How are holistic health practitioners different than regular practitioners?

Address whole person: Holistic practitioners treat the whole person: mind, body & spirit in the context of their environment. They search for the underlying causes of illness, and pay attention to the role of diet, lifestyle and mind-body interactions. They tend to use nutrition, herbs and other natural therapies in conjunction with standard treatments. See http://www.Holisticmedicine.Org/content.Asp?Pl=2&contentid=2.

Whole body: They keep the whole body in mind not just one part.

Treats the whole pt : Holistic implies that the complete individual is treated, not just the disease. That is, the stress, living situation, nutrition etc are taken into consideration when treating , say, the flu. This can be a good thing. Problem is it opens the door to many intuitively hoped-for but scientifically unproven theories such as ' energy imbalances or imaginary toxins., etc. Check http://NCCIH.nih.org