In a couple of earlier posts I spoke of homeopathy, a medicinal art I feel very passionate about and have seen do amazing things. But that does not mean I don’t look to other ways of healing as well. Alternative, complementary, integrative medicine, whatever name you want to use, there is this wonderful umbrella of approaches and tools all with the same goal, restoring and maintaining health and well-being.
This morning I read on www.care2.com (another great site) of yet another traditionally trained doctor, as far as the Western world is concerned, whose personal experiences led him to look beyond allopathic medicine in order to most help his patients. Dr. Frank Lipman was “initially skeptical of any non-traditional approaches to medicine, Lipman had an epiphany during a period of training in the South African bush, where he saw the impoverished tribal people were resonating with the rhythms and cycles of life. He came ready to help with his western formal training but he began to see that the polarization between western and other healing philosophies merely negated positive attributes of both. He saw that true healing lay in a blend between the two.”
While it seems very apt, I had never heard this rather humorous expression concerning medical school. “We were taught to name it, blame it and tame it.” We do like to feel we’re the ones in control, don’t we? Just like the Titanic was ‘unsinkable’ and Mother Nature ‘beatable’, we want nice clean answers. Get this test result, give this medicine, reassuringly predictable and straight-forward.
Dr. Lipton goes on to explain “this model works well for the acute or short-lived illnesses that were most common until about 70 or 80 years ago. There is no better model for crisis care management, such as a heart attack or burst appendix, a broken bone or an acute bacterial infection like pneumonia…But most complaints today are not acute illnesses, rather chronic problems, which are not served well by this model in which varied complex disease processes are reduced to a single diagnosis…Luckily for all of us, there is a new little known science-based model for chronic diseases, called Functional Medicine that deals with the underlying causes instead of just suppressing symptoms. It is a true mix of Chinese and Western Medicine.”
Fortunately, recent studies have shown that taking buying levitra without prescription improves sexual function in men suffering from ED significantly. American or Wisconsin ginseng viagra ordination Continue Shopping has many positive effects; helping treat ED is one of them. Best herbal pill can be described as a perfect blend of herbal ingredients cialis for sale canada like safed musli, ashwagandha and saffron. Massage levitra prescription helps to relax and improve blood flow.
In his 30 years of practicing medicine, he has “learned that for any chronic illness or ailment, treating underlying imbalances and dysfunctions is more important than making a diagnosis and naming the disease. Ultimately, asking the right questions is more important than giving a label to a set of observations. This is because most if not all chronic problems, from heart disease to arthritis, migraines to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), depression to fatigue, usually have multiple factors that need to be addressed – this is called the total load…The total load is the sum of the factors that influence a person’s life and health, including diet, exercise, job stress, relationships, state of mind etc…Everyone’s tipping point is different and each of us manifests or experiences overload in our own unique way.”
He recounts a neat analogy about a tree that’s not doing well. With drooping leaves that are turning yellow, a gardener does “not call it yellow leaf syndrome and paint the leaves green or cut off the sick part. The gardener evaluates why the plant is not growing well. He determines whether the plant is getting enough or too much sunlight, enough or too much water, the soil rich and balanced in order to nourish the plant? And he looks to see if the roots are being impinged upon, and if so, what needs to be removed.” He looks at the whole picture. Medicine too at its best treats the whole, unique, individual patient, listening to everything that the body is trying to tell us.
