(4) My Point of View on Alternative and Holistic Medicine

My point of view on Alternative and Holistic Medicines:

I strongly feel that if a health/medical situation is not in immediate need of action or treatment that one should have resources and options available to them them allow them to move forward in an educated matter with an alternative therapy or more holistic approach to healing. It would be my hope that someday a general practitioner or specialist would be able to guide you in the proper direction (because natural remedies such as herbs and supplements taken the wrong way can also adversely affect your health or lead to overdose) but unfortunately, these doctors are extremely hard to find. I also strongly feel that the medical community is setting themselves up for failure with over-booking patients, allowing 10 to 15 minutes tops to see and treat patients, allowing PI's with little training to see and treat patients, etc. I believe that the run unnecessary tests and overprescribe medications 90% of the time. I would say I was fortunate enough to find one or two decent doctors after seeing many. One doctor was actually born in China, was an MD but studied acupuncture - without telling him I had kidney stones he was able to tell just by feeling the energy flow being more stagnant in certain areas of my body. He was the perfect example of someone who was knowledgeable in conventional medicine but offered alternative treatments. I believe this should be the new standard to strive for moving forward for the medical community.

(2) Definition of topic

Alternative Medicine as defined on MedicineNet.com/Webster's Dictionary: "Alternative medicine: Healing arts not taught in traditional Western medical schools that promote options to conventional medicine that is taught in these schools.. An example of an alternative therapy is using a special diet to treat cancer instead of undergoing surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy that has been recommended by a Western physician. Complementary medicine is different from alternative medicine. Whereas complementary medicine is used together with conventional medicine, alternative medicine is used in place of conventional medicine. See also complementary medicine, conventional medicine."

Holistic Medicine/Healing as defined on Answers.com: "Holistic medicine is a term used to describe therapies that attempt to treat the patient as a whole person. That is, instead of treating an illness, as in orthodox allopathy, holistic medicine looks at an individual's over-all physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional well-being before recommending treatment. A practitioner with a holistic approach treats the symptoms of illness as well as looking for the underlying cause of the illness. Holistic medicine also attempts to prevent illness by placing a greater emphasis on optimizing health. The body's systems are seen as interdependent parts of the person's whole being. Its natural state is one of health, and an illness or disease is an imbalance in the body's systems. Holistic therapies tend to emphasize proper nutrition and avoidance of substances—such as chemicals—that pollute the body. Their techniques are non-invasive.

Some of the world's health systems that are holistic in nature include naturopathic medicine, homeopathy, and traditional Chinese medicine. Many alternative or natural therapies have a holistic approach, although that is not always the case. The term complementary medicine is used to refer to the use of both allopathic and holistic treatments. It is more often used in Great Britain, but is gaining acceptance in the United States."

Additional Useful Links

Nutritional Health Supplements Health Guide:http://www.nutritional-supplements-health-guide.com/
HealthCastle.com, Simply Better Health (Nutrition Website)http://www.healthcastle.com/food_supplements.shtml
NOAH, New York Online Access to Healthhttp://www.noah-health.org/en/alternative/
Learning Meditation:http://www.learningmeditation.com/
http://www.drweil.com/
American Association for Health Freedom: http://www.altmedicine.com/FrameSet.asp

(3) The History & Founder of Homeopathic Medicine

If you are interested in the timeline/history of Homeopathic Medicine, this website outlines it starting from the 1700's. As quoted from www.wholehealthnow.com, here is an intro to who founded Homeopathic Medicine: "Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) was the founder of Homoeopathy. He established the fundamental principles of the science and art of Homoeopathy. He is called the Father of Experimental Pharmacology because he was the first physician to prepare medicines in a specialized way; proving them on healthy human beings, to determine how the medicines acted to cure diseases. Before Hahnemann, medicines were given on speculative indications, mainly on the basis of authority without experimental verification."
http://www.wholehealthnow.com/homeopathy_pro/homeopathy_1755_1799.html

(5) & (6) Poster Project & Zine Ideas

For this week's assignment, we were asked to create a poster in Illustrator based on an imagined event that pertains to our research topic which we would organize or host. We were asked to incorporate different fonts, our logo, background colors, images on multiple layers, etc. I choose to make a poster that would advertise a Holistic Healing Day/Fair where people could gather information on topics such as accupuncture, where to find certified accupuncturists, information on certified nutritionists and dieticians, physicians who do incorporate a more holistic approach to treating patients, massage therapists, information on herbs and vitamins that can work in healing and preventing certain diseases, information on the benefits of yoga and meditation and lastly a whole information session solely dedication to educating physicians on alternative and complimentary therapies in hopes of mainstreaming the medical field to treat the patient as a whole and look more into the mind/body/medicine relationships.

We were told that the poster would also be a good first step for a possible cover to our zine. We were also told to start thinking about the purpose and intent of our zine and where we would like it distributed. I think I would want my zine to be a source or reference guide to people who are suffering and who have have exhausted every conventional way of healing themselves and are needing something hopeful and more of a positive experience that what they have encountered in the past. That being said, I think doctor's waiting rooms would be a good distribution location. I also would want to target people who are not sick but just looking to lead a healthy lifestyle so yoga centers, health food stores, WholeFoods supermarkets would also be a good place to have this zine.

Homework: Logos

For this homework assignment we had to create four different versions of a logo in relation to our topic. The logo I created contains a pill in the center to represent medicine, then the wings of a dragonfly to represent nature and I combined them into a logo to show how the two need to used in conjunction with each other to create the most natural way to a healthy life.

Homework