Holistic health and wellness is an ancient practice that is still effective today. But how does the process work?

What we now know as holistic health and wellness dates back thousands of years to traditional Chinese medicine. The approach emphasizes treating all possible causes for a condition, rather than focusing on a single symptom.

If you’re curious about taking a holistic approach to health and wellness, medical marijuana can be part of your treatment plan. This natural plant is capable of treating many conditions that can throw the body off balance.

But what is holistic health and wellness, and how can you adapt it to fit into your health plan?

Read on to learn more about medical marijuana and how it can contribute to your holistic health and wellness plan.

What is Holistic Wellness?

The term “holistic medicine” refers to the health of the whole person. It focuses on his or her mind, body, feelings, environment, and other factors that can all contribute to certain health conditions. Unlike Western medicine, holistic health and wellness treats causes rather than symptoms.

For example, in cases of depression and anxiety, modern Western medicine might prescribe a medication. While this can fix what is going wrong within the body, it fails to address other possible causes. These include environment, life situation, and emotional stress.

To account for these shortcomings, many are turning to holistic health and wellness approaches. These include medical marijuana, therapeutic massage, and a variety of other therapies to treat the entire body. This is believed to provide an all-inclusive treatment program to eradicate the root causes of health conditions.

What Are the Principles of Holistic Health and Wellness?

Holistic health and wellness is based on the idea that a person’s emotions have more powerful healing powers than they might realize. The individual handles his or her own health above all other contributing factors.

Here are the main principles of holistic health and wellness:

  • The patient is a whole person, not the disease he or she is facing

  • Treatment will involve addressing the whole cause rather than the symptoms

  • Holistic healing involves a “team” approach with both doctor and patient

  • The human body has innate healing abilities

A holistic approach to health and wellness emphasizes the emotional aspect of a person’s health.

For example, research has shown that stress can negatively impact a person’s health. Holistic plans will often feature stress-busting practices like massage and meditation. Many people report that marijuana helps ease stress symptoms, so this is often featured in these plans as well.

What Are the Different Types of Treatments?

Western medicine will prescribe a localized medication for treatment. Holistic health and wellness focuses on using a variety of treatments to address all possible causes of a health condition. The patient takes responsibility for his or her own health.

Here are a few elements that might be in a patient’s holistic health and wellness plan:

  • Lifestyle adjustments, such as diet, exercise, therapy, relationship counseling, stress management, and more

  • Alternative therapy methods, such as medical marijuana, acupuncture, massage, and others

  • Supplemental Western therapy methods, medications, and surgeries

Holistic medicine addresses a full spectrum of possible causes for adverse health conditions in a patient. Practitioners emphasize that a person’s body is made up of a variety of moving parts. When one or more of these parts falls out of balance, the others cannot function properly, either.

How Does Medical Marijuana Fit In?

Marijuana is one of the most popular medicinal plants for holistic health. Holistic medicine itself has been around for thousands of years, but holistic cannabis medicine is a more recent concept.

Holistic health and wellness focuses on a comprehensive approach. Medicinal marijuana works with this concept. This is because the marijuana plant has a variety of health applications that treat the whole person rather than a single symptom.

What Does Medical Marijuana Treat?

Marijuana contains over 100 different cannabinoids, which are chemicals that have varying effects. In the context of holistic health and wellness, we can say that the whole plant and all its different parts come together to treat the whole body.

Pain Relief

The most common medicinal use for the marijuana plant is treating pain caused by a variety of health conditions. By alleviating pain symptoms, medical marijuana “fixes” that part of the body, helping to realign what has thrown the whole body off balance. In turn, it helps heal the “whole” person.

Reduced Stress/Anxiety

When left unchecked, stress and anxiety can wreak havoc on the body and cause many health problems.

Holistic health and wellness emphasizes treating a person’s mental and emotional wellbeing. This is in addition to whatever physical ailments they’re facing. Medical marijuana is a highly effective element to any holistic health and wellness treatment plan

Helps Nausea/Vomiting

Another popular medicinal use for the marijuana plant is using it to alleviate nausea and/or vomiting symptoms. These can take a serious toll on a person’s holistic wellness, as they can throw the entire body out of balance. By helping treat these symptoms, medicinal marijuana can help bring the “whole” person back to a normal, healthy state.

Medical Marijuana and Holistic Wellness

Because of its ability to treat a wide variety of symptoms all at once, medical marijuana is a highly effective holistic medicine. By addressing physical symptoms as well as emotional symptoms, it can help restore the balance of the “whole” person.

Now that you know a little more about how marijuana fits into holistic health and wellness, you’ll be ready to make an informed decision for your plan.

Contact us today to learn more about how medical marijuana can help restore your holistic health.