personalized medicine at its fullest takes consideration of individual s hereditary, environmental, and lifestyle variances, and hence is not very far removed from the notion of holistic medicine. In clinical practice, holistic medicine has rapidly become the dominant theme in oncology where the therapeutic index of the drugs is perhaps the narrowest. A further development of such personalized medicine may be medical diagnostic devices in the home. A medical diagnostic device in each home could personalize monitoring, since families differ in their genomics and lifestyles and the risk factors implied by both of hereditary traits and phenotypic variances. 

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