Meaning of Alternate Therapies

By Awnish Todi

Origin
The concept of alternative therapies or alternative medicines began to take real shape after the 1990's decade, initially in America. That was the decade when doctors started to realize just how many Americans were using alternative medicine, starting with a 1993 paper published in 'The New England Journal of Medicine'. The paper reported that one in three Americans was using some kind of "unconventional therapy." Only 28 percent of them were telling their primary-care doctors about it.
Importance
To understand the importance of the alternate medicine, I hereby quote an article from The Economic Times:
More stress needed on alternative medicine: Shripad Yesso Naik
NEW DELHI: Ayurveda, yoga and related traditional medical practices need more "stress and emphasis" as part of a more holistic approach towards the health sector, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Shripad Yesso Naik said today.
Naik said that as the world is "waking up" to the importance of alternative medicine,India should take the lead in this sector leveraging its position of relative advantage.
Alternative therapies of Indian origin
India is responsible for giving the world a large number of alternative therapies. Apart from the well known Yoga and Ayurveda, There are a number of lesser known therapies that ancient India has gifted the world.
Yoga Therapy
Yoga therapy tries to re-establish the inner balance by various means, working from the gross to the subtle. On the physical level it uses:
• Asanas
• Kriyas
• Pranayamas
• Diet
Simple Nature Cure Techniques: The elements water, air, sun and simple procedures like massaging or steam inhalation are used as a support.
The second line of therapy is the work on the mind. Mental disturbances - anxieties, confusion, and unsteadiness are the most important factors which can cause a disease condition. Therefore, various techniques have been developed to create positive mind states.
Among others there are:
1. Relaxation

2. Conditioning
3. Bhavanas
Contemplation on certain basic ideas like the transitoriness of all things can stimulate a change of attitude towards life.
Yoga has claimed that tension is disease and relaxation is health. To this end the whole eightfold path of yoga is to purify the body-mind complex
4. Mantra Therapy
Mantras work directly upon our karma: the accumulated latencies and tendencies with which we are born. The vibrations of these ancient formulas work through the chakras to increase the flow of beneficial energy throughout the subtle body where these latencies and tendencies are stored. Mantra therapy starts by increasing the total amount of energy available for all of our activities. Certain mantras used singly or in combination can greatly accelerate the quality and quantity of energy used in the healing process. However, if the karmic propensity for a given condition is overwhelming, mantra therapy will not remove the difficulty any more than conventional therapy will. However, it will reduce the karmic baggage you take into future lives.
The energy created through mantra practice may lead one to forms of therapy quite different from the ones used initially. Thus, some unexpected new form of treatment may appear as the result of mantra practice.
5. Pranic Healing
Pranic healing is a highly developed and tested system of energy-based healing techniques that utilizes prana (life-force) to balance, harmonize and transform the body's energy processes. Pranic healing is a simple yet powerful and effective no-touch energy healing. It is based on the fundamental principle that the body is a "self-repairing" living entity that possesses the innate ability to heal itself. Pranic healing works on the principle that the healing process is accelerated by increasing the life force or vital energy on the affected part of the physical body.
Pranic healing is currently being taught to doctors, nurses, massage therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, the clergy, homemakers, engineers and many others in all walks of life. It has allowed them to heal confidently and consistently in the shortest learning time possible. They find pranic healing very effective and easy to apply.
6. Colon Hydrotherapy
Do you experience any of these health problems? Constipation, diarrhea, frequent headaches, backaches, fatigue, bad breath, body odor, irritability, confusion, skin problems, abdominal gas and bloating, lower back pain, sciatic pain, low resistance to colds and infections, low energy and vitality... These are all indicators that you may need to cleanse your body's elimination system. Colon hydrotherapy is an excellent way to accomplish this objective.
7. Urine Therapy
Urine is not, as many believe, the excess water from food and liquids that goes through the intestines and is ejected from the body as "waste". Medical researchers have discovered that many of the elements of the blood that are found in urine have enormous medicinal value, and when reintroduced to the body, they boost the body's immune defenses and stimulate healing in a way that nothing else does.
In 1975, one of the founders of Miles Laboratories, Dr. A. H. Free, published his book, Urinalysis in Clinical Laboratory Practice, in which he remarked that not only is urine a sterile body compound (purer than distilled water), but that it is now recognized that urine contains literally thousands of compounds.
Researchers have discovered that allergic responses are caused by "renegade" white blood cells that inappropriately attack substances even when they may be no threat to the body. So it is the activity of these renegade white blood cells, called antigen receptors, that needs to be corrected in order to cure the allergy.
Realizing that the urine of allergic individuals contains the allergy causing antigen receptors, researchers thought that to re-introduce the urine back to the allergic individual would mean antibodies would be produced which would then stop the allergic response. And that is exactly what happens. Allergies have been completely turned around with urine therapy.
Multiple sclerosis, colitis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, hepatitis, hyperactivity, pancreatic insufficiency, psoriasis, eczema, diabetes, herpes, mononucleosis, adrenal failure, allergies and so many other ailments have been relieved through use of this therapy.

8. Laughter Therapy
In 2003-04 the first authentic research was completed by Dr. Ilona Papousek from the University of Graz in early fall 2004. According to the news release by Ananova - March 2004, a new study shows that laughter really is the best therapy for stroke patients, according to scientists. A study was conducted at a computer company where Mr. Thomas Flindt led a session of laughter yoga in the beginning of the day throughout the month of May 2004. This project shows clearly the effect that a regular practice of laughter yoga has on the stress levels. The body stress levels are significantly reduced.
9. Past Life Therapy
"Past life regression therapy includes the mental act of going back to a time prior to this life in order to retrieve memories that may still negatively influence a person's present life.
Dr. Francis Menezes, who has regressed using hypnosis states, says, "To be able to go to your past life, most therapists take you back to yesterday, two days ago, last week, five years ago, ten years back, finally to your mother's womb and beyond. To be born you have to die." "In a hypnotherapy session, your master is in control of you, your blood count level is low, and your heartbeat is slow. It is almost a dreamless state, which is extremely emotionally draining once you wake up," says Dr. Menezes. Interestingly all those who practice past life therapy don't feel the need to prove it.
"What is of value here is the outcome which is certainly effective. Besides, how can I try to convince someone who doesn't want to be convinced?" opines R.Chandran.
People who are healed through past life therapy are people who remember names, dates and geographic details. But perhaps, even more important than curing of physical and emotional symptoms, is the knowledge that we do not die even if our bodies do. We are immortal!

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