Written by Dennis K. Chernin, MD, MPH | 31 March 2010

There are many approaches to holistic medicine, which is also called complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as well as integrative medicine. The following methods and interventions are the ones I have been studying over the course of my medical career.  They are divided into two categories: ancient approaches and more modern paradigms.

The older systems include:

1. Chinese medicine (which includes qi gong, tai chi, herbs and acupuncture/acupressure),
2. Ayurveda (Indian medicine which includes herbs and various yogic related disciplines) and
3. Yoga therapies.

More recent developed holistic models of medicine include

1. Homeopathy
2. specific types of body movements,
3. nutritional and nurtraceutical/genomic  medicine,
4. psychosomatic medicine and
5. stress management therapies which includes psychoneuroimmunology.

The following many pages are adapted from a book I wrote with a good friend and colleague, Greg Manteuffel, MD in the 1980’s. While some of the references are dated, the content continues to be relevant today. At the end of book there are several case histories which exemplify how modern and ancient approaches in medicine can be integrated in assessing and creating therapeutic interventions to help in prevention, healing and health care.

I have added a chapter on nutrition which discusses how the science of genomics interfaces with the foods we eat, leading to a new branch of nutrition called nutraceuticals.

The subject matters How Holistic Medicine Helps Health and My Personal Experiences are dealt with thoroughly in the body of this book/section. There is a section at the end that gives the reader links and websites to current interesting topics and research.

Click Here to download Health: A Holistic Approach