This is a list of articles covering alternative medicine topics.
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This is a list of articles covering alternative medicine topics.
In traditional Chinese culture and the East Asian cultural sphere, qi or ch'i in Wade–Giles romanization or chi, is believed to be a vital force forming part of any living entity. Literally meaning "vapor", "air", or "breath", the word qi is a polysemous word often translated as "vital energy", "vital force", "material energy", or simply as "energy". Qi is a mythical concept in traditional Chinese medicine and in Chinese martial arts. The attempt to cultivate and balance qi is called qigong.
Massage is the rubbing or kneading of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In European countries, a person professionally trained to give massages is traditionally known as a masseur (male) or masseuse (female). In the United States, these individuals are often referred to as "massage therapists". In some provinces of Canada, they are called "registered massage therapists."
Shiatsu is a form of Japanese bodywork based on concepts in traditional Chinese medicine such as qi meridians. Having been popularized in the twentieth century by Tokujiro Namikoshi (1905–2000), shiatsu derives from the older Japanese massage modality called anma.
Autosuggestion is a psychological technique related to the placebo effect, developed by pharmacist Émile Coué at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a form of self-induced suggestion in which individuals guide their own thoughts, feelings, or behavior. The technique is often used in self-hypnosis.
Ashtanga vinyasa yoga is a style of yoga as exercise popularised by K. Pattabhi Jois during the twentieth century, often promoted as a dynamic form of classical Indian (hatha) yoga. Jois claimed to have learnt the system from his teacher Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. The style is energetic, synchronising breath with movements. The individual poses (asanas) are linked by flowing movements (vinyasas).
Mind–body interventions (MBI) or mind-body training (MBT) are health and fitness interventions that are intended to work on a physical and mental level such as yoga, tai chi, and Pilates.
Dantian is a concept in traditional Chinese medicine loosely translated as "elixir field", "sea of qi", or simply "energy center". Dantian are the "qi focus flow centers", important focal points for meditative and exercise techniques such as qigong, martial arts such as tai chi, and in traditional Chinese medicine.
Yoga as therapy is the use of yoga as exercise, consisting mainly of postures called asanas, as a gentle form of exercise and relaxation applied specifically with the intention of improving health. This form of yoga is widely practised in classes, and may involve meditation, imagery, breath work (pranayama) and calming music as well as postural yoga.
Qigong, is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation said to be useful for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, qigong is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance the mythical life-force qi.
In the Japanese medical tradition and in Japanese martial arts traditions, the word Hara is used as a technical term for a specific area (physical/anatomical) or energy field (physiological/energetic) of the body. An alternative Japanese reading of the character is Fuku, the Chinese reading is Fu.
Qigong, the Chinese practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and martial arts training, has a history that extends back more than 4,000 years. Contemporary qigong is a complex accretion of the ancient Chinese meditative practice xingqi or "circulating qi" and the gymnastic breathing exercise daoyin or "guiding and pulling", with roots in the I Ching and occult arts; philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts; along with influences of contemporary concepts of health, science, meditation, and exercise.
Forrest Yoga is a style of yoga as exercise. It was created by and named for Ana T. Forrest in 1982. It is known for "its long holding of positions, emphasis on abdominal core work, and standing series that can go on for 20 poses on each side". Reputed for its intensity, the style emphasizes connecting to one's feelings in order to work through physical and emotional trauma.
Somatics is a field within bodywork and movement studies which emphasizes internal physical perception and experience. The term is used in movement therapy to signify approaches based on the soma, or "the body as perceived from within", including Skinner Releasing Technique, Alexander technique, the Feldenkrais Method, Eutony Gerda Alexander, Rolfing Structural Integration, among others. In dance, the term refers to techniques based on the dancer's internal sensation, in contrast with "performative techniques", such as ballet or modern dance, which emphasize the external observation of movement by an audience. Somatic techniques may be used in bodywork, psychotherapy, dance, or spiritual practices.
Janice Gates was a teacher of yoga as exercise and mindful yoga, known for her emphasis on the power of yoginis, women in yoga and her work in yoga therapy.
Chao Yuanfang was a Chinese physician and medical author who was court physician at the Sui dynasty between the years 605 and 616. Traditionally, he had been attributed the co-authorship or authorship of the Chinese medical classic Zhubing yuanhou lun. This work sets out a classification of diseases and describes their causes and symptoms. It also discusses therapeutic methods. The Zhubing yuanhou lun had an important influence on the development of Chinese medicine. Its influence also extended to Japan where it formed the inspiration for the Ishinpō, the oldest surviving Japanese medical text completed in 984.
The history of yoga in the United States begins in the 19th century, with the philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau; Emerson's poem "Brahma" states the Hindu philosophy behind yoga. More widespread interest in yoga can be dated to the Hindu leader Vivekananda's visit from India in 1893; he presented yoga as a spiritual path without postures (asanas), very different from modern yoga as exercise. Two other early figures, however, the women's rights advocate Ida C. Craddock and the businessman and occultist Pierre Bernard, created their own interpretations of yoga, based on tantra and oriented to physical pleasure.