Doctor,
I have taken the
oath - but I Ask you - am I really
a Hypocrite?
Integrative
Health - A Paradigm Shift
The
Process of Obtaining and Maintaining Optimal Health by Integration
of Allopathic Therapies and Nutritional Supplementation to Achieve and
Maintain Optimal Health in your Patients.
Preface
I am presenting this thesis to motivate you to re-assess the
fundamental assumptions that were taught to you during your medical
education. I would like you to evaluate the beliefs, thoughts, and
assumptions that formed your conditioned beliefs from the earliest
times of your life. I am asking you to embark upon a journey of
discovery. This process of discovery typically follows a pattern of
skepticism, ambivalence, and then acceptance as truth. In the next few
pages try to answer with sincerity and honesty in your own mind the
ideological contradictions that we operate with in modern medicine
today. I implore you not to react as a pavlovian, but to examine what
you believe and why you believe it. Question yourself. Can your beliefs
withstand critical analysis of these fundamental questions? If you are
not prepared to do this at this time, still, please read on and do come
back again when you are ready to question yourself.
I want you to examine the very core of
your reasons why you became a doctor and why you continue to practice
medicine. What is your true intention? I invite you to examine the
journey that I began in mid 1997 that culminated in a metamorphosis of
my own philosophy of health and disease … a paradigm shift of
Integrative Health. This paradigm shift and medical awakening occurred
some fifteen years after my fellowship training in Pulmonary Disease. I
challenge you to re-asses the ideological path of what we are as
physicians and what we are supposed to be as physicians. It is not my
intention to indict the medical profession as it exists today. It is,
however, my intention to expose its shortcomings and present
alternative options, guiding it back on track to fulfill the role that
it should have in society today.
I do indict our definition of good
health as insufficient and misleading. It is absurd to use the absence
of symptoms as the definition of good health. It is difficult for us to
quantify and measure good health because we are so accustomed to
measure the negative aspect of a health problem on the human body and
spirit. I define optimal health as a person who is free of specific
complaints, exercises without difficulty, sleeps well and awakens
refreshed and maintains this throughout his or her life with no undo
anxiety or depression. This process should be accomplished without the
aid of a drug or visit to the doctor, chiropractor, or homeopathic
physician. If we are to be true physicians, adhering to the oath of
Hippocrates, this must be our goal.
The Ethical Considerations: Do you
really have a choice?
As much as things change, they stay the same. Fundamental needs and
requirements of the human body, mind, spirit and soul have not
significantly changed in the past 6000 years. It is with that preface
that I looked back upon the Hippocratic Oath; the oath that I swore to
uphold when I graduated from medical school. One key phrase that
haunted me over the past twenty years was:
"At first, do no harm."
I could honestly say that this was not
always true. The other overwhelming and yet unexplainable fact was that
I was seeing more and more patients with more complex and bizarre
symptoms and problems, many of which I could not explain. In fact, many
of these same patients were sick because of the medications that I and
other physicians had prescribed. I began to question myself, was I
really acting in my patient's best interests? Was something missing?
Mainstream medicine seemed to be close to answers and yet absolute
unyielding dogma one year was soon to become last year's fad and silly
science. Was the traditional Western Medicine (primarily acute
interventive care) approach to disease and illness appropriate?
Consider the following trends:
- Cancer will strike 1 in 3 people
- Heart Disease will strike 1 in 2
people
- Asthma now afflicts some 13½
million people (nearly double past 10 years)
- Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia
are nearly epidemic in proportion;
as an intern I barely heard of one case
These trends are nothing to be proud
of and certainly nothing to be satisfied with. To continue as we have
(philosophical approach to health and disease) would produce the same
terrible results; to expect something different would be tantamount to
overt psychosis. Review the following chart which shows the lifetime
incidence of breast cancer in females; can you be satisfied with this
trend?
It finally occurred to me that
traditional medicine and therefore - I, was missing something. I was
not adhering to the oath that I swore to twenty years ago. Traditional
Western Medicine had significant limitations and my patients were
suffering because of it. Additionally, I would wince when I would hear
the American Medical Association advocate preventive health measures -
substituting early detection for prevention. These terms are not
synonymous and therefore are not interchangeable.
Two problems so far identified:
- Western Medicine could not answer
many questions of health problems and was wrong much of the time
- Harm was occurring to patients
because of medication
An additional problem surfaced some
twenty years ago with traditional, acute interventive style medicine --
it became very expensive. This "cost problem" brought in the federal
government. With the government now interested in cost containment the
squeeze was on. This resulted in a shift of work from direct patient
care and interaction (primarily physician and nursing) to documentation
of work done. Real work and real patient care in the hospital setting
has deteriorated profoundly. The last bastion of Western Medicine, the
hospital, is fast becoming a straw dog, a shadow of its former self -
often unable to save people from the clutches of premature death and
relegating patients to expensive and sometimes painful therapy.
Another unfortunate side effect of the
government's interest in our health is its increasing interest in how
we behave (e.g. do we smoke?). This has caused extreme limitations of
our freedom. To some this may seem like a good idea, but the premise
that the federal government has the moral, ethical and constitutional
authority to do this is beyond frightening. If we are to stay a free
country, then we must take responsibility for ourselves, stand by our
convictions and not rely on an oppressive government to take care of us.
Therefore, I contend, the only way to
help people survive, is to keep them out of the hospital and most
importantly, keep them away from drugs as much as humanly possible. If
we look into the "bible" of Allopathic Medicine, the PDR (Physician
Desk Reference), nothing safe can be found for prevention. Again, I was
personally at a loss to explain why patients were so sick and there was
nothing that was effective for true disease prevention and maintenance
of health. I was becoming more and more helpless as a physician -- I
knew in principal what was needed; I just had no tools, or so I thought.
Current Scientific Philosophy: One
Disease - One Drug - One Cure
Society has always demanded answers
from Western Medicine concerning causes and treatment of diseases.
Today, there are a profound number of people becoming disenchanted with
traditional1,2 Western Medicine . Now, the new demand and focus is on
how to stay well (preventive medicine). The problem with the approach
of Western Medicine, is that it is incapable of giving one simple
answer to even just one of the major health problems in our society
today - what causes cancer, heart disease, arthritis, asthma, etc. etc.
etc. …?
Each time Western Medicine discovers a
new answer to a health issue, it is soon followed by five new
unanswered questions. This year's medical dogma is soon to be next
year's foolish medical ritual. I also think, that at times Western
Medicine focuses on areas where it does not belong. For example, the
Center for Disease Control now looks at violent shootings as a medical
problem. Its treatment for this "medical problem" is gun control. What
is the direct connection to Medicine? Shooting someone is a crime - not
a medical condition. This picture of medicine is certainly not right.
Again, I stand by my conviction of personal responsibility for our well
being as individuals, our family and ultimately our society.
If Western Medicine has a codifying
theory, it is that of all the diseases that afflict man, none are
really connected or related in any significant way. It assumes that
each disease has a unique and specific cause, and to be "cured" a
specific "drug" must be found that will remedy the particular problem.
Unfortunately, the drugs identified as "cures" often have many side
effects. Some, sadly enough, are detrimental or even lethal. In late
1999, The Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of
Science released a stunning report, "To Err is Human". This report
finds upwards of 98,000 people are killed by medical errors in
prescription medications. Making matters yet worse, several other
recent studies have indicated that appropriate use of prescription
medication is the fourth to sixth largest killer of Americans today,
accounting for upwards of one million injuries a year and 180,000
deaths . This ideological process also assumes that the human body is
programmed to fail. Rather than fail, could it be, that the human body
is programmed to succeed - actually achieve and maintain optimal health
if given the right "stuff" -- i.e., food? Ask yourself, are there
logical problems to Western Medicine's theory? Does it ever answer the
true cause of a disease?
I strongly contend that there are
logical problems with this approach. For instance, peptic ulcer
disease, once thought to be caused by excess acid of the stomach, is
now thought to be caused by a bacterium - heliobacter pylori. This
however begs the question: why should someone have heliobacter pylori
in the stomach in the first place and why should it cause an ulcer?
Another relatively new "disease" in
our society is attention deficit disorder (ADD), attacking primarily
children. Current management and therapy is with methylphenidate. This
therapeutic philosophy argues that the body is deficient in
methylphenidate. To argue that the body in its natural state, requires
methylphenidate in any amount argues the absurd. I ask you again - what
is the answer to the cause of ADD?
Lastly, as noted above, a dangerous
characteristic of all pharmaceuticals, ignored by most physicians and
patients alike, is that by their very definition they are toxins. Their
therapeutic effects are always weighed against their side effects.
Paracelsus, Father of Pharmacology stated it the best:
"All drugs are poison. Their beneficial effects depend on the amount."
A Renaissance - The evidence
speaks, but does anyone listen?
The realization that traditional
Western Medicine typically does not cure disease, that therapy is often
harmful, and is incapable of giving an answer to most of our current
health care ailments - was very depressing and frustrating to me as a
practicing physician. What I was taught and practiced and believed in
all these years was woefully inadequate for my patients (as well as for
my family). Millions and millions of dollars, millions and millions of
hours of research have been spent with no answers. More depressing were
the millions of people with unrequited hopes that their disease would
be cured by Western Medicine. I had to ask myself, and I encourage you
to ask yourself, was/is there any evidence in any form that can give
credence to a new paradigm of health, or perhaps a re-discovery - a
Renaissance?
Once I began my research into this
question, it became clear to me that for most of recorded history the
answer is yes. In fact, a commonly known plant - aloe vera -- is a good
example. The beneficial effects of the aloe vera plant toward human
health have been well documented for some 5,000 years. Individuals
today use aloe for a host of ailments, although its beneficial effects
are typically scoffed at by traditional Western Medicine physicians
because of the lack of a traditional scientific approach to its
effectiveness. Surprisingly, there has, in fact, been scientific
analysis of the effects of aloe vera. This initially began in 1952.
Lushbaugh, et al , found that radiation burns to the abdomen of rabbits
healed with fresh aloe vera extract. Aloe vera that was one week old
did not heal the wounds. It took some thirty years for the active
ingredient of the aloe vera plant to be identified as the source of the
healing. This was discovered to be a polymannan (a polysaccharide -
made up of many mannose monosaccharide molecules). This polymanose did
not act like a drug. There were literally no toxic amounts found when
injected or given to animals or people.
During the past 20 years another "new"
discovery occurred - the importance of cell surface glycoproteins.
These substances covering every single cell in the body, were once
regarded as an insignificant cellular oddity. Glycoproteins have been
shown to be indispensable in cellular function - i.e. cell to cell
communication . These glycoproteins are made up of amino acids and
monosaccharides. It is the notion of the eight essential
monosaccharides, which are critical to proper structure and function of
the cell that is so new to modern medicine . These eight essential
monosaccharides are: glucose, galactose, mannose, fucose, xylose,
n-acetylneuraminic acid, n-acetylgalactosamine, and
n-acetylglucosamine. Kornfeld and Kornfeld in 1985 reported in a review
article on how this joining of amino acids and simple monosaccharides
occur inside the cell. This heralded a new paradigm in the
understanding of the biological importance of these monosaccharides
(carbohydrates are not just for energy anymore). This ultimately led to
the new field of Glycobiology. An excellent introduction to this
science has been published by Dr. John Axford .
Relevance to human health of these
essential monosaccharides has been abundantly documented. Hanson
reported the apparent uniqueness of these monosaccharides in human
mother's milk. His study revealed five of the eight essential
monosaccharides are found in human mother's milk but not in any other
mammalian species or commercial baby formula. Importantly, there was a
direct correlation between longer breast feeding in infants and the
decreased incidence of (1) first episode of otitis media (2) eczema and
(3) asthma. This strongly suggests a lasting effect on the immune
system by mother's breast milk and appears directly related to these
essential monosaccharides. Further, investigations in animals show
marked improvement in vaccine effectiveness , immunity ,improved wound
healing ,improved glucose control in diabetic mice , improved healing
in radiation induced skin changes , and increased tumor cell death,
with this polymannan.
Experience in the laboratory and in
humans has been remarkable as well. Early studies with a single
monosaccharide, aloe vera or acemannan, have shown improvement in
symptoms in such disorders as wounds , , , , , , psoriasis ,
atheromatous heart disease and angina , and AIDS . Newer generation
products act by supplementing the typical diet with a mixture of the
eight essential monosaccharides. This approach has shown improvement in
a host of symptoms caused by viruses (herpes) , stomatitis , phemphigus
vulgaris , attention deficit disorder , lupus , chronic fatigue
syndrome, asthma , diabetes, to name but a few.
Phytochemicals , are another "new" nutrient discovery. In fact, they
should be classified along with the glyconutrients as new, essential
nutrient categories. Phytochemicals are the naturally occurring
antioxidants, free radical scavengers, and other anti-cancer
ingredients found in vine ripened fruits and vegetables. In fact, the
National Cancer Institute continually reports the significant benefits
of phytochemicals in the prevention of cancer. These nutrients are also
critical for prevention of heart disease as mentioned in a position
paper by the American Heart Association . These include classes of
compounds such as: isothiocyanates, saponins, indoles, allyl sulfides,
isoflavones, terpenes, polyphenols and phenolic acids.
Perhaps the most exciting discovery
from the field of glycobiology is the critical role the immune system
plays in our health and development of disease. The "window" into our
immune system is most easily seen through natural killer cells -
otherwise known as NK cells . These cells perform critical immune
surveillance - both an infection battling and cancer eradicating
function , , . Comparing studies over the past 15 years have shown that
our baseline NK cell immunity has diminished anywhere from 18% to 25%.
Most fascinating is the fact that NK cell activity has been
dramatically improved (up to 400%) by the addition of the eight
essential monosaccharides to the actual NK cells as seen in patients
with chronic fatigue syndrome . Nothing in my experience with
pharmaceuticals can compare with these findings.
This is the beginning of the
renaissance…
The evidence became overwhelming and crystal clear. I had no choice. I
finally decided to offer these nutrients to my patients and I noticed a
remarkable benefit. Patients were needing less intervention with
traditional pharmaceuticals and less medical testing. They were also
feeling significantly better. They were even avoiding hospitalization
or needing less intense hospital care. Also, when traditional
allopathic therapies were given they were remarkably more effective.
For the first time in my medical career I was seeing benefits that had
eluded the traditional allopathic approach.
After seeing the benefits and noting
the scientific validation of these nutrients, I no longer consider the
addition of proper nutrients to the diet as a luxury. It is a
fundamental and integral part of helping my patients achieve and
maintain the health that they want and deserve. It is my obligation as
a physician and as a fellow human being to bring this to as many people
as I possibly can. To do otherwise would go against everything that
exists in the Hippocratic oath. Can you as a physician and fellow human
being afford not to bring this to your patient's attention?
Can you honestly continue to offer a unilateral and often ineffective,
or even harmful approach to health when the evidence shouts that other
options work?
A New Paradigm of health -
Embracing what works and what is safe
We as physicians must embrace what works and what is safe. The "new"
tenets of health are amazingly simple. If these tenets are followed the
body will repair and maintain optimal health. These tenets are as
follows:
- The genes provide the operational
programs to establish and maintain normal structure and function of
every living organism
- The resources for gene directed
biochemical syntheses (everything that the cell needs to exist) are
limited to the air breathed, water drunk, and food eaten
- What is present and what is absent
from foods eaten, is profoundly more important than what medical
education and training has emphasized
- If optimal nutrition is essential
for good health, then nutrition could be even more important to persons
with compromised health conditions
- One might observe benefits with
improved nutrition that is not observed with many toxic drugs that have
a label claim to treat disease
- Conditions poorly managed or
non-responsive to drugs and responsive to phyto-nutrients and
glyco-nutrients, strongly suggests, that the health compromise is due
to a previously unrecognized nutritional deficiency
- Today, mankind's nutritional
deficiencies are caused by (1) our food being supplied from a green
harvest (2) over processing of food (3) over-utilization of land (4)
use of non-organic fertilizer (5) poor variety of foods and (6)
over-cooking of our food
- Lastly, toxins in our environment
have a significant yet often non-quantifiable deleterious effect on our
health, worsened by our present nutritionally deficient state
Other Validation Issues
- In 1994, Congress passed the
Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. This was an extraordinary
shift of authority by the government in how it viewed and treated
nutritional supplements. It transferred an incredible amount of power
and control out of Washington and into the hands of the people. It gave
the individual, not the government, the power to make educated
decisions on dietary supplements based upon unbiased scientific
information. This law is helping drive the importance of nutraceuticals
into the consciousness of every American. This paradigm shift of health
has already occurred in many places throughout Europe. For instance, in
Germany, nutraceuticals are out selling traditional pharmaceuticals two
to one.
- Another dynamic change is occurring
in the Health Insurance Industry. Several new insurance companies have
recently announced partial reimbursement of nutritional supplements.
Health maintenance organizations are also studying these types of
supplements for the first time in their history. What does this tell
you? It is just a matter of time before all major health insurance
companies follow suit.
- U.S. Track and Field endorsed
nutrient-based supplements in August of 1997 because of its tremendous
effect in improving athletic performance. This organization has never
endorsed a specific athletic product in its entire history. This
organization is committed to use these nutrients through the 2000
Olympics.
- National Institutes of Health
established the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) initiated through
Congressional mandate under the 1992 National Institutes of Health
(NIH) Appropriations Bill. The NIH is one of eight health agencies of
the U.S. Public Health Service and is part of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (DHHS). Budgeted funds for 1998 were $20
million; increased from $12 million in 1997.
- Medical Schools in the U.S offering
curricula in alternative health have markedly increase over the past 2
years. Of the 125 schools in the U.S., 33 offered classes in 1995 ;
this increased to 75 schools in 1997 .
Closing the Loop: Integrated Health
- The Union
Question yourself again. Can you
honestly say that allopathic approach to disease and health is
adequate? Would you only offer traditional drugs to your patients, to
your spouse, or to your child - knowing that safer and perhaps better
ways toward health exist? We must take action now - the process of
achieving and maintaining optimal health requires merging nutrition and
allopathic therapies. Statistics speak for themselves. Surveys have
been done indicating that upwards of 40% of patients are using
alternative therapies with 40 million more visits to alternative health
practitioners than traditional primary care (allopathic) physicians .
Additionally, some people may ignore the beneficial effects of
traditional medicine, particularly in acute crisis situations.
It is our obligation to become
knowledgeable about the use of nutrients in health and disease, just as
we have with pharmaceuticals.
This is not a contest between the two
- it is a union. If we ignore the evidence we will be significantly
hampered in our ability to care for our patients; we will lose even
more credibility by ignoring proven natural therapies and patients will
seek other avenues of health care. Society is dictating this shift and
it will occur with or without us. Additionally, recent studies have
shown "compelling evidence" that the United States is on the verge of a
physician oversupply crisis. Ultimately, we cannot help but suffer
economically if we don't merge the two sciences-- the writing is on the
wall.
Where do we go from here?
Is your mind still held hostage and enslaved (as mine was) to the idea
that Traditional Medicine is the only process available? Some of the
things we prescribe and do in medicine we do with very little evidence.
Ask yourself, what would be adequate evidence? What would be a viable
and rational process for health? Write them down and test this thesis -
test me…
The following sequence
of events will occur as you shift your thinking, followed by a change
in your medical practice, as you discover the truth concerning the
benefits of proper nutrition. This change of mind-set will generally
follow the course below (as it did with me):
The Transition:
- Acknowledge that Traditional
Western Medicine is necessary for acute crisis type medical care; it is
however, very ineffective for prevention or the treatment of many
chronic diseases
- Understand that nutrition plays a
much greater role in health than ever appreciated, acknowledged or
emphasized in medical training
- Recognize that It is impossible to
obtain the proper nutrients in today's diet due to the green harvest,
processing of food and lack of ingestion of certain foods
- Admit that the addition of specific
glyconutritionals and phytochemicals to the diet will fundamentally
change the health of people
- Realize and become consciously
aware, that validation of proper nutrition is everywhere - both
scientific and lay sources of information
- Proclaim the vital importance of
integrating Allopathic Medicine and nutraceutical support of health and
disease as the only rational and safe way to care for patients. Today's
culture is demanding that this process occur
- Finally, make specific
recommendations to patients, family and friends as to the type of
products that are proven to work, integrate them into your daily
practice and educate others in this process
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