The reason why many people don't believe in alternative medicine is because
study after study seems to show that these therapies are only have a placebo
effect.
This means they are not actually healing the problem, but since the mind
thinks they are, it heals the problem on its own.
To a scientist, this is a worthless therapy then.
But if you are the patient who is feeing better, do you really care how you
might be feeling better?
The mind works in ways we still do not understand. For example, when you
close your eyes and picture a certain thing, your brain's receptors and nerves
light up as though that thing is in the room with you – even if it isn't.
This simple fact illustrates the idea that your mind is capable of believing in
something that is not true – and then creating its own reality in which it
becomes true.
You mind is capable too of creating the right antibodies and other disease
fighting chemicals if it thinks that it can.
Without becoming too New Age-y, if you were to put into your mind the
thought that going to yoga everyday was going to help you reduce your back
pain, chances are good that you will reduce your back pain. If you sincerely
believe that yoga will help, it will.
Now, whether this is because you believe and thus you go to yoga religiously,
that's anyone's guess.
In order to make any medicine work, you do need to have a little faith that it
will because the body can work in the opposite direction too. If you were to
believe that something was a bunch of hogwash, chances are pretty high that
nothing would happen and your brain would make sure of it.
Does creating the placebo effect really diminish the power of alternative
medicine? Hardly.
While the ingredients themselves or the healing process itself might not be
directly causing the body to become healed, the fact that these therapies
allow the mind to take over the healing process is a pretty compelling
argument for using the alternative medicine in the first place.
Results are what matter when you are sick and feelings awful. And so long
as the therapy isn't making you sicker, perhaps alternative medicine is just
what your body (and mind) really need.
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