Holistic Medicine
What is Holistic Medicine?
Holistic Medicine is defined as "the art and science of healing that addresses the whole person-body, mind and spirit. The practice of holistic medicine integrates conventional and alternative therapies to promote optimal health and to prevent and treat disease. Holistic medicine has attempted to integrate the best of modern day technologies with the wisdom of the practice of medicine from the past. It represents the next stage in the evolution of health care to a higher level. Like all evolutionary movements, it has been met with strong skepticism and sometimes downright hostility from those entrenched in conventional medicine.
The Principals of Holistic Medicine
The following twelve principles of holistic medical practice were established by the American Holistic Medical Association:
Unconditional love is life's most powerful healer. Physicians strive to adopt an attitude of unconditional love for patients, themselves, and other practitioners.
Optimal health is much more than the absence of sickness. It is the conscious pursuit of the highest qualities of the physical, environmental, mental emotional, spiritual, and social aspects of the human experience.
Illness is viewed as a manifestation of a dysfunction of the whole person, not as an isolated event.
Holistic physicians embrace a variety of safe, effective, options in diagnosis and treatment, including: education for lifestyle changes of self care, complementary approaches and conventional drugs and surgery.
Searching for the underlying causes of disease is preferable to treating symptoms alone.
Holistic physicians expend as much effort in establishing what kind of patient has a disease as they do in establishing what kind of disease a patient has.
Prevention is preferable to treatment and is usually more cost effective. The most cost effective approach evokes the patient's own innate healing capabilities.
A major determinant of healing outcomes is the quality of the relationship established between physician and patient, in which patient autonomy is encourage.
The ideal physician-patient relationship considers the needs, desires, awareness and insight of the patient as well as those of the physician.
Physicians significantly influence patients by their example.
Illness, pain, and the dying process can be learning opportunities for patients and physicians.
Holistic physicians encourage patients to evoke the healing power of love, hope, humor, and enthusiasm, and to release the toxic consequences of hostility, shame, greed, and depression, and prolonged fear, anger, and grief.
Why has Holistic Medicine Principles been so slow to be accepted?
The majority of us who practice conventional medicine have been schooled in what is known as allopathic medicine leading to a doctorate of medicine (M.D.) degree. As with many lofty intellectual pursuits, allopathic medicine tends to select those who are conventional thinkers who may very intelligent, but are conformist in nature. In fact, due to the highly competitive nature of admission to medical school, those who are the most astute at gamesmanship have a higher probability of acceptance to medical school. Therefore, when a new certifying body of medicine was created in 1996, The American Board of Holistic Medicine, it was slow to be accepted into mainstream medicine. Though it has certified over 500 physicians as Holistic medicine specialists, the American Board of Holistic Medicine has yet to be accepted into the American Board of Medical Specialties which is the governing body of all specialty boards in the United States.
The American Board of Holistic Medicine along with the American Holistic Medical Association had been compiling the scientific data necessary for Holistic medicine to become part of mainstream medicine. There now exists a large body of scientific evidence supporting various alternative medical treatments, however, few of my allopathic colleagues are aware that such evidence exists. Due to the rigorous time demands placed on physicians today, few have the luxury of learning about alternative medical treatments outside of their specialties. Perhaps adding to the skepticism towards alternative medical treatments, is that while they show efficacy in controlled studies, they cannot be explained from a scientific standpoint. An example of this is phenomenon of prayer improving surgical outcomes, or extremely dilute potions known as homeopathic treatments relieving symptoms defy scientific logic.
Due to the decrease reimbursements by insurers to physicians coupled with the relentless increasing costs of maintaining a medical practice, most physicians have been forced to increase the volume of patients they see in order to keep financially solvent. It can be difficult to give patients the time and compassion required when one has only ten or fifteen minutes to spend with patients. Our allopathic training has also pulled our attention towards our specialty areas such as the heart, the kidney, or the liver while focusing less on the effect of illness on the entire patient, his or her family and society as a whole.
Conclusions
Several years ago, it was reported by the American Medical Association that the American public has spent more on alternative therapies than on out of pocket expenses for hospital care. It is without a doubt, that the public is seeking medical treatment outside of conventional allopathic medicine. There is also a movement away from the large HMO style group practices and more towards physicians willing to spend a reasonable amount of time with their patients as equal partners in their healthcare. Conventional medicine will not die, it remains exceedingly good at emergency and acute care medicine. Holistic medicine can serve as a cost effective and compassionate means of delivering primary and specialty medical care. As the American Holistic Medical Association and American Board of Holistic Medicine pursue their agenda of education, Holistic medicine will eventually be integrated into mainstream medicine.
Lloyd K. Ito, MD
11/29/03