Excerpt from Richard Brightheart's An Integrative Approach to Healing Chronic Illness, reprinted with permission.

Energy medicine, the ability to work energetically at a cellular level with underlying causative agents, has existed for a long time. However, the types of energy techniques that are being practiced have expanded. Much progress has been made in the methods that have been developed.

I have been practicing energy medicine for twenty-two years. You can make some of the biggest changes in your health by understanding how to use these types of modalities in therapeutic ways. Energy medicine differs greatly from biochemical medicine, which is the traditional medical model. Traditional medicine involves the manipulation of certain compounds, which force reactions to occur within the various body systems. It has little regard or understanding for the delicate interactions between each system, especially when it involves long-term drug use. The forms of energy medicine discussed here have existed for decades, some even for centuries.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is probably the most well-known of these therapies. It is an ancient healing art that has been practiced for over three thousand years. Acupuncture uses the twelve meridians that run through the body, including most organs. There are also eight extra meridians that can be accessed by a skilled acupuncturist. A trained doctor of Chinese medicine can diagnose this qi or the energy flow of each meridian in order to determine the health of the system. Meridians are best described as rivers of electrical current, as they can be electronically mapped. Any blockage along a meridian will cause a disruption of energy flow to the related organ that particular meridian runs through. This can lead to chronic organ dysfunction and eventual deterioration.