Level 1: Surgery

Surgery is typically called for when efforts at healing have failed. Surgery is "controlled damage" by definition.

Laser surgeries use coherent light to produce controlled damage, rather than a metal blade. Non-destructive laser treatments produce microtrauma, which activates self-healing responses.

Acupuncture needles also produce microtrauma which activates self-healing responses. They are technically a surgical procedure.

Radiation therapies also produce tissue destruction.

Level 2: Suppression

Most pharmaceuticals are suppressive. They are toxins used at toxic doses to suppress functional pathways related to symptoms. They are used to manage the symptoms of disease in most cases, not to assist the body in healing the causes of disease. In fact, they add a new disease which is the origin of the term Allopathic Medicine. Conventional western medicine focuses primarily on treatments that do harm and therefore call for licensing by governments.

Anesthesia is clearly a process of suppressing nerve function, and general anesthesia suppresses consciousness. General anesthesia is the most dangerous aspect of many surgeries.

TENS electrical therapy is fundamentally suppressive. It blocks pain reception by overstimulating the nerve pathway.

Level 3: Substitution

Hormone therapies are substitution therapies, because a hormone is introduced into the body, substituting for the action of the endocrine system which normally makes hormones.

Large doses of hormones can suppress the body's regulatory system that stimulates hormone production, often through feedback effects on the pituitary gland.

Low doses of hormones can be supportive by allowing their glands to rest and repair. 

Level 4: Support

Nutrients support the body by supplying needed building blocks or energy sources.

We are just beginning to understand the roles of many phytonutrients, such as the carotenoids which the body selectively concentrates in the Macula Lutea of the eye. The term means yellow spot because these plant pigments give it that color as they protect the delicate tissue of the central retina from potential damage by high energy photons. 

Level 5: Stimulation

Exercise is stimulatory for the body's muscular system.

Learning is stimulatory for the use of the neuroplasticity of our brains...

Personal growth is stimulatory for the development of the spirit body. Self-healing produces personal growth. It is a primary function and benefit of the self-healing process. We like to say that the only real mistakes are the ones we haven't learned from yet... Similarly, the only real health problems are the ones we haven't faced and overcome yet.

Homeopathy is a fundamentally stimulatory healing modality.

So is photobiomodulation, and other photonic therapies, such as Syntonic Optometry.

Microcurrent is a stimulatory modality.

Pulsed Electromagnetic Frequency (PEMF) therapies are also stimulatory.