Some people refer to all non-conventional therapies as being New Age - in the same context as everyone who is non-conformist in the social sense was once called a drop-out or a Hippy.
In fact, the principles and thinking behind complementary therapy go back some 4,000 years.......
In both India and China, it was accepted that wellness and dis-ease were opposite forces where wellness held dis-ease in balance. Therefore they realized that the focus should be on achieving balance and harmony of body, mind and spirit as a means of maintaining balance and vitality and keeping dis-ease at bay. This is the origin of the yinyang symbol of the sun and moon - opposites in harmony.
In the West, the science of medicine evolved slowly from the Middle Ages - the days of potions, alchemy and blood letting. In the C18th and C19th centuries in Europe, there was great excitement and interest in discovering how the various body parts fitted together. The body was thought of as a self-regulating mechanism, composed of its constituent parts. When one of the parts went wrong, then others tended to go out of balance too.
The C20th century saw the emergence of drug companies that grew as a result of the perpetual search for new remedies that could be produced in the laboratory, then mass produced in special factories, to supply a growing health service.
The focus of the Health Service today is on treating those who are unwell, primarily with medical intervention using drugs and where necessary, with surgery.
In the West, there is generally suspicion and sometimes hostility from many doctors towards complementary therapies, although some therapies like acupuncture and chiropractic are gaining acceptance in many countries.
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