The Alexander technique is a method of movement and alignment that teaches people to use their bodies more efficiently. It helps individuals improve their posture, let go of muscle tension, and move with greater ease. The goal of this technique is to eradicate such poor habits as slouching and tensing (which can lead to pain, decreased mobility, and other health problems) and replace them with good postural habits.
Category: Alternative Therapies
Alternative therapies or alternative medicine refers to any medical treatments that are not traditional medicine techniques. Examples of this include Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Meditation and more.
Yoga: Getting Started
Clinical studies from around the world have shown that students of yoga are healthier than the rest of the population. They have more energy, better strength and joint flexibility, are more relaxed, have lower blood pressures, slower pulses, stronger hearts, better sleep, improved digestion, and more positive outlooks on life. Emotionally, yoga students have increased self-awareness, better coping skills, and a more relaxed approach to any stress, whether on-the-job or in a family crisis. This may be partially due to the slew of feel-good endorphins, including serotonin, released during yoga postures.
Stress Less: Yoga
Click here for the Health Tip link. If you want to take a major step in reversing whatever problem ails you, sign up for a yoga class and stick with it. There are now classes in virtually every community large enough to have paved roads. Even if you live in the middle of nowhere, you […]
Less Stress: Aromatherapy
Click here for the Health Tip link. You’ve probably seen one of those aromatherapy displays in health food stores and thought, “One of these days, I’m going to learn something about aromatherapy.” I admit that confronting the 40-odd different oils put me off aromatherapy for a long time. Too many options paralyzed me into indecision. […]
T’ai Chi: Getting Started
Click here for the Health Tip link. To get started on this health-enhancing, stress-busting, strength-developing project, you’ll need to find a class. Although an endless array of tapes and DVDs are available, I believe you need an instructor to help you see what you might be doing right and wrong. I’ve tried the tapes myself, […]
Stress Less: T’ai Chi
Click here for the Health Tip link. Probably like a lot of Americans, the first time I actually saw someone doing t’ai chi was during the Bill Moyers special on alternative medicine that ran on public television in the early 1990s. He was filming in China, in a city park where hundreds of Chinese start […]
A Quick and Easy Reflexology Self Treatment
Last time we explored reflexology. Today I’ll share a simple self treatment.
Obviously, take off your shoes and socks. Sit with your right foot resting comfortably on your left leg. Hold your foot with your left hand and do the thumb-walking with your right. When using your thumb, bend it slightly and work into the point with the fat pad of your thumb so you don’t inadvertently dig in with your nails.
Stress Less: Reflexology
I personally postponed trying reflexology because of extreme ticklishness. Just the thought of something other than a floor or a pair of socks touching the soles of my feet sent shivers up my spine. It never dawned on me that connecting the soles of the feet to the meridians of Chinese medicine is the entire basis of reflexology.
Townsend Letter
If you’re interested in the current status of alternative medicine in the US, consider a sample issue of Townsend Letter.
Now in its 25th year of continuous publication under the direction of pioneer integrative physician Jonathan Collin, MD, the publication is subtitled “The Examiner of Alternative Medicine.” I learned early on that a subscription to Townsend Letter was virtually a requirement if I wanted to keep abreast of the many fields of complementary and alternative therapies.
Flower Essence Therapy: How Do I Choose My Remedies?
The Bach Center has prepared a self-help questionnaire to guide you through the remedy selection process. The questionnaire is usually tucked next to the remedy display at health food stores, but is also online by clicking here.
Stress Less: Flower Essence Therapy, Part 2
Last time we talked about Edward Bach, the British homeopathic physician who combined homeopathy with the mind-body connection in treating emotional states such as chronic grief, loneliness, hypersensitivity, and lack of confidence in order to cure chronic health disorders.
Less Stress: Flower Essence Therapy
I first encountered flower remedies when visiting a couple who had just lost a long-awaited infant by miscarriage. Although their home was very much a place of mourning, they bore their grief with fortitude. At one point during the conversation, they brought out a small bottle, placed a few drops under each other’s tongues, and then continued talking.
Does Meditation Work?
Meditation is embraced by conventional medicine today as a perfectly acceptable means of lowering blood pressure, reducing pain, helping migraines, easing menstrual cramps, and, most importantly, reducing stress and anxiety.
Stress Less: Meditation
Meditation is the simplest relaxation technique to explain and by far the hardest to master.
Like acupuncture, yoga, sushi bars, and Thai restaurants, meditation comes to us from the East, from religious practice that required quiet contemplation in order to induce a state of tranquility.
Less Stress: Guided Imagery
When you use guided imagery, you deliberately and consciously use the power of your imagination to create positive images (called healing visualizations) that will trigger healthful changes within. The whole concept of guided imagery works because in terms of the physiology inside your brain, picturing something and actually experiencing it are very similar. Let’s pretend […]
Healing Touch: A Balanced Approach to Health Care
Wouldn’t it be ideal to have a system of health care that focuses on the uniqueness of each person, draws on the best of ancient wisdom and modern medical expertise, maximizes wellness, and offers support when health issues arise?
Cranial Electrostimulation
Several months go, I was reading the on-line bulletin of the Rush Medical Center here in Chicago when my eye caught an article about Rush psychiatrists enrolling patients into a trial of a non-medical therapy for depression and anxiety. They were especially seeking patients who were either medication-resistant or had experienced too many medication side effects.
RESPeRATE for High Blood Pressure
It’s always nice to find therapies for chronic conditions that don’t require pill swallowing–there’s nothing glummer than a patient’s face when she says “Do you mean I have to take this pill every day for the rest of my life?” One of the challenges of a non-pill therapy is the health insurance industry, which basically […]
Myers’ Cocktail
A lot of my readers have read about this well-known gem of nutritional medicine in one alternative medicine magazine or another and may wonder if it could be useful for their particular health issue. In my own practice, many patients receive their Myers’ regularly, returning because of positive results.
Healing Affirmations
Doctors long ago discovered that a positive mental attitude can actually trigger healing changes in the human body.
You can promote healing and general health by repeating affirmations quietly to yourself several times throughout the day.