The Nobel Prize in medicine was just given out for the use of artemesinin in treatments for malaria, which is exciting to see a Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal product being recognized by the conventional medical world. This one herb, as we all know, is quite helpful for a variety of conditions but what struck me about this news story was how isolated these treatments can become.
It's fascinating the degree to which we as a culture have tried to completely replace the entire healing process with treatments that are pharmacology based and devoid of any human component, as if people were cars that just need parts replaced or a better type of anti-freeze to work better. Most cultures throughout human history have seen healing as a process which is nature based and human based, meaning both a part of nature and a part of us, imperfect and easily influenced as we all are and at the same time as grand and miraculous as nature herself is.
The pharmacology model that attempts to completely side step nature and her role in healing and to simultaneously ignore the human (read emotional/spiritual) elements of healing seems like a huge step backward, although it's typically promoted as a huge step forward. Just as we have learned the hard way that dumping billions of tons of chemicals on food crops doesn't end up yielding a healthier food product, we can see how dumping a pharmacological/drug/chemical solution as the exclusive treatment for conditions ranging from depression to joint pain doesn't work that well and ignores two main issues which are at the very heart of humanity: nature herself and our human nature.
We are a part of nature, our bodies and our minds both. We are "human" meaning subject to major changes in our health based on our level of emotional and spiritual connection. As functional medicine practitioners we can clearly see that one key component, perhaps the most important component is the level of emotional and spiritual connection present in our patients. In order to take advantage of the full healing capacities of our patients it seems commonsensical and prudent to include all that we can, relying on nature, human nature as well as pharmacology when absolutely needed.
I was at a hotel this weekend and was watching regular TV which I usually don't do and I was counting ads and they were in this order: heartburn drug, autoimmune drug, can't get erection drug, fast food ad, soda ad, vaginal yeast drug ad, headache drug ad and then an ad for a nice pair of shoes. I'm not making this up! What a society we have! We are eating and drinking out way to acid reflux, no sex, body pain, head pain and would having a pair of really nice shoes make up for all that? Maybe.
It seems absurd to the point that we're actually living in some type of existential hell of poor diets generating poor health generating drug sales generating even more poor health.
I needed a martini just to handle processing all that TV!
Just kidding, but seriously, if we, as practitioners can embrace our own healing process, unite our physical energy systems, develop our own spiritual connection then I know we can make a huge difference. I see every day in my practice that my patients get better faster when I meditate and am on top of my game as a healer. I've been using "The Kalish Method" for over twenty years and I use the exact same supplement protocols year in and year out yet I see harder and harder cases getting healthier faster and faster and I believe much of this improvement in my clinical results stems from my becoming physically healthier and from continuing my 30 plus years of spiritual practice. We can transfer our health and healing to others, that is what being a "healer" means. And of course we use supplements, lab tests, even medications when required, but the base of healing, the central axis around which healing revolves is nature and our personal connection with our emotional and spiritual selves.
As they say healing comes from within and we can inspire that process in others to the extent we embody it ourselves.
-Dan Kalish
