When we think of health, our body comes to mind – fitness, mind-body connection, taking your vitamins, avoiding a heat attack and so forth.

But what about the environment by which you are surrounded? It’s true, a healthy you is important, but to achieve complete well-being you must also consider the way you are living – literally. Yes, that’s right: Your home sweet home must also get a routine physical.

In her book, Super Cleanse: Detox Your Body for Long-Lasting Health and Beauty, author Adina Niemerow discusses a number of cleansing options to fine-tune your body. But she also shares with readers a plan for total home rejuvenation with a “detox” called “There’s No Place Like Home.”

I am a firm believer in finding an alternative way to cure an illness, whether it is the common cold or a stubborn back that just won’t stop aching. I’ll lean on essential oils, certain foods, hot tea or some light yoga when I am feeling under the weather.

I am a firm believer in finding an alternative way to cure an illness, whether it’s the common cold or a stubborn back that just won’t stop aching. I’ll lean on essential oils, certain foods, hot tea or some light yoga when I am feeling under the weather.

That’s why I think it’s interesting to consider consulting an alternative doctor when an ailment is out of my hands. Don’t get me wrong – conventional docs know their stuff. But they are also keen on writing on the Rx for pain killers or antibiotics.

The goal in finding an alternative medicine doctor is to ease stress and approach your health with complete well-being in mind. But choosing a doc can actually cause more anxiety – how do you know who to choose? What should you look for in a doctor? And so on.

I have learned there are a few tactics that can help cure some of that unease. Just like any doctor, you are going to want to do your research. Start by locating a few health practitioners in your area and checking their credentials. Make sure he or she is licensed or certified by a notable school, board, federation or organization.

I don’t know how you all feel about pimple treatments, but lately I have been doing some investigative work on getting rid of those unsightly little buggers.

The truth is, we read all kinds of crap-ola about this acne treatment and that boil buster, but very few of them take the time to discuss the ingredients that go into their brews.

That’s probably because so many acne treatments are loaded with not-so-earth-friendly (or face-friendly, for that matter) chemicals, like hormone-disrupting parabens, and harmful coal-tar dyes, formaldehyde and mercury. Look at the back of your ProActiv acne treatment system and you’ll spot magnesium aluminum silicate, tridecyl trimellitate and imidazolidinyl urea. Try pronouncing them, and then research what they actually do to your face and body system – they’re icky.

So, given all of this detective work that I have been conducting, I have decided to do a switcheroo on my face products to some more natural, organic ones.

Tried and Tested

Desert Essence – I love the entire line. The Thoroughly Clean Face Wash and Natural Cleansing Pads and Blemish Touch Stick all lean on tea tree oil to zap blemishes. I can feel it working right away. The Gentle Stimulating Facial Scrub is marvelous, too – it smells beautiful!

There are a multitude of alternative health therapies that you can put on or into your body, but what about sweeping away negative energy for better health?

Body brushing is a healing method embraced by alternative health gurus across the board. Not only will a natural-bristle brush slough away dead skin, leaving you looking smashing, but it will also help to improve circulation. Enthusiasts of the method say that it may also help with the drainage of lymph nodes, giving skin less of a puffy, I-just-ate-a-pint-of-ice-cream look. Hey, the light massage of a body brush also helps reduce the appearance of cellulite – that’s a win-win, huh?

Brush your whole body – under your arms, behind the knees and your bum, too – and you will see a marked improvement in the appearance of your skin and overall feeling of your body. And be sure to buy a long-handled brush for those tough to reach spots, like your back.

Your body will thank you.

Search the Web for “detox” and you will come across a mind-boggling number of plans urging you to “drop pounds” with their lickety-split dietary rules.

But that’s not what a detox is intended to do – at least, that’s not why ancient alternative health healers came up with the flush-your-system plans.

“Fasting and cleansing to purify the body and mind were first embraced thousands of years ago as a pathway to connect with the divine and achieve higher levels of awareness and clarity,” Adina Niemerow writes in her book, Super Cleanse. “It’s more relevant than ever today.”

But “today” many people fail to interpret the spiritual elements of detoxing and instead focus on the weight loss aspects, choosing plans that can actually make them sick or have harmful effects on their health.

That’s why you need to lean on a detox plan that helps to cleanse your body and restore your health. A good detox can eliminate migraines, restore kidney function, get you a rosy-cheeked glow, increase energy and help you sleep like a baby – just to name a few.

Sure, one of the hottest movies out right now is The Secret Life of Bees, based on Sue Monk Kidd’s bestselling novel. But what we’re concerned with is not the main character; instead, we’ve taken a liking to the bees that give the movie its moniker.

That’s right we’re talking about the healing powers of bees and that tasty stuff they produce – honey.

Here’s how becoming a member of the hive might improve your health:

Bee Pollen

Unless you are allergic to bee stings, bee pollen’s high B12 and protein properties can boost immunity. Pop a few spoonfuls of wildflower bee pollen in your next smoothie or yogurt, and you’ll be buzzing with energy in no time.

In his book Perfect Health: The Complete Mind Body Guide, Deepak Chopra writes, “There exists in every person a place that is free from disease, that never feels pain, that cannot age or die. When you go to this place, limitations which all of us accept cease to exist. They are not even entertained as a possibility. This is the place called perfect health.”

Perfect health, for Chopra and several other alternative health gurus, is one that relies heavily on the more than 5,000-year-old practice of Ayurveda. In the simplest of words, Ayurveda leans on principles that help an individual to find balance between environment, body mind and spirit.

Ayurveda establishes that there are three operating principles that make up the mind-body connection, and they are called “doshas.” They are: Vata, which represents wind and controls movement; Pitta, the maker of fire and controller of the metabolism; and Kapha, a representative of Earth and the regulator of structure. Each person has a dominant dosha that helps him or her to determine the principles that will help establish perfect health.

We are a nation of pill-popping and quick fixes – there’s no doubt about that. But more than just a few people have discovered that, sometimes, an alternative therapy might be the better, and healthier, choice.

Call it hippie-like, snicker at the idea of granola eaters thinking “Omm…” can make them feel better, but the truth is many of these alternative health options are proving to be better healers than your Ibuprofen. Here are a few of the hottest ones around:

Deep Breathing Exercises

If I had a nickel for the number of times my mother has told me to breathe in and breathe out, I’d be a freaking millionaire. But while I may sometimes roll my eyes at this tried-and-true wisdom, many health experts, including Dr. Andrew Weil, author of several alternative health books such as Eight Weeks to Optimum Health, say that simple breathing exercises can help to ease stress and anxiety. Try one of Weil’s recommended yogi-like exercises called “The Stimulating Breath:” Keep mouth closed, rapidly inhaling and exhaling through your nose. Breaths should be quick, but equal. It will seem silly, – you’ll feel like a panting dog – but after just 15 seconds you’ll feel renewed.

If my parents had chosen a few adjectives as my middle name rather than Marie, then perhaps they would have selected: Ambitious. Impulsive. Can’t-Take-No-for-An-Answer-Type-of-Gal. I would have changed my middle name ASAP…which would be a dead give away of one of my worst characteristics.

I admit that these tendencies of mine lead to an issue I have with working toward small goals. I have this all-or-nothing approach when I set goals or, say, see a new workout system on infomercials. My fiancé recommends that I just try using one of the 800 workout tapes I already have… I shake my head and tell him that, “If I only had this (insert money-wasting-piece-of-machinery-here), then I really would be in great shape. Don’t you understand?”