Phytotherapy is medicine based on plants.
This name comes from the Greek “ phytos ” which means plant and “ therapeuo ” which means to heal. Plants, or rather their extracts, provide natural active ingredients therapeutic scope. Herbal medicine is an ancestral traditional medicine , dating back to around 3000 BC. Although ancient, this medicine remains very popular and still firmly in use in certain cultures.
In traditional herbal medicine , the plants can be used both fresh and dry (in herbal tea for example). Each plant is useful in its own way and each part of each plant has its own properties. Indeed, whether it is the roots, the leaves or the flowers, each part contains principles natural active ingredients different, which have different specificities.
Aromatherapy is a medicine based on the use of aromatic compounds from plant extracts, called essential oils . Aromatherapy is distinguished from herbal medicine which uses all the elements of a plant. This medicine is considered a natural medicine . Its name comes from the Greek “ arôma ” meaning aroma and “ therapeia ” meaning care.
Book: Bible of Phytotherapy It’s HERE
The beginnings of aromatherapy are confused with that of herbal medicine .
If we have found traces of extraction methods in China and India dating back several millennia, it is in Egypt that the use of aromatherapy has been proven. Extraction processes have improved over the years, notably thanks to the invention of the still, to be greatly improved in the 19th century when we began to properly isolate and classify the active ingredients of plants , thus allowing their specific use. The properties of essential oils are multiple: anti-infectious, anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine, antispasmodic, analgesic, analgesic, anesthetic, etc.
Benefiting from high diffusibility (very volatile), essential oils can be used in different ways, depending on their nature, dosage and desired effect.
Book: Essential Oils Bible It’s HERE
Naturopathy is an alternative medicine aimed at balancing the functioning of the body through manual techniques, the use of essential oils, healthy lifestyle, herbal medicine, etc. This medicine is one of the unconventional approaches that call themselves “holistic”.
The word naturopathy comes from the Latin “ natura ” (meaning “nature” or “essence”) and the Greek “ pathos ” (meaning “disease” or “evil”). The definition of the word is surprising because it could indeed be read as “the disease of nature”. However, common sense leans towards “path of nature” or “ care by nature ”.
Some define naturopathy as a discipline rather than a specific medicine, based in particular on a strict lifestyle , based on the refusal of tobacco, alcohol, caffeine and food abuse, and associated with herbal medicine. Naturopathy is also an active approach which involves us directly and considers us as actors in our own health. The 5 principles of naturopathy are:
- first, do no harm (primum non nocere);
- nature is healing (vis medicatrix naturae);
- identify and treat the cause (tolle causam);
- detoxify and purify the body (deinde purgare);
- naturopathy teaches (docere)
It was in 1928 that Doctor Edward BACH, an English doctor and homeopath, began using these elixirs and integrated them into a therapeutic practice. This practice is based on the belief that each defined negative psychological state would correspond to a particular plant. Dr. Bach established a classification of 7 negative psychological states, including 38 negative psychological substates.
Book: Bible of Naturopathy It’s HERE
Bach flowers, also called “flower elixirs ” or “ Bach remedies ” are alcoholic macerations of plants (i.e. an extract of aromatic substances, plants cold in alcohol for a certain period of time) . These floral elixirs are made from flowers of 37 different species of plants, to which rock water is added, which gives 38 elixirs in total.
Clinical trials of Bach flower remedies on adult humans have not shown positive effects beyond the placebo effect. However, the craze for this therapeutic practice remains certain, like many other unconventional medicines.
Each of Dr. Bach's 38 remedies addresses a character trait or particular emotional state . To carefully select your remedy, think about your personality and how you feel emotionally.
- Agrimony: mental torture behind a smiling face
- Aspen: fear or anxiety of unknown origin
- Beech: intolerance
- Centaury: those who are excessively in the service of others
- Cerato: constantly looking for the opinions of others
- Cherry Plum: fear of losing control
- Chestnut Bud: inability to learn from mistakes
- Chicory: possessive love
- Clematis: dreaming of the future without paying attention to the present
- Crab Apple: purification remedy
- Elm: Burdened by Responsibility
- Gentian: discouragement after failure
- Gorse: loss of hope and defeatism
- Heather: Self-centeredness and self-preoccupation
- Holly: hatred, desire for revenge, jealousy, suspicion
- Honeysuckle: nostalgia, living in the past
- Hornbeam: tired of doing something
- Impatiens: impatience
- Larch: lack of confidence in his abilities
- Mimulus: fear of known things
- Mustard: deep sadness for no apparent reason
- Oak: tireless people who exceed the limit of exhaustion
- Olive: exhaustion following exercise
- Pine: guilt
- Red Chestnut: excessive anxiety for loved ones
- Rock Rose: terror and extreme fear
- Rock Water: self-sacrifice, rigidity, self-repression
- Scleranthus: inability to choose between alternatives
- Star of Bethlehem: shock, sorrow
- Sweet Chestnut: extreme anxiety, everything has been tried and nothing is possible
- Vervain: excess enthusiasm, revolt in the face of injustice
- Vine: demands obedience, directive, domineering and inflexible
- Walnut: protection from external influences or during periods of change
- Water Violet: lonely, reserved
- White Chestnut: unwanted thoughts, mental arguments
- Wild Oat: Uncertainty about one's direction in life
- Wild Rose: resignation, apathy
- Willow: self-pity, resentment
Bach's original system also includes an emergency formula, composed of several remedies (5 in total).
Light therapy is a treatment intended to correct depression and insomnia.
It consists of exposing us to light of specific intensity and light spectrum, allowing the stimulation of the immune system . Its effect is remarkable.
In France, this technique has been popular since the 1920s but the arrival of drugs aimed at correcting depression has caused this medicine to fall into oblivion. It was only in 1984, thanks to Norman E. Rosenthal and his colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States, that the use of light therapy in psychiatry made its first appearance for treat depression seasonal. Researchers around the world then explored the way of treating seasonal depression, sleep disorders and even non-seasonal depression with light therapy. The journey was long and it was only recently that light therapy was recognized as an effective treatment for seasonal depression and certain sleep disorders.
Technically, research has shown that melatonin (sleep hormone) metabolism is dysregulated in people with seasonal depression. In these individuals, a particularly high melatonin level was observed during the day, explaining fatigue during the day. The light therapy solution consists of stimulating the cells of the retina in the early morning in order to block the transformation of serotonin into melatonin during the day and therefore the secretion of melatonin. There is thus reprogramming of the biological clock allowing normal secretion of melatonin at night depending on the sleep phases.
Light therapy, benefits of light It’s HERE
The word meditation comes from the Latin “meditatio” .
It designates a mental or spiritual practice , consisting of focusing one's attention on a specific object or on oneself. Meditation generally involves the practitioner focusing their attention on a single point, physical or mental, and must return their attention to that reference point as soon as their mind wanders from it.
Meditation is at the heart of many spiritual practices such as: Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Taoism, yoga, as well as other newer forms of spirituality. It is a practice aimed at achieve inner peace , emptiness in your mind and progressive calming of the mind.
THE meditation techniques are very diverse. However, they most often aim to focus the mind at a specific point: a specific body area, a precise perception, our breath, a visualization, or any other possible anchor point for our mind.
Meditation Bible It's HERE
Acupuncture, also called “acupuncture” , comes from the Latin “acus” (meaning “needle”) and “punctura” (meaning “prick”). Acupuncture is a traditional therapeutic medicine of Chinese origin, consisting of the stimulation of specific areas of the body: acupuncture points.
Well known to the general public, the stimulation of acupuncture points is usually done using needles. Often criticized, like many alternative medicines , acupuncture has proven its effectiveness, particularly in the treatment of pain, thanks to the neurophysiological effects of this approach.
The practice of acupuncture has been rooted for several millennia in Asia (particularly in India, China, Korea and Japan). Due to its historical, geographical and cultural roots, acupuncture was included in the intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO in November 2010.
Recently, a “ needle-free acupuncture ” technique has emerged, under the name acupressure. We no longer use a needle but the pressure of the finger, or any suitable object depending on the desired effect at each acupuncture point. This practice has widely developed and is very widespread in Asia. Shiatsu, which is a branch, is notably one of the official medicines of Japan. It is also one of the 8 alternative approaches recognized by the WHO as “unconventional medicine worthy of attention”. Acupressure is practiced on oneself or on another person.
Bible of acupressure / reflexology It's HERE
Chinese medicine is a traditional, unconventional medicine based on a theory of how humans function in balance with their environment. This medicine seeks to balance the human being by managing the balance of internal energy, called qi.
Chinese medicine is above all a preventive medecine . In the event of illness, she observes energy imbalances at the level of the meridians in order to restore harmony . Traditional Chinese medicine is made up of 5 disciplines: pharmacopoeia, massages, energetic exercises (qi gong, taiji quan), dietetics and acupuncture.
The development of a more scientific method has favored the growth of a new medicine in China, based on clinical studies and combining traditional techniques with greater effectiveness, and a more elaborate medical approach. However, although sometimes condemned to excess, certain Chinese medicine practices have proven their effectiveness
Book: Bible of Chinese Medicine It’s HERE
