I am a physician trained in traditional allopathic medicine. I am a board certified Family Medicine practitioner and have had an excellent public education my whole life. I learned hard science and a multitude of medical facts through focused and intense study in medical school. Medical residency training gave me an outstanding hands on experience that transformed me into a medical practitioner. Through my education, I have gained much knowledge about how to help and treat people. I grew up in a circle of family and friends who were open to health care beyond allopathic medicine. My beliefs and medical practice have been shaped by this circle. I have gained many experiences not learned in school that have helped to mold my practice. I have come to believe that holistic and integrative medicine that includes complementary and alternative medicine is a better answer.
Medical school and medical residency training instill the “disease centered approach” as opposed to the “patient centered approach”. As our science improved, our patient skills deteriorated. Recently, the momentum is beginning to shift the other way and the medical community has realized that patients want something different. We are listening and we are starting to change our ways. Patient centered care is now taught in medical schools and residency. Doctors are graduating better doctors not because they know more medicine but because they strive to know the whole patient. We can still endeavor to do much better.
An integrative approach to medicine that includes our cutting edge science and information technology, complementary and alternative forms of medical treatment, and discovering subtle emotional and spiritual cues can best lead to treating the whole individual. This blog will cover a holistic approach to health with an eye on history. I will look at traditional treatments, complementary and alternative medicine options and the historical approach from past cultures to help answer how to best treat the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual components of an individual.
