Alternative Medicine

1. Hereditary Conditions
These usually occur because the parent’s have poor health, though they may also occur if the parent’s are generally healthy but are suffering from an illness at the time of conception. Furthermore, children can be born with certain conditions if their mother experiences shock, illness, or trauma during pregnancy.

2. Excessive Emotions
In Chinese medicine the main emotions are joy, worry, sadness, grief, fear, shock, love, and anger. These are all considered to be appropriate feelings when given the correct circumstances. It is only when they begin to dominate our lives disproportionately that they become pathological. In Chinese medicine long-standing emotional imbalances can eventually even affect the functioning of the internal organs, leading to physical symptoms and more systemic patterns of disease.

3. Overwork
More than excessive physical exertion, this refers to the tendency of some people to consistently work long hours every day. People who do this wind up slowly depleting themselves both physically and emotionally, especially if they don’t allow themselves time to rest, relax, and replenish themselves. The slow drain and high stress effect of this lifestyle weakens them and makes them susceptible to imbalances and disease of all kinds.

4. Improper Diet
The most common dietary imbalances are excesses of raw, spicy, or fatty foods, and eating too much or not enough. Too much raw foods makes it hard for we warm-blooded beings to maintain our internal heat, especially in the winter. Too much spicy foods can cause inflammatory conditions, and excessive fatty foods can lead to weight gain and excess mucus. Eating large meals stresses our internal organs and drains their energy, resulting in digestive disorders. Eating too little food, on the other hand, causes our bodies to struggle to nourish themselves and slowly depletes us in the long run. Improper eating habits can cause health conditions too. Eating too fast, eating while standing or working, eating at irregular times, or eating late in the evening are all factors that can cause digestive disorders.

5. Environmental Factors
Exposure to extremes of temperature and weather can have major effects on the body. At its worst exposure can even be life-threatening. The most common environmental causes of disease are exposure to excesses of heat, cold, damp, wind, or dryness. For example, exposure to too much heat and humidity can cause heat-stroke. Another example is joint pain that is sensitive to humidity or cold, an sure indication that excess exposure to these environmental extremes an aggravating factor in the condition.

6. Physical Trauma
The main effect of trauma is that it can cause a temporary stagnation of blood, which interferes with circulation and causes pain. If the trauma is severe, where bones are broken or surgery or stitches are required, the resulting scar tissue can permanently affect the circulation, leading to chronic pain or arthritis. Sever physical trauma can also have a lasting effect on our emotions.

7. Drugs
Pharmaceutical drugs have many well-known side effects and tend to interact with each other and with other medicinal substances like herbs, though their side effects resolve fairly quickly once the patient stops taking the drug. Unfortunately, many people wind up taking pharmaceuticals indefinitely, even though their side effects progress and advance over time. Recreational drugs can also have side effects, even the milder ones, especially with long-term use.

8. Excessive Sexual Activity or a Lack of Sexual Activity
What is considered to be excessive depends a lot on the individual’s age and health and is a more important consideration for men than women because they actually loose a substance during sex. A general rule of thumb is to divide the man’s age by 5 in order to determine how often he should be having sex (so every eight days for a 40 year old man). Signs of excessive sexual activity include lower back pain, dizziness, fatigue, and poor memory or concentration. Lack of sexual activity is mainly an issue if there is a sexual desire present. When this desire is unfulfilled it tends to affect the heart, causing emotional issues like anxiety and depression.