My upbringing in an Indian-American family attributes to my interest in comparing allopathic and integrative medicine. On one hand, my parents and extended family have pushed me to be a strong believer in allopathic medicine. They revere doctors and hold them to the highest regard, to a point where holding the occupation places a physician at one of the highest statuses of society. On the other hand, I always heard whisperings of other forms of healing and unique causations of illnesses. While they rarely suggested that I should try these “atypical” techniques, I know that my family is spiritual. Ayurveda, meditation, acupuncture, astrology, and many other practices all have been referenced to when discussing an illness or lifestyle of a person. I took this course as an opportunity to explore how alternative medicine, which is often associated with spirituality, and modern medicine can collaborate to best heal one that is suffering. Through the various lectures I encountered as well as the workshops and personal research I conducted, I conclude that the practice of medicine would be most ideal if it considered the option of both integrative and allopathic medicine, and tailored different amounts of both to fit the patient in question.
One aspect that most, if not all, speakers in this course asserted is that integrative medicine encourages a holistic view of the patient. This has influenced the view that I have developed, as it encourages molding medicinal practices to a person, rather than making a universal model and hoping that it works for everyone. Often times, a speaker would say that a patient would come to them because the norms of how they should be treated were already applied and didn’t work for them. In a successful case, the speaker would say that they would follow through with treatment plans by taking into consideration the whole person, which often entailed aspects such as diet, the body surrounding the specific ailing part, and mentality. One speaker, in particular, that stressed this was the speaker on Homeopathy and health coaching, Dr. Joel Kreisberg. While his way about getting the audience to believe in what he was saying was admittedly odd, his rhus toxicodendron demonstration was effective. Dr. Kreisberg made it known that he would suggest patients to take rhus toxicodendron for widely different reasons. He may suggest it to enhance mood, and he may suggest it to alleviate pain, but the ultimate reason why he suggests it has to do with the person as a whole, not just with what is wrong with them. Therefore, through the practice of homeopathy or health coaching, Dr. Kreisberg could make it possible to heal the person of the “root” of their issues, which may not be as external as one thinks. Furthermore, while specifically mentioning health coaching, the speaker stressed the importance of building relationships as a method of healing. This idea that the client’s concerns are put at utmost importance in order to develop a positive, active-listening environment fuels my belief that an impersonal medical setting is not entirely effective, which is where alternative medicine should come in and improve what has to be fixed.
Another speaker who introduced that there were multiple characteristics that constitute a healthy person was Michelle Warner, a practicer of Ayurveda. Admittedly, I was very curious about Ayurveda because it is the form of integrative medicine that is referenced to the most in my home. Even though my parents aren’t whole-hearted believers of it, they hold a high degree of respect towards the practice. Therefore, when the last speaker of the course specified that a healthy person had their own individual balance doshas, agni, dhatus, and mala, I was reaffirmed that medicine couldn’t possibly be a one-size-fits-all or straightforward practice, not when so many other variations of it exist that state that it isn’t. Though the categories of vata, pitta, and kapha seem very distinct, there is a fluidity between them that shows that Ayurveda, like the other practices introduced in the course, is flexible. At the mention of the importance of eating food that naturally grows at that season, I realize that the concept of the impact of food has also been a recurring topic. This then prompted me to explore how food changes the body for one of my workshops.
Food, as pointed out by many speakers, has a great impact on health. The impact can be very positive or severely negative, as seen with sadly common diseases like Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, and heart failure. To gain insight on just how much the impact of food is, I watched the documentary Super Size Me, directed by Morgan Spurlock. I myself am not a fast food aficionado, though I do enjoy the occasional Taco Bell, but through reading books such Fast Food Nation, I know that fast food is an American epidemic that is spreading globally. Therefore, I was very interested to see how a diet of only McDonald’s for a month could alter a person’s health. Through watching the documentary, I gained lots of information about the fast food industry. This information falls into three categories: the prevalence of fast food, the greater agenda of the companies, and the health detriments. The prevalence of fast food was especially shown when Spurlock stated that across the world, 46 million people are served food by McDonalds daily. This is alarming for for several reasons, but most importantly, it’s because this enormous number doesn’t include other fast food restaurants, and because this data is old. The documentary was made fifteen years ago, so these numbers have undoubtedly climbed higher and higher as McDonald’s, as a corporation, has gained even more power. Secondly, the greater agenda of the companies is shown by the fact that it is very difficult to sue McDonald’s or punish them for their malicious intent because they have lobbyists and the government in their pocket. For example, in 2004, Congress passed the “Cheeseburger Bill”, which makes it illegal for people to sue fast food companies for making them obese. Lastly, the health detriments that Spurlock faced for attempting this diet were severe. He faced problems such as gaining about twenty-five pounds, getting fatty liver and a doubled chance of heart disease and failure, and having mood swings, just in the span of thirty days. Therefore, food is an instigator in health problems, and should be taken into account when treating most, if not all patients. This contributes to my point that health should be seen holistically and should fit an individual’s needs, as this need can certainly be diet.
My second workshop was meditation. I chose this as a workshop because it was made clear to me that one cannot be considered healthy unless they have a peaceful mind, and I wanted to try it for myself. For a week, I meditated at night before sleeping through the assistance of a YouTube channel by “The Honest Guys”. I chose this channel because it was recommended as one of the best meditation channels on Youtube in the various sites I searched on, and a lot of their videos focused on achieving good, deep sleep. I myself am a restless sleeper with odd dreams which leaves me unrested, so I was eager to implement this into my routine. The results were not what I expected. One video that I commonly used was a guided sleep meditation that was ultimately a sleep talk down with delta wave isochronic tones and binaural beats. The comments for the video were exceptionally grateful, as many said that this helped them sleep and momentarily overcome their insomnia. Needless to say, I was excited. When I started the half-an-hour long meditation, I found the music and noises in the video to be very soothing, and I didn’t even mind the talk-down, though I usually find it very difficult to rest with external noise. However, I found that after ten or fifteen minutes passed, I grew restless, mostly due to the fact that I wasn’t falling asleep. After the video ended, I still had to wait a considerable time before I fell asleep, and the sleep I got that night was positively terrible. My dreams were odder than ever and I was extremely tired when I woke up, though I got more sleep than usual. This was the trend for the next couple of days, but for the last few nights, I did find that I could relax myself to become sleepier. Therefore, I have no definite conclusion to draw from meditation. It didn’t necessarily work for me, but that could be because as a beginner, I need more guidance, and I need to practice it in a time of day that would be best for me. Again, my experiences stress that individuality affects the function of health practices. Meditation before sleep didn’t help me, but I know that it helps many others, so it is till an important option.
Throughout this semester, I have learned that integrative medicine is an excellent option when considering healing a person as a whole. Through the various modalities and personal exploration, I have come to admire that it celebrates the variability of people, as it accepts that it may work for some and not for others. Because of this, it would be best for integrative medicine to join forces with allopathic medicine, and have people treated with both options in mind. Flexibility always was, and will continue to be, a defining aspect in improving the healing process.