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“Complementary therapies: Integrating
mind, body and spirit” |
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Frame:
This talk has been conceived as a lively
exchange of questions and answers on the following three topics:
-
What are the essentials to maintain a state of well-being?
- How can I benefit
from complimentary therapies?
- How do Acupuncture
and Traditional Chinese Medicine work?
The talk will be a presentation by a
practitioner of integrative medicine from
During the talk, Dr. Reid will discuss
his experience working in conjunction combining natural herbal medicine and
acupuncture with bodywork and movement modalities to provide an effective and
satisfying experience of healing.
Introduction
It is a pleasure to be here with you beings
from
And I am a practitioner of mind, body & spirit
medicine. Or you could say that I practice medicine of wellbeing. We find
that there has been a sustained focus on developing the mind and even the
spirit, but that we have been leaving out the body, and how the mind
and the spirit affect the body. I would like to share with you
my experience with fostering wellbeing, (that is, integrating these three
aspects of being into one cohesive unit), some principles of how acupuncture
works, and to give you some practical tips that you can take home.
Practice of integrative medicine: definitions
In mainstream US, the umbrella under which this new kind of
medicine has emerged is called Integrative Medicine.
How many here are familiar with Integrative Medicine?
Integrative Medicine is a rapidly emerging field
that seeks to improve medical care by combining the best of bio-medicine with
mind-body-spirit approaches to health that have proven efficacy.
In medicine, for example, the emergence of this
new model of Integrative Medicine is one of the hottest topics nowadays in
First and foremost, Integrative Medicine is
interested in healing, it is medicine that
focuses on healing. and healing comes from within, its source in our very
nature as living organisms. The word healing means “making whole”—that is,
restoring integrity and balance.
Healing is an
inherent mechanism that the human organism has, a sophisticated and complex
driving force. By nature, we tend to heal; it is the most economical state for
the body, in terms of energy cost. So, we have this force in our favor, all the
time. When I get sick I often think of this, I have, behind me, a powerful
impulse and capability to mend what is not working.
So, as a
medicine-man, there is a shift in the way of looking at disease. During my
training as a doctor, I was taught that it is the outside intervention what
causes the cure. But this outside intervention is just a facilitator that
enables the healing mechanism to do its work. As an example, if a patient has a
severe pneumonia and we give him antibiotics; we believe that it was the
antibiotics what cured him, but what the antibiotics do is reduce the numbers
of pathogenic organisms, such as bacteria, to levels where the otherwise
overwhelmed immune system can take care of the remnant invaders. Ultimately, it
was our own healing mechanism, our immune system, the one responsible for
the cure.
So from a viewpoint of a healing that comes from
within, we can look at either enhancing the healing capacity, such as tonifying
or fortifying the immune system (something in which systems such as
TCM--Traditional Chinese Medicine--have extensive experience with) or we can
look at “what is in the way,” obstructing the healing response, and find ways
to clear it, so that the body can do what it is driving to do.
Describe
medical schools’ programs, new attempt of studying integrated and then one
system exposed by anatomist, then pathologist, then…no real integration
whatsoever…
Integrative
medicine uses the best of conventional and complimentary therapies with proven
efficacy…Discuss this topic:
A-
Multidisciplinary
approach to a problem, ex. Arthritis, diet, supplements, guided imagery, herbs,
the whole package of care is what brings most effectiveness, one can’t
just take one intervention and test is isolated.
B-
It
is much more important to prove efficacy with something that has deleterious
side effects, like most western pharmaceuticals, than most natural medicines:
if these don’t work, they most likely won’t be harmful either; if the first
ones don’t work, the consequences could be much more serious.
Many widely used western interventions don’t
have proven efficacy either. Example of bone marrow transplant in certain cases
of breast cancer, then it was proved of no real benefit, but it is an
intervention that has serious risks. Or, more recently, the use of long term
HRT (hormonal replacement therapy). It has always been known that it has side
effects, but now studies have shown that it doesn’t have any benefits as well!
This is a crucial time in medicine. In the
Surveys suggest that doctors are as unhappy as
patients about the current state of health care. Doctors want to leave their
practices and patients are turned off from medical care unless it is an
absolute necessity.
Patients are also demanding less aggressive
forms of therapy and they are more and more concerned about the toxicity of
pharmaceutical drugs. Adverse reactions were found to be the sixth leading
cause of death.
So why is it that this new model of integrative
medicine has emerged? It has been by popular demand. For example, yourselves,
what are the things that you expect from the healthcare provider when you go to
see a doctor?
There are certain elements that people want:
-
That
they take time to talk to them and explain in a language that they can
understand the nature of their problem
-
That
they go over options of treatment with them
-
That
they understand the influence and effects of diet
on their health
-
That
they understand the influence and effects of supplements and herbs on their
health
-
That
they are aware of mind-body interactions and energetic medicine
The public in general is asking for
Integrative Medicine:
Thoughtful combination of alternative and conventional medicine
Emphasizes
healing and health
Emphasizes
doctor-patient relationship
Looks at the
whole person not just the body
It is the
approach that people want; sensible, common-sense medicine
Perhaps one of the most essential elements of
the model of integrative medicine is that practitioner and patient
are partners in the healing process,
rather than the doctor being on a pedestal imparting his wisdom to the patient.
The doctor-patient relationship implies responsibility on the part of the
patient for his or her own healing, and an exchange of information that will
enhance the healing process.
So, when you go to see the doctor, we urge you:
ask the questions, ask for options and information, and also, tell the doctor
how you feel, inside, not just the outside symptoms. A medicine of wellbeing is
one where everything relates to everything: we have a body, we have thoughts and
emotions and we feel, so go “inside”.
And finally, perhaps the most radical departure
from conventional medicine as traditionally taught in medical schools: Integrative
medicine asks the practitioner to
model healing and commit to his or her own self-exploration.
Some statistical information
In the early 1900’s the average life expectancy
was 47 years and people died mostly of infectious diseases. In 1990 the life
expectancy had risen to 75 years with the leading causes of death being heart
disease, autoimmune conditions and cancer; these are chronic diseases. More and
more research supports the theory that the reason they are chronic is due to
diet and lifestyle conditions.
A recent survey in
According to author Geoffrey Cowley, what draws
people to
Often, the main motivation for patients to seek
“It is much more important to
know what sort of patient has the disease than what sort of disease the patient
has” Sir William Osler
For example, from
a patient’s perspective, he says, acupuncture is a ritual in which a therapist
touches us and helps us feel better. By the logic of scientific medicine,
acupuncture is measured as an encounter between a patient and a needle, and
it doesn’t factor in such intangibles as care and compassion, which count
but which can’t be measured by Western medicine’s current standards.
Wellbeing & longevity: what is it?
What
do you think is well being?
Our
western culture promotes DOING, being on the edge, not BEING. We are mostly in
sympathetic system: action, sugar, coffee, super-exercise (explain
sympathetic-parasympathetic)
Youth is not
necessarily equal to young age. It is a mood, a state of being alert and agile,
of wellbeing. Something that we can have at all ages, and we are interested in
fostering this and maintaining it.
Wellbeing is
engaging the whole body
In our modern
settings, we far too much use our visual sense, we are very “eye dominated”,
much to the extent that it cuts off the sensations and perceptions of the rest
of our being.
It is with our eyes,
that we predominately classify, label, and then judge ourselves, others and the
objects of our world, which we repeat to ourselves and becomes our interior
dialogue. Here in the city, specially if we live in Capital Federal, all of
our senses are in overload: the air has all this pollution from the buses
and cars, the hearing is jammed with city noise, and the eyes are bombarded
with T.V. computers nightlife, etc.
Our western culture
emphasizes “outside”; eastern culture, for instance, emphasizes “inside.” Our
eyes put our focus on the outside, but then no one knows what we feel inside.
We do all these things to live up to what we see others do and we think we need
to match… (Example of man in his fifties who died of heart attack; everyone
thought he was so fit, he did “super-exercise” but he didn’t pause to check in
what he felt inside).
To give our eyes and
our outside senses a rest is to put a halt in the flow of ongoing inner
dialogue. Let’s do a Check-in together, to see if we were all here, in this
present moment; to bring ourselves to this time and space, more in silence.
(Practice magical pass,
dealing with all the senses of the head—sight, smell, hearing.)
Aspects
of wellbeing:
What things do you do for wellbeing?
How
many of you get treatments, what kind, etc. How many get Acupuncture or other
forms of complementary care?
Wellbeing:
what do you do to achieve it?
1- Physical:
diet and supplements
2- Thoughts:
what do you say to yourself?
3- Spirit:
Having some degree of inner silence during the day and connecting to nature.
If
we say: “You make me sick!” or “This is not going to work!” or “I hate myself”
this is what the cells are commanded to do.
Nutrition is a topic
of tremendous importance that is not even closely properly taught in medical
schools. Consumers want to know about the effects of diet and supplements on
their health. Diet per se cannot be considered as the cause of all diseases but
it certainly has a deep effect on the body. In the
Three
basics for well-being:
-1-What
you eat
2-
How you sleep
3- What you say to yourself.
So this is basic health, good
thoughts for yourself, good relations with others, eat
properly and sleep well.
Do you want to live longer? A tip for longevity: say thank you. Thank
you is a great pill.
Acupuncture overview
Today
in most western cultures the ancient medical art of acupuncture is considered a
"new alternative" medicine. In reality Acupuncture and Chinese herbal
medicine are practiced medical treatments that are over 5,000 years old. Very
basically, Acupuncture is the insertion of very fine needles on the body's
surface, in order to influence physiological functioning of the body.
In acupuncture, we want to allow flow; think yourself as a river,
we are all made mostly of water in our bodies, if the river flow is stuck,
nutrients cannot get where they need to go and waste products accumulate,
unwanted. Acupuncture “un-stucks” the flow.
Acupuncture restores balance. Relate it to temperature: how is it
distributed? Is abdomen hot? Are the knees cold? (tip, warm them up before
exercise) The basis of Acupuncture is the theory that the body has an energy
force running throughout it, a force known as Qi. Qi
(also seen as chi or ki) is comprised of two parts, Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang
are opposite forces, that when balanced, work together. Energy
constantly flows up and down these pathways. When pathways become obstructed,
deficient, excessive, or just unbalanced, Yin and Yang are thrown out of
balance. This causes illness. Acupuncture is said to restore the balance.
Another way to
describe this is to say that yin and yang are two polar forces and Qi is the
vital substance that expresses them.
The Qi consists
of all essential life activities, which include the spiritual, emotional,
mental and the physical aspects of life. A person's health is influenced by the
flow of Qi in the body. Qi travels throughout the body along
"Meridians" or special pathways. The acupuncture points are specific
locations where the Meridians come to the surface of the skin, and are easily
accessible by "needling,"
Moxibustion,
and Tui-na. (Acupuncture can also
be used in conjunction with heat produced by burning specific herbs; this is
called Moxibustion. In addition, a non-invasive method of massage therapy,
called Tui-na, is
also an effective component of the treatment.)
Most research has shown that Chinese medicine’s
strongest area is actually one of conventional medicine’s weakest: the area of
chronic diseases.
A growing trend
among both the biomedical and TCM communities: that a combination of western
medicine and traditional Chinese medicine gets better results than a single
method alone. And this holds true even more for the treatment of complex
diseases.
In the west, a
major focus of scientific medicine has been the identification of external
agents of disease and the development of weapons against them. If you look at
the name of the most popular categories of drugs in use today, you will find
that most of them begin with the prefix “anti.” We use antispasmodics,
antidepressants, antipyretics, anti-inflammatories.
The new view of
medicine emerging in
For example, the
development of antibiotics to fight bacteria…now the bacteria are increasingly
developing resistance to them and this is becoming a major issue in hospital
care. In the east, especially in
Integrative Medicine in the clinic
Acupuncture is not only to treat diseases. TCM
is not only to treat diseases. Integrative energy medicine is not only to
treat diseases. 50 % of patients that come to treatment don’t have a main
disease entity or major complaint (we all have minor things going on at any
given time) Acupuncture allows you to “enter” your body and feel inside. It
works “with” your body. Many patients come to ensure that their Qi flows properly
and to to enhance balance; that is, to promote the immune system and well-being.
How does a session look like?
The labeling of diseases is an
important component to address at the beginning of a session.
More and more,
in clinical experience, we see social and emotional causes as the underlying
cause of disease. The field of neuro-endocrine-immunology has made profound
discoveries on the relationships between these components and the cells and
tissues in the body.
In medical school we were taught an extensive
intake questionnaire; but, as the demands of managed care puts pressures on the
time doctors can actually spend with patients, entire sections of the
questionnaire have to be tossed out, and the first one to go is the one about
“social” life. Doctors have no time to inquire about important basic clues such
as: What do you do to manage stress? What things make you happy? These answers
often provide the best clues as to which way to individually approach patient
care.
Let’s discuss one example: “I am a
chronic fatigue patient” That is a fixed command that is sent daily to every
cell. Different is to stay with the description of symptoms. Chinese medicine
deals with the current configuration of relationships rather than with disease
entities fixed in time. That patient can say, “I have trouble getting up in the
morning” This is much more open-ended, and is equally right. Or be even more
specific “I have trouble getting up in the morning when the day before I work
more than 8 hours and go out at night till past midnight” There is a simple
rule in this planet, based on gravity: what goes up must eventually go down.
In this fast and busy city life,
many of you experience some degree of tiredness in your lives, of fatigue.
Another suggestion to avoid fatigue is not to compare yourself with others.
Worrying causes a tremendous fatigue. The other aspect is keeping your energy
flowing in your physical body, and in your being.
Here is a formula for fatigue: Hold
your breath, clench your teeth and make sure that what you are doing is an
effort.
It is a matter of awareness, focus
on having fun in life, what you have that
works; as long as you are standing, your heartbeat works, at least your
breathing works, you are alive.
A doctor of this new medicine will
ask the patient: What do you tell yourself? What do you eat? How do you sleep
at night? (What do you do before going to sleep and upon waking up?)
In summary
The fundamental aspects of integrative medicine
could be summarized as follows:
1- Restoring to
medicine its healing orientation. Having patients be aware of their options,
knowing which modalities are effective for different cases.
2- Shifting the emphasis of the current Western
health care system, which is not really set up as a health care system but as a
disease care system. Doctors are trained to recognize disease, and treat
it and, ideally, cure it, rather than to promote health. Integrative
medicine strives to shift this model to one that supports health, maintains it
and enhances it.
-The basic premise of the western model: to attack. It is a disease system.
-The premise of the new medicine is to promote. It is a health enhancing system
Health comes from the old English word “Hal”
which means wholeness, soundness, or spiritual wellness. “Health,” is (defined
by the World Health Organization) “a state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease”. To “cure”
conversely, refers to doing something that alleviates a troublesome illness or
condition.
Supporters of integrative medicine think it will
fundamentally change the way patients are treated. As the director of
I. Integrative medicine is a consumer-driven movement
A- Healthcare
consumers are educating themselves
B- Sales of
botanicals and other supplements are increasing,
as are visits to other alternative
practitioners
II. Why physicians are interested in integrative medicine
A- Doctors are
growing dissatisfied with their practices
B- Patients are
requesting more information on alternative therapies
III. Aims of integrative medicine
A- Establish a
true partnership between patient and practitioner
B- Revive the
art of medicine
1. Develop and improve listening skills
2. Communicate clearly and thoroughly
3. Make appropriate treatment and lifestyle
suggestions
4. Acknowledge patients’ belief systems
C- Change the
focus of medicine from disease to healing
D- Emphasize
prevention and wellness
Andrew Weil, M.D.
When the use of
western medicine is most relevant:
Crisis, emergencies, severe diseases, trauma,
fast moving illnesses, disease involving vital organs, complicated diseases which
amount to 20% of cases
What allopathic medicine can and cannot do for
you:
CAN:
Manage trauma better than any other system of
medicine
Diagnose and treat many medical and surgical
emergencies
Treat acute bacterial infections with
antibiotics
Treat some parasitic and fungal infections
Prevent many infectious diseases by immunization
Diagnose complex medical problems
Replace damaged hips and knees
Get good results with cosmetic and
reconstructive surgeries
Diagnose and correct hormonal deficiencies
CANNOT
Treat viral infections
Cure most chronic degenerative conditions
Effectively manage most kinds of mental illness
Cure most forms of allergy or autoimmune disease
Effectively manage psychosomatic illnesses
Cure most forms of cancer