Next page of alternative medicine treatments

Definitions of Alternative Medicine, Complementary Medicine, Adjunctive Medicine - Part 1 of 13

Amplified Energy Therapy: Form of energy healing (see "vibrational medicine") promoted by Richard Gordon. Its postulate is that people can learn to maneuver their "life-force energy" toward following the body's "innate intelligence."

angelic healing: Apparently, any form of channeling, intercessory prayer, meditation, or visualization that purportedly involves the therapeutic assistance of angels. Its postulate is that angels invisibly guide, protect, and heal people.

anthroposophical medicine (anthroposophically-extended medicine, anthroposophical therapeutics): Medical phase of anthroposophy, the occult philosophy of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Anthroposophical medicine, a purported "extension of practical medicine," encompasses curative eurythmy. According to anthroposophy, the human organism consists of a physical body, a vegetal "etheric" body, an animalistic "astral" or "soul" body, and an "ego" or "spirit." Anthroposophical "remedies" supposedly smooth the interaction of these components.

apitherapy (bee sting therapy, bee venom therapy): Administration of honeybee stings to treat a wide variety of illnesses. Apitherapy allegedly "unleashes" the body's "healing power." According to one theory, the "energetics" of bees and their venom is key to the method.

apple diet (apple-cleansing regimen, apple-diet cleansing routine, apple-diet regimen, apple-diet therapy): Alleged purificatory "reducing aid" inspired by the "readings" of "religious seer" Edgar Cayce (see "The Cayce Approach to Health and Healing"). The three-day regimen includes enemas and restricts food intake to raw apples (especially Delicious and Jonathan, and peeled unless they are organic), black coffee, and olive oil. Cayce recommended the diet for numerous ailments, including anemia, debilitation, and "subluxations."

applied kinesiology (AK, kinesiology): Elaborate system of ostensible diagnosis and treatment whose centerpiece is muscle testing (see below). Detroit chiropractor George J. Goodheart, Jr., developed the first AK procedure (the origin and insertion technique) in 1964. He theorized that muscle groups share "energy pathways" with internal organs and that, therefore, every organ dysfunction is discoverable in a related muscle. Testing muscles for relative strength and tone supposedly taps the body's "innate intelligence" and enables practitioners to detect specific dysfunctions. AK encompasses: "clinical nutrition"; CranioSacral Therapy; "dietary management"; homeopathy, including classical homeopathy; meridian therapy (see "Ching Lo"), especially acupressure and acupuncture; and reflexology.

aqua acupuncture (aqua acupuncture therapy, aquapuncture, the injection therapy): Form of acupuncture that involves the hypodermic injection of substances (e.g., vitamin preparations or liquid herbal extracts) at acupuncture points, purportedly to "stimulate" them by pressure from the injected substance.

archetypal psychology: Form of psychotherapy akin to theotherapy and advanced by Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen. Archetypal psychology focuses on myths as keys to self-knowledge.

Arhatic YogaSM (Arhatic Yoga System): Syncretic form of yoga developed by Choa Kok Sui, an exponent of Kriyashakti, Pranic Healing, and pranic psychotherapy. Its purported design is to activate and align chakras, safely awaken "the 'sacred fires' of the body," and increase longevity. Its theory posits "golden energy," kundalini, and physical and spiritual "bodies." The Center for Pranic Healing, in New York City, defines "arhatic" as "a highly integrated human being equipped with very developed intuition, advanced mental powers, highly refined emotions and engaged in a great contribution to the Divine Plan."

Arica®: Spiritual movement founded by Oscar Ichazo, in Arica, a city of northern Chile. It includes bodywork and various breathing and meditational "techniques." The Arica School was founded in New York in 1971.

Aroma Behavior Conditioning (ABC): Combination of aromatherapy and NLP. The Myotherapy Institute Research Center (see "Acutherapy") offered a program in ABC but discontinued it before early June 1996.

aroma-spa therapy: Subject of a textbook of the same name (Anessence Inc., 1996), by massage therapist Anne Roebuck, of Toronto, Canada. Apparently, aroma-spa therapy is the practice of aromatherapy as a part of spa therapy, which Roebuck describes in the introduction as "therapeutic face and body treatments at a spa location."

aromatherapy (aromatic medicine, conventional aromatherapy, holistic aromatherapy): "Branch" of herbal medicine that centers on using fragrant substances, particularly oily plant extracts, to alter mood or to improve individuals' health or appearance. The alleged benefits of aromatherapy range from stress relief to enhancement of immunity and the unlocking of "emotions from past experiences." Although aromatherapy has ancient roots, proponents did not call it "aromatherapy" before the 1930s. The expression "aromatherapy" is an umbrella used by the cosmetics, fragrance, and alternative-medicine industries. It derives from the French word aromathérapie, coined by René Maurice Gattefossé, a French chemist whose book of the same name was published in 1928. After a lab explosion Gattefossé conveniently plunged his badly burned hand into a vat of lavender oil. He noticed how well it healed, and thus began the development of modern aromatherapy, which French homeopaths Dr. and Mme. Maury revived in the 1960s. In the aromatherapy industry the odorous substances of choice are essential oils (oils that are volatile, aromatic, and flammable) from flowers, fruits, grasses, leaves, roots, and wood resins. Manners of use of such oils include sniffing, ingestion, addition to bathwater, and application to the skin (typically with massage). One of aromatherapy's postulates is that essential oils have a "spiritual dimension" and can restore "balance" and "harmony" both to one's body and to one's life. One of its principles, the "doctrine of signatures," holds that a plant's visible and olfactory characteristics reveal its "secret" qualities. For example, because the configuration of the violet suggests shyness, aromatherapists hold that its scent engenders calmness and modesty. Some proponents have characterized essential oils as the soul or spirit of plants.

astanga yoga (Ashtanga Yoga, Raja Yoga): Putative prototype of hatha yoga. It involves ujaya breathing (see "ujjayi"), which purportedly helps to purify the cells and organs of the body. The Sanskrit word "raja" means king.

Aston Movement: Mode of bodywork developed by Judith Aston, the founder of Aston-Patterning. One of its postulates is that bodily "patterns"--ways of moving, areas of ease, and areas of discomfort--reveal everyone's history of attitude, injury, and physical activity.

Aston-Patterning®: Form of "movement reeducation" developed by Judith Aston. Its purported design is to teach people how to live optimally in their bodies. One of its postulates is that the body wants to move in an asymmetrical spiral. With one hand, practitioners, called "Aston-Patterners," thus move connective tissue.

astrological diagnosis: Purported means of determining one's constitutional tendencies and "potential destiny." Its major considerations include the time and place of birth, the site of one's upbringing, and current astrological and astronomic "conditions."

astrologic medicine (astral healing, astrological healing, astromedicine, medical astrology, medicinal astrology): System based on "cosmobiology," an alleged science whose postulate is that specific mental and physical conditions correspond to the relative positions of celestial bodies. Astrologic medicine involves horoscopic astrology and the "zodiacal man" doctrine. The postulate of horoscopic astrology--also called genethliacal astrology, horoscopy, natal astrology, popular astrology, and sun sign astrology--is that the relationship between the positions of planets and stars and the moment of one's birth determines lifelong personality. According to the "zodiacal man" doctrine, each of the twelve signs ("houses") of the zodiac--constellations named Aries, Taurus, etc.--governs a different part of the human body. Proponents associate these zodiacal signs ("sun signs") with bodily parts (e.g., organs) and systems and with predisposition to disease in different bodily parts. Certain "planetary configurations" supposedly can trigger disease in susceptible persons. Some proponents further posit a correlation of (a) sun signs and particular herbs, and (b) sun signs and the twelve "cell salts" of the Schuessler biochemic system of medicine. Astrologic medicine includes astrodiagnosis (see "astrological diagnosis"), prognosis, selection and timing of treatments (especially homeopathic "remedies"), and alleged preventive medicine.

attitudinal healing: Purported regulation or maintenance of physical, mental, and/or spiritual health by taking up "proper" mental attitudes or a particular worldview. Attitudinal healing encompasses Buddhist psychology, Christian Science, A Course in Miracles, transpersonal psychology, and yogic meditation.

aura analysis (aura reading, auric diagnosis): Supposed direct or indirect examination of the "vital energy" that allegedly envelops each human. Proponents claim that this "aura" is perceptible to clairvoyants or psychics. "Nonpsychics" purportedly can analyze it through Kirlian photography or a Kilner screen. Dr. Walter J. Kilner (1847-1920) of St. Thomas's Hospital, in London, invented this screen: two plates of glass, an eighth of an inch apart, containing an alcoholic solution of a dye (usually carmine or a coal-tar dye). "Auric" colors supposedly reveal the personal traits of the subject, such as impressionableness and "spiritual arrogance." Proponents also associate "auric" colors with glands, organs, organ systems, and psychological states such as anger and boredom.

auricular acupuncture (auricular acupuncture therapy): Alleged stimulation of acupoints on the auricle (the outer portion of the ear). Practitioners may base their choice of points on clinical experience, "modern medicine," the site of the disease, or the TCM theories of "Organs" and meridians.

auricular moxibustion: Component of Chinese auricular therapy whose forms include (a) burnt match moxibustion, in which the practitioner taps one or two auricular acupoints rapidly with the head of a burnt match; (b) indirect moxibustion, a form of indirect moxabustion; (c) thread incense moxibustion, a variation of direct moxabustion; and (d) warm needle moxibustion, wherein the practitioner heats an inserted needle with a match or lighter.

Ayurveda (Ayurveda Medicine, Ayurvedic healing, Ayurvedic healthcare, Ayurvedic medicine, ayurvedism, Indian medicine, Science of Longevity, traditional Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine, Vedic medicine): The medical phase of Hinduism. Promoters applaud it as the "most ancient" and "most complete" system of "natural medicine" and as the "mother of all healing arts." Ayurvedic theory posits a "subtle anatomy" that includes: (a) nadis, "canals" that carry prana ("cosmic energy") throughout the body; (b) chakras, "centers of consciousness" that connect body and soul; and (c) marmas, points on the body beneath which "vital structures" (physical and/or "subtle") intersect. Ayurvedic "diagnosis" involves examination of the eyes, face, lips, tongue, nails, and pulse. Ayurvedists associate parts of the lips and tongue, for example, with internal organs and maintain that discolorations, lines, cracks, and irritability in various areas indicate disorders in "corresponding" organs. The pulse is important because, supposedly, the heart is the seat of the underlying intelligence of nature: human consciousness.

Ayurvedic Acupuncture (Bhedan Karma, traditional Indian acupuncture): Subject of The Lost Secrets of Ayurvedic Acupuncture: An Ayurvedic Guide to Acupuncture (1994), by Frank Ros, "A.M.D." (probably "Doctor of Ayurvedic Medicine"), D.Ac. Ayurvedic Acupuncture is a form of Marma Chikitsa. The basis of Ayurvedic Acupuncture is the Suchi Veda. "Bhedan Karma" means "piercing-through therapy."

Ayurvedic nutrition (Ayurvedic diet): Nutritional phase of Ayurveda. It involves eating according to (a) one's "body type" and (b) the "season." The alleged activity of the doshas--three "bodily humors," "dynamic forces," or "spirits that possess"--determines one's "body type." In Ayurveda, "body types" number seven, eight, or ten, and "seasons" traditionally number six. Each two-month season corresponds to a dosha; for example, the two seasons that correspond to the dosha named "Pitta" (see "Raktamoksha") constitute the period of mid-March through mid-July. But some proponents enumerate three seasons: summer (when pitta predominates), autumn, and winter (the season of kapha); or Vata season (fall and winter), Kapha season (spring), and Pitta season (summer). According to Ayurvedic theory, one should lessen one's intake of foods that increase ("aggravate") the ascendant dosha.

Next page of alternative medicine treatments