Wholistic, or Holistic

​The Whole in Wholistic, as in Wholistic health or Wholistic nutrition refers to the "whole body".  But many, myself included define it as "whole being,” as in whole body but including the mind and spirit... as a unified system.

Conventional medicine tends to look at the body in terms of its parts; and so we have head doctors, foot doctors, stomach doctors, heart doctors, etc.  But we are complex systems; yes many complex subsystems comprising a super system. But these subsystems are integrated with each other and cannot adequately be viewed in isolation.  A clear example of holistic thought applied to wellness is the Traditional Chinese Medicine system or TCM.  In this system a symptom in one part of the body is usually indicative of an imbalance in one or many subsystems.  Herbs, diet, acupuncture, meditation and other energy-based modalities are the primary treatments.

Similarly wholistic nutrition does not dwell on individual symptoms, but treats imbalances in the entire being.  For example a digestive complaint (bloating, constipation, etc.) will often be caused by an imbalance in our mind due to stress, an excess of protein in our diet, a lack of vigorous exercise, or a combination of these. 

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