Health, Holistic Medicine and History

Before I write any further, I want to explain my thoughts on Health, Holistic Medicine and Historical musings. Much of what I will write is not new and has been written before, but I want to define my thoughts.
Health is a state of being. It is a very fluid state and is always changing. Health encompasses the physical body and the emotional, mental and spiritual states. During our day to day and week to week lives these four aspects of health flow in and out of each other in varying degrees of importance like a scattered meshwork. In a person who is healthy, these four aspects of health remain within the middle of a relative stable range. Due to the interwoven nature of health, when one facet is ill or needs healing, the others are also affected. More severe illness occurs when we have multiple components that are ill. Sometimes one very scarring experience can affect our emotional state and drag the rest of the pieces down manifesting as a severe systemic illness. I have also seen patients who have multiple apparently unrelated illnesses causing an overall decrease in the quality of life and health
Holistic medicine encompasses the four different facets of health. A holistic practitioner understands and applies this knowledge. If one part of our health is ill, then the cause may be found in one of the other aspects of health. Many patients I see who have multiple illnesses or chronic illnesses such as chronic pain have had a history of emotional trauma. Studies show that a history of childhood abuse is a risk factor for chronic pain as an adult. It is also important to know that one aspect of a person’s health may be strong and can be used as a crutch for temporary support. An example of this would be a patient who I saw a while ago whose spiritual life was solid, but who was diagnosed with cancer. He had a very large and strong Hawaiian family. They were excellent long board surfers and a number of his sons were professional surfers. In Hawaii, surfing is more than just a day at the beach, it is a way of life that defines and represents a families ancestors and the spirit of Hawaii. Surfing was a very spiritual act for the family and he took strength in just talking it. He and his family leaned on their spiritual life for guidance, strength, and support. The holistic practitioner who understands and utilizes this gives the patient the best chance at healing and having optimum health.
As with any lesson learned, we can’t forget the challenges and answers those who came before us overcame and discovered. Medicine in the beginning had only the spiritual to give them answers. As knowledge of medicine was passed from one great culture to the next our scientific knowledge increased, but we lost some of the spiritual component. With each passing age, we slowly lost the subtleties and intuitiveness of healing. With the advent of modern medicine; antibiotics, immunizations, x-rays, there was less need for the practitioner to use unscientific and unproven means to heal. Modern medicine has magnificent ways of studying the body through spectacular imaging to very precise molecular biology techniques to detect illness. We have terms such as “evidence based medicine” and “double blind placebo controlled trials” that have thrusted medicine into another age of better and safer treatments. However, it leads us to forget the subtle intuitive nature that can help provide better overall care. We can’t forget the past or we may need to relearn it over again.