Complimentary Medicine

Dr. Amit Sood, Director of Research at the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine wrote in 2007 about the 10 most popular complimentary medical treatment programs:

1. Acupuncture
2. Guided Imagery
3. Hypnosis
4. Massage
5. Meditation
6. Music Therapy
7. Spinal Manipulation
8. Spirituality
9. Tai Chi
10. Yoga

I am sure the order of the list has changed somewhat for Americans since 2007, nearly over 7 years ago. Also, "medical treatment" would imply a supplementary or complimentary "treatment" for a non-healthy person with some sort of disease like cancer, chronic pain, inflammatory diseases, heart disease, diabetes, ulcers, stress disorders, mental illness, insomnia, etc..  Of course, all could be used by healthy persons for enjoyment and the maintenance of good body-mind-spirit well being. 

The first eight treatment modalities on the list are passive.  The patient either uses psychological methods or somebody manipulates their body as they passively lie on a table.  Most of these hardly cause any heat to build up in the body, no tapas, no sweat, no force.  They primarily encourage staying cool and calm, and using focused positive thinking or meditating.  Most of these involve resting, relaxing, or falling asleep. 

The last two require some effort on the patients part: practicing, sweating, moving, working, learning, making some physical efforts, forcing change.  If walking were included as a method of complimentary medicine, it would rank in the top five. I don't think Taijiquan (with complex flowing postures) would be more popular than non-Vinyasa Yoga (with simpler static postures). 

Music therapy could involve the use of lively rhythmic music and dancing which would be heat producing.  Most of the time, I think "music therapy" is understood to mean, in this context, listening to New Age or Classical music (ambient, spacy, calm, soothing, relaxing), sitting and falling asleep to music.