Holistic medicine has always shown up in the headlines, but now it’s even more important to consider your alternatives. Even before COVID, we had a pre-existing health crisis in the U.S.—a chronic complex disease epidemic. Years ago, it was infectious disease and before that—way back in the 1800s—it was vitamin deficiency. Now it’s cancer, heart disease and diabetes—all preventable because the number-one cause of these conditions is diet. According to the 2020 National Diabetes Statistic Report from the CDC, one in three (88 million) American adults have prediabetes.
Probably the most important outcome of the COVID 19 pandemic has been a re-emphasis on the importance of building a healthy immune system, striving for freedom from chronic disease and maintaining health. Even in the best of times, everyday stressors and toxins erode the body’s defenses. This is where holistic medicine shines.
What is Holistic Medicine?
Holistic medicine emphasizes relationship-centered care between the doctor and patient. It focuses on prevention and maintenance of health with attention to lifestyle choices including nutrition, exercise, stress management and emotional wellbeing. It requires providers to act as educators, role models and mentors to their patients. Integrative medicine also:
- Uses natural, less invasive interventions before costly invasive ones when possible.
- Utilizes an evidence-based approach from multiple resources of information to integrate the best therapy for a patient, be it conventional or complementary.
- Searches for and removes barriers that may be blocking the body’s innate healing response.
- Sees that compassion is always helpful, even when other therapies are not.
- Focuses on the research and understanding of the process of health and healing and how to facilitate it.
- Accepts that health and healing are unique to the individual and may differ for two people with the same disease.
- Works collaboratively with the patient and a team of interdisciplinary providers to improve the delivery of care.
- Maintains that healing is always possible even when curing is not.
Hippocrates, the “father of medicine,” stated that the job of the physician is to “cure sometimes, heal often, and support always.”
For example, if a child has fluid in the middle ear, a holistic pediatrician usually does not prescribe antibiotics because it’s rarely infected. For years, these occurrences have been defined as ear infections which is not the case. Instead, they refer patients to a chiropractic doctor, an osteopath or a craniosacral specialist. These healing modalities utilize manual techniques, which open the Eustachian tube and drain the fluid without the use of antibiotics. Halotherapy in our Salt Room results in drainage and relieves congestion of the lungs and nasal passages. That is a typical example of integrating modalities and therapies.
How Does Salt Therapy Contribute to the Holistic Medicine Model of Care?
Salt therapy takes place in a spa-like room with salt-covered walls and floor. Treatment consists of sitting in a lounge chair and breathing deeply while pharmaceutical-grade salt is pulverized into microscopic particles and pushed into the room.
Salt therapy is an important tool in a holistic medicine array because it activates multiple physiological processes in the body. Salt acts like an expectorant, accelerating mucus clearance and improving lung function while killing harmful bacteria and soothing the respiratory system. These mucus-clearing, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial effects have been shown to relieve symptoms of acne, allergies, asthma, COPD, colds, flu, chronic cough, cystic fibrosis, dermatitis, ear infections, eczema and sinusitis.
Allergies are a problem for many people in the Orlando area; each year it appears in the top 100 “Asthma and Allergy Capitals” in the U.S., a list put out by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Salt therapy is a huge help to allergy sufferers.
Is Salt Therapy Safe?
Yes! HEPA air filters in the room capture and remove up to 99.97 percent of airborne particles, including viral particles, while activated carbon filters remove volatile organic compounds. A UV light kills 98.8 percent of bacteria and viruses on surfaces. Salt therapy is clinically proven, natural, safe and beneficial for every age group.
