Whereas conventional medical practice focuses on the treatment of disease using drugs and surgery, mindbody medicine is based on promoting health as the best treatment for disease. Medications and surgery are great for infections and trauma, but they are not so effective for the epidemic of chronic disease in modern society.
Integrative, or functional medicine, provides the tools to evaluate and restore health to the many systems that comprise the wondrous biological symphony of your body. Digestion, assimilation, immunity, cardiac function, sex hormones, thyroid, adrenal, detoxification, neurotransmitters and much more all work together: you cannot isolate one from the other. Using lab testing you can determine nutritional deficiencies, cardiac risk, hormone imbalances, metabolic disturbances such as insulin and leptin resistance, digestive imbalances, food allergies, and more. Proper diet is essential to healing the body and it is not the same for everyone. Add exercise and the results are even better.
People improve with any medical diagnosis if you assist them in restoring the natural wisdom of the body. Just as you cannot repair an automobile with airplane parts, you cannot heal the body with symptomatic drugs. In order to heal disease, you need eat the right foods and restore the body chemistry using properly prescribed supplements, such as vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, nutritional co-factors, and amino acids.
Also, as inconvenient as it may be, the body is governed by consciousness (both conscious and unconscious) and to reverse chronic and serious disease you must heed the “message of illness” and consider the dysfunctional beliefs and emotional issues that are expressed within the fabric of your body as dis-ease. Or, more simply stated, you need to understand the impact of stress. Consciousness is difficult to fully define, but for simplicity, it is combination of the way we think and the way we feel our emotions (or don’t feel them). Mindbody research has shown that digestion, blood circulation, immune activity, hormone levels are but a few of the systems controlled by the mind. It has been that way for as long as we have lived on earth.
Mindbody healing is effective for all illnesses, including:
- High blood pressure
- Angina and coronary artery disease
- Cancer
- Arthritis
- Diabetes
- Asthma
- Allergic rhinitis
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Ulcers
- Headaches
- Gastroesophageal reflux or heartburn
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Lyme disease
- Fibromyalgia
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- and more…
Mindbody medicine is based on medical research and makes conventional medical therapies more effective. Modern medical science has provided remarkable achievements in many areas of healthcare. In the first half of the 20th century, antibiotics transformed the medical landscape by treating life threatening infections such as pneumonia and meningitis. Emergency and critical care doctors represent the best of the “medical model” as they use powerful medications to save lives day after day. Surgeons rely on amazing technology to save lives of trauma patients and those in need of cancer removal and all types of internal repair. We can peer into the body using diagnostic scanning and X-ray techniques with pinpoint precision, while laboratory testing provides detailed explanations of the wondrous natural intelligence of the mind and body. Indeed, no one can doubt the wonders of modern medicine.
However, the future of medicine lies in shifting some of the responsibility for healing back to the patient. People need to know more about diet and nutritional biochemistry. They need to understand how to listen to their bodies and heed the message of illness to change their lifestyle and mind style. In this way they are more likely to heal the disease and become stronger and wiser in the process. In doing so, we shift medical practice from disease treatment to health promotion. Simply taking a symptomatic drug forever does not achieve the purpose of disease, which is healing.
Medications can be reduced and often eliminated as mindbody healing progresses. Drugs are tapered as they are no longer needed and under medical supervision. In the testimonial section you can read about people who have improved their health and reduced the need for medications.