Hello there, glad to meet you!

Let me give you a bit of information about me, why I started Holistic Health Articles and what I hope that it will achieve.

About Me
My name is Richard, at the time of writing I'm 52 years old, married (and happily so) and I have two adult children who I'm very proud of.

I'm fortunate enough to have been able to spend the last twenty five years in the lovely country of New Zealand (although I prefer the name given it by the original inhabitants, the Maori - Aotearoa, Land Of The Long White Cloud). Prior to that I was born and raised in England.

Why I Developed Holistic Health Articles
About six years ago I started to develop osteo-arthritis, it rapidly developed into a serious impediment to my life and so I naturally turned to the medical profession for help.

I was quickly disillusioned. All the specialists and practioners I saw seemed intent only on relieving the symptoms. There was no emphasis placed on why it had happened, no thought given to how it affected my mental and emotional states, just a narrow focus on symptom relief.

I had heard of the concept of Holistic Medicine prior to this of course, but had given it little thought. Then I heard someone on the radio being interviewed about the concept and it seemed to make real sense to me. Human beings are not simply collections of isolated parts, the individual parts (including the intellect and emotions) work together to form a functioning whole. Therefore it makes sense to put all issues in terms of the whole person.

Since then I've become more and more convinced that the 'coventional' medical profession is steadily losing the plot. There is an ever increasing emphasis on high-tech combined with an ever increasing distancing of the patient as a whole from the process. More money than ever before is being spent on advanced medical/surgical processes, but the First World populations seem to get no healthier, and in fact I believe that the health of the average citizen of a developed country has become worse, not better.

Perhaps more emphasis being placed on primary health care and a change in emphasis to look at the patients' whole well-being is long overdue.

The Purpose of Holistic Health Articles
I started this site to serve as a central repository for all information related to the Holistic Health field, mainly because such a facility seemed to be lacking.

I invite all practioners in the field of Holistic Medicine, or those who feel that they have something important to say in this matter to have a voice at my site. Please understand that this doesn't imply that I agree with all of the various practices employed in Holistic Medicine - I strongly suspect that some of them are totally crackpot! I do believe though that people have a right to be heard.

So

• if you are someone seeking information - please enjoy the articles, and make up your own mind
  
• If you are someone who has a viewpoint to express, register for an account and get writing!
  
• If you are seeking information to use in a publication, then take what articles you want - just remember to leave them unchanged

Enjoy!