A whole new approach to health and healing - how 'Holopathic Medicine' can help you tap into your body's energy stores and be healthier and happier than you've ever imagined
About a year ago, I woke up one morning at 4 o'clock from a sound sleep with an idea so exciting it spurred me out of bed and straight to my computer.
Actually, this is an idea that I have been developing for about 22 years. But on that particular morning, the pieces all came together, and I experienced an Epiphany not unlike the one I felt in the operating room 20 years ago, when I looked down at my next bypass surgery patient and saw myself (unfit, overweight and heading for the same fate). I knew at that moment that if I didn't change my lifestyle - dramatically - I would be on the operating table myself within a matter of years.
That first revelation 20 years ago started me down the road from cardiac surgeon to preventive medicine practitioner. And, now, I am taking the next step in my career as a health professional. I feel I am coming full circle, from surgery to preventive medicine to what I have termed 'Holopathic Medicine'.
In medical school, I was indoctrinated into the Western tradition of medicine. And that tradition has a great deal to offer in certain circumstances... when a bone is broken, an appendix bursts, or a patient is struck with a serious infection.
In more recent years, I have indoctrinated myself into the Eastern tradition of medicine, which has as much, or more, to offer in many other circumstances. I have become knowledgeable about everything from herbology to acupuncture... from hypnosis to chelation... from aromatherapy to imagery... from T'ai Chi to meditation... and much, much more. I have developed a respect for these effective, safe traditions of healing, and I have come to depend on them in my daily practice.
Now, after 17 years of focusing on nutrition, exercise, and preventive, alternative medicine, I have recognized the importance of bringing together the science of Western medicine with the wisdom of Eastern traditions.
This is the seed of Holopathic Medicine, a system that will teach people that it is as important to stimulate the immune system and to develop energy of the mind, body, and spirit as it is to treat a disease with drugs or surgery.
The concept of "energy" is fundamental to Holopathic Medicine, which could also be called Energy Medicine. In fact, I now understand that the true power of healing is found in your body's natural stores of energy. Your body requires energy to battle such invaders as free radicals or harmful bacteria.
Traditional, Western medicine concentrates intently on the disease and the symptoms of the disease, ignoring the patient's overall level of health and energy. It cures the symptoms...but not the fundamental illness.
This is a tragedy, because often the real illness has little to do with the symptoms a patient is experiencing.
Suppose, for example, that you go to visit your general practitioner complaining of a sore throat and a fever. He diagnoses a serious case of throat infection and prescribes penicillin - which, in fact, cures your throat.
But the real question to be answered is, why did you develop strep throat at this time? Usually, the underlying cause of such a disease has to do with a weakened immune system. Your body was too weak to fight off the disease on its own. Its energy level was too low to protect itself from the invading bacteria.
This is why we need also to look at Eastern traditions of healing, which place great emphasis on a patient's lifestyle and general level of health. An Ayurvedic physician, for example, or a practitioner of Chinese medicine, when presented with a patient, will immediately ask about the patient's home life... his work habits of late...his eating habits...his exercise regimen. These healers understand that to treat a patient properly, they must first understand the root cause of his illness.
That is not to say traditional medicine has no role to play. Quite the contrary. Anyone I diagnose as having a strep throat is quickly prescribed penicillin. It is required to treat this type of serious infection.
But that is just the beginning of the treatment. I want to make sure that all of my patients (and this includes everybody reading this health letter) are treated not only for their immediate symptoms but also for the root causes of their illnesses.
When prescription medications...or surgery... are required, I back them up with alternative treatments. The drugs and surgery treat the immediate, and sometimes life-threatening, problem. The alternative treatments, of which there are more than 20 in my practice, go to work to heal the patient in the long term, getting to the real root of the illness.
The Allopathic (mainstream) treatment for high blood pressure is drugs. The Holopathic treatment may be drugs for a short time, backed up with T'ai Chi and aromatherapy, both of which are very effective in lowering blood pressure in the long term without side effects.
The Allopathic (mainstream) treatment for breast cancer is chemotherapy. The Holopathic approach may involve the use of herbs and hypnotherapy, which do not have the complications of drug therapy.
There is a great deal more to be said about Holopathic Energy Medicine and the importance of tapping into your body's own natural energy stores to supercharge your immune system. Having introduced you to these ideas, I will share more about this exciting new tradition in my blog.
