Holistic Medicine – Why it Helps When Conventional Medicine Fails.
Daily I see patients with severe and chronic health challenges totally frustrated with the conventional medical care they’ve received. They know that something is terribly wrong with their health, and their concerns have been dismissed by conventional medicine by one of three methods. (1) “There is nothing wrong with you.”, or (2) “We don’t know what’s wrong with you.”, or (3) “We’ve done everything we can, and you’ll just have to live with it.” The problem is that our conventional medical model has become overly specialized and completely dictated to by large insurance and pharmaceutical corporations along with government mandates and oversight. Physicians receive their training largely in the newest surgical techniques and pharmaceutical usage. Once in practice they must maintain the “standard of care” through compliance with all insurance and government mandates. What’s missing is a truly holistic approach.
With a holistic approach, we find that when we get to the root of problem “A”, we’ve also found the root of problem “B”, “C”, and “D”. Some patients complain about completing an extensive holistic health history. However, they are thrilled when they see each individual health challenge being addressed rather than the quick review of their chief complaint they’ve come to expect with conventional medicine. Conventional medicine is very linear in its approach. 1st we need a diagnosis, and then we just follow the flow chart to the procedure or pharmaceutical for that particular diagnosis. It’s very standardized. Holistic medicine, conversely, is always looking for patterns to identify the root cause of the problem. A diagnosis is almost irrelevant as different patients with a similar diagnosis each may have very different underlying reasons for that health condition.
Let’s look at chronic obesity as an example. Many times women with long term weight challenges have been told to eat less and excise more to lose the excess weight. These women have found, however, that after a period their weight loss plateaus and whatever they’ve lost quickly returns – usually plus some. Conventional medicine will give some appetite suppressants, stimulants for energy, and in extreme cases surgical intervention – all to no avail. From a holistic approach we look for the underlying cause of the stubborn weight gain. Common underlying issues we identify for stubborn weight gain are (1) hormone imbalances including thyroid hormones, or (2) an overwhelmed liver causing the body to store and retain extra fat, or (3) insulin resistance causing the body to convert glucose to fat at an increasing rate or even (4) subconsciously held emotional issues.
Once the underlying issue is identified through holistic medicine, various holistic healing techniques can be utilized to overcome the imbalance and resolve the health challenges. Holistic medicine is very different from conventional medicine due to the availability of a broad range of healing techniques and modalities. While conventional medicine is limited to conventional techniques of surgical intervention and/or pharmaceuticals, holistic medicine has a virtually unlimited variety of techniques and modalities available for individualized patient care and healing. In future issues we will touch more on the various diagnostic and healing techniques available through holistic medicine.
In good health,
Dr. Mary Tobin
