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Wholistic vs Holistic Health: What’s the Difference?

Did you know that more than 20% of Americans struggle with some form of chronic illness? Americans are plagued by stress, anxiety, and physical pain, all of which greatly lower the quality of our lives.

But many people are no longer content with simply visiting a doctor. They often complain that doctors only treat symptoms by providing medication, and rarely handle the root cause of the pain or problem.

That is why so many people are looking into a holistic health approach. But as you research, you might notice two terms. Wholistic vs holistic, is there a difference between these two nearly-identical words?

Why do we see both being used by alternative health advocates? Well, if you want to live healthy, clean, and pain-free, it pays to know the difference between holistic and wholistic. Keep reading below to find out now.

What is Wholistic Health?

Before getting into the differences between the two words, let’s start with an overview. Since both words apply to the same topic, here’s what wholistic health care means.

Traditional health care often isolates problems. If you have headaches or migraines on a regular basis, you might see headaches as the problem. So you take medication that makes your headache go away.

But that’s an incomplete form of treatment. More often than not, headaches are a symptom of a deeper problem.

If you only take headache medication, you’re going to keep getting headaches, and you will become dependent on that medication in order to function.

Rather, wholistic health looks at the whole body, or your entire lifestyle, to try and determine your overall level of health. If there are symptoms, a holistic approach tries to identify what factors in your life may be causing them, including diet, physical activity (or lack thereof), sleep quality, levels of stress, emotional or mental health, and many other factors.

A holistic approach is all about not missing the forest for the trees, and understanding that every system in our body is connected. You can’t treat one part without considering all the others.

There are pros and cons of holistic health care. You can learn all about the approach at Wholistic Matters.

Wholistic vs Holistic Health

So why are there two terms for this, with very similar spelling? Do they mean the same thing? Yes, they do. You can use these terms interchangeably.

You can blame the English language, and its complexities, for the two different spellings.

The term holistic comes from the Greek root word hólos which simply means whole. The term is all about synergy.

The word whole comes from an old English word, hāl, which is related to words like health and heal.

Today, the words look and sound the same. And they mean the same thing. Generally, the term holistic is more widely accepted as the correct spelling, but you won’t get in trouble for using the other version.

Living Whole and Healthy

So what is holistic health? In many ways, it’s a more thorough approach to healthcare. Its goal is to not just treat symptoms, but look at your entire body and lifestyle, recommending positive changes that will allow you to live healthy and pain-free.

And now you know the difference between wholistic vs holistic healthcare, and how the terms are basically interchangeable.

Looking for more tips like this? You can find other helpful articles on our blog today.