Whole Health

Whole Health, copyright Tarcher/Penguin

Nearly 40 percent of adults in the United States use some form of complementary and alternative medicine, according to a recent NCCAM survey. These therapies--acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, massage, hypnosis, biofeedback, energy healing, naturopathy, and herbal remedies--are not considered to be part of conventional medicine. People use them most often to treat neck and back pain, joint pain and stiffness, arthritis, and other musculoskeletal conditions. 

Mark Mincolla is a natural health practitioner maintaining a holistic care center in Cohasset, Massachusetts. In Whole Health he outlines his preventative medicine approach. "It's a natural, alternative health care system that I've developed over the past three decades, which I call the Whole Health Healing System," writes Mark. "It integrates elements of classical Chinese medicine, personalized nutrition and energy medicine."

Most Americans became aware of Chinese medicine through the introduction of acupuncture during the 1970s. It's a whole medical system that evolved apart from and earlier than the conventional medical approach used in the United States. In contrast with the Western anatomical model which views the body as individual parts, the Chinese medicine model perceives internal organs as complex networks through which chi (the body's vital energy) flows. Pain, illness and discomfort are symptoms of blocked or disrupted chi flow. Chinese medicine therapies restore health by clearing blocked meridians (the networks), strengthening deficient organs and regulating hyperactive organs.

Energy medicine therapies, like qigong, are intended to affect energy fields that surround and penetrate the body. "The Whole Health Healing System represents a change in health care consciousness--a departure from the material toward an energy-based approach to health care." 

The primary objective of the system is to assess, balance and preserve chi through energy diagnostics, diet, lifestyle, and qigong (energy exercises.) It's meant to empower practitioners and patients to customize personal wellness programs. Emphasis is on maximizing the body's inherent healing ability, preventative care and getting patients involved as active participants in their health care. 

"Current systems of natural health care embrace the concept of disease prevention--everything manifests from the subtle to the dense. Disease manifests from the subtlest energies of mind and spirit to denser symptoms of the physical body. Before disease becomes physical, it must take root as dis-ease at the subtle energetic level. If we are to implement preventative health care, we must first become more attuned to the subtle energies that speak of dis-ease in the language of the body. Natural healing and disease prevention power has always belonged to the patient."

Mark has a talk, Q&A and book signing Thursday, Feb 6 at the Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Ave, 7pm and Thursday, Feb 13 at the Trident Bookstore, 338 Newbury St, 7pm.