Reality Based Medicine: Part 2

Part 2 of our discussion on reality based medicine continues following up on this notion of medicine using too narrow a focus when it comes to healthcare and choices of acceptable or “proven” modalities.

Another example to illustrate this point is found in music.  Could any of us imagine if only one form of music was considered acceptable, while all the other genres were excluded?  This would never fly in our society where choice is so highly revered. 

And yet, in the world of medicine, we stick to conformity and accept what we hear on television.  They tell us, if we have a certain condition, the best and only way to treat it is to take the next greatest medication on the market.  How many times have these medications ended up harming significant portions of the population because of side effects (either known or unknown)? 

To me, this is evidence of what can happen when the mistaken assumption is made that when something is good for some it must be good for all.

I am constantly made aware of how symptom oriented our society is.  We are so fixated on naming syndromes and diseases that we’ll even make some up to sound good on commercials and thereby draw in people looking for an answer to their problem.  I’m not saying these are not real conditions but I am questioning why a description of one or a collection of symptoms is elevated to the status of a disorder or disease. 

I think this is very misleading and should not be tolerated.  It simply obscures the underlying causative issue and delays the proper treatment, or in the worst case scenario leads to the lifelong postponement of even addressing or finding out what the underlying cause is.  I don’t think most people would elect to do this if they were given proper and complete information from the outset.

I have learned through my clinical experience and my own study of energy medicine principles that this huge missing piece of the puzzle cannot be kept from the public any longer.  It is simply too easy to get this information now.  I believe we as physicians owe it to our patients to let them know they have a choice.  And the choice is to encourage them to explore their own questions on health, using their own body as a living laboratory, not the statistics of the next research study in the newspaper or on the nightly news.

Finally, I admit that I must accept a dose of my own medicine.  That is, while I may think a certain way about the need for choice when it comes to our own healthcare, I also acknowledge that there will be some people who make the choice to follow the conventional approach and only choose those treatments that have been “proven” in research studies.  I respect and honor that choice, whether or not it has been arrived at with the full knowledge of the alternatives, the consequences, and the existence of differing opinions.

-Part 2 of an excerpt from “Energy Medicine Principles for Parents: A Pediatrician’s Perspective on How Energy Medicine Can Help Your Child” published in May, 2009.

Additional comment: And so we arrive at the point where we must acknowledge that people are different; they have different needs, coping mechanisms, ways of responding to the world and other people, and yes, individual ways of responding to health challenges no matter what the statistics say. Instead of limiting our viewpoints to only those results of studies done on populations rather than individuals, I think we will all be better off taking in a bigger dose of reality based medicine.