When it comes to the treatment of a health condition, a simple way of making sure a holistic approach is being applied is to your health, is to ensure the three sides of the Triad of Health are balanced.
This Triad of Health includes:
- Structural or physical
- Chemical or nutritional
- Emotional or mental
If only one or two aspects of this triad are addressed you may not ever reach 100% healing success.
“Holistic” and “holism” are words that are gaining in popularity in the world of health. The Macquarie Encyclopaedic Dictionary states that holistic medicine is “an approach which treats the whole person rather than just dealing with manifestations of a disease or symptoms.” I am proud to practice chiropractic techniques which allow me to fulfil this definition every day at Santosha.
If we use the simple example of a headache: This headache may be caused by your five-a-day coffee habit (chemical), stress over a recent relationship breakdown (emotional) combined with dysfunction in your neck (physical). But if only the neck dysfunction is treated by chiropractic adjustments or stretches, or you just kick your coffee habit, while the headaches may diminish they will not go completely until you take care of the emotional patterns you are also dealing with. In the same way, counselling may help you emotionally and reduce some headaches, if you are still consuming copious amounts of coffee, the problem will likely still persist.
On the other hand, dealing with your headache by chemical means, such as ‘pain killers’, while chemically altering your body to not feel the pain, still leaves the emotional and structural problems behind. These emotional and structural issues may then manifest as other health problems further down the track.
As I mentioned earlier, I am proud that my approach and qualifications allow me to address all three sides of the health triad:
- Structural or Physical – Chiropractic adjustments, stretching and exercise advice, functional muscle assessment
- Chemical or Nutritional – Nutritional and supplementation advice, Applied Kinesiology
- Emotional or Mental – Neuro-Emotional Technique