Increasingly, Western Medicine is making room for holistic pain remedies as complementary therapies for pain management.
Working side by side, holistic therapies, and institutionally entrenched treatments are finding collaborative ways to address the human problem of pain, combining their respective virtues for the sake of human health.
Let’s look at the emerging role of holistic therapies in pain management and how acupuncture and CBD are changing the game for 21st-century patients.
A Whole Human
Holistic pain remedies are known as treatments that take into account not just the physical aspects of wellness, but those of the spirit and mind, also. Holistic therapies seek to treat a whole human, not an isolated manifestation of pain or malaise.
The acknowledgment that pain is not always caused by physical factors was a tremendous step in the discovery of common ground between Western medicine and the idea of treating illness from a holistic perspective.
The latter is ancient and only now coming to be respected in the West by the medical community.
From acupuncture to CBD, holistic therapies and pain remedies are taking their place alongside the work of Western Medicine as the two come to recognize each other’s complementary roles for pain management.
Balance As Healing For Pain Management
The body is an organism consisting of a series of interdependent systems. Electrically driven, these systems may not always work in harmony.
This phenomenon may result from the introduction of a harmful or toxic agent or a naturally occurring pathogen.
It may also result from psychological or spiritual illness. But regardless of the source, an unbalanced body isn’t happy.
Balance in the body is called “homeostasis” and when this is achieved, the whole of the organism functions harmoniously.
Balance can only be achieved when the whole human is taken into account, body, mind, and spirit.
When these elements of the human organism find harmony, the human being is fully alive. This is the goal of holistic pain remedies.
The Acupuncture Example
Acupuncture’s “whole human” approach to pain is rooted in the restoration of homeostasis.
By balancing the flow of “Qi” (“Chi”) energy, this ancient Chinese practice uses specific sites running along assigned meridians for the insertion of fine, sterile needles to achieve balance.
Regardless of the fact that acupuncture has been practiced for about 3,000 years, it’s only now that Western Medicine is recognizing its role as a complementary therapy.
First described by a European physician in the 17th Century, acupuncture is becoming rooted in the Western tradition as one of the pivotal holistic pain remedies called on by conventional physicians.
Currently, acupuncture is being examined as an alternative weight loss therapy. It’s just one example of how attitudes are changing with respect to complementary holistic treatments.
CBD: At The Heart Of Homeostasis
Now that the prohibition of cannabis has largely ended, it’s finally possible to conduct more research on cannabis and hemp plants and their components.
Researchers have taken full advantage of this fact to ramp up research efforts into the efficacy of these plants as medicinal agents and leading holistic pain remedies.
CBD’s interaction with the endocannabinoid system makes it a powerful weapon against pain.
The endocannabinoid system is responsible for many of the body’s functions, including sensations of pain and motor learning.
The human body naturally produces cannabinoids and when more of these are added by the ingestion of CBD, the organism is fully supported in re-establishing balance.
While the study of the incredible endocannabinoid system and its interaction with CBD continues, the use of CBD in pharmaceutical preparations is not only being studied but pursued, in drugs like Epidiolex, an anti-seizure medication.
Studies continue to empirically establish the effectiveness of CBD.
As one of the most popular holistic pain remedies, it’s hoped that CBD will soon take its place among complementary pain therapies prescribed by conventional medical professionals.
The Changing Face Of Medicine
Institutions need time to adjust to the realities of a changing world. And in the 21st Century, Western Medicine must adjust to a newly-educated patient base.
Liberated from the strictures of conventional wisdom, modern patients draw on the Information Age’s freedom to demand new ways of seeking healing.
Holistic and alternative therapies are a huge part of that, creating an opportunity for Western Medicine to reinvigorate itself with ancient, holistic ways of managing pain.
The union of ancient wisdom and modern science has finally arrived and the chief beneficiary is the patient, finding in that union a solution to pain.
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Author Profile:
Frank is the co-owner of East Tree Dispensary and is extremely passionate about the medicinal benefits of CBD and cannabis. He has a background in hotel management so he merged great customer service experience with awesome THC and CBD products and a cool design. He is currently working on legalizing cannabis in the state of Indiana.
