Alternatives to Western Medicine
There is joy and hope in the possibility of integrating modern medical traditions with indigenous ones.
My mother is a Professor of Nutrition at UC San Diego. I attended her class as a child and we have long discussed matters relating to food, diet, and nutrition. She also has a career in drug development so unlike many who are unreasonably skeptical of western medicine, I have a great deal of faith and confidence in the ability of doctors to diagnose, treat, and ultimately cure many serious and otherwise fatal or debilitating maladies. Nonetheless, I’ve always seen western medicine as a last resort, preferring instead to rely on a healthy diet, exercise and natural remedies wherever possible and prudent. However, I also believe that naturopathic (sometimes referred to as eastern) medicine does better job at helping people to manage or mitigate chronic conditions that may be brought upon by lifestyle or environmental factors. It is my view that doctors do their best work when there is a unknown problem and a range of solutions. Diagnosis, treatment and recovery is an effective health paradigm that has saved countless lives that would have otherwise be cut short. However, it often fails when confronted with ambiguous symptoms and an unclear diagnosis. How does one treat chronic stomach and intestinal problems when all the available tests come up negative? What do you say to someone who is always tired despite no underlying disease? Practicing medicine sometimes involves waiting for things to get worse. In some cases an early diagnosis does not provide any immediate cure forcing doctor and patient to wait and see if a disease progresses. In other cases, it is difficult to make a definitive decision and felt that it is better to err on the side of caution and over treat with antibiotics than to risk the consequences of not treating. Rabies is one such example. If you are bit by a dog and can’t prove it didn’t have rabies you’re going to be treated for rabies because by the time you know for sure it may be to late to treat for rabies. This is often why doctors prescribe antibiotics to people with a fever despite not knowing if the cause is bacterial or a viral infection. The thinking is that it is better to treat a virus with antibiotics, than to wait to confirm a bacterial infection and risk the bacterial infection becoming fatal.
When my father was diagnosed with brain cancer I knew that doctors couldn’t cure him nor did they claim to. They only promised that they would do as much as they could to keep him around for as long as possible, while the cancer in his brain slowly took him from us. I also didn’t think there was some magical blend of herbs or a secret diet that would save him. Still, we choose to rely on both western medicine doctors and naturopathic healers to help us manage his health and maximize his quality of life.
One of the biggest difference between traditional medicine, naturopathic medicine, (including Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Western Herbalism), and modern, allopathic medicine is empathy. This empathy creates intimacy between a practitioner and their client which can often take on a transcendental quality that is not readily measurable or easily evaluated in objective terms. This interaction between the practitioner, their chosen form of medicine, and the client involves all aspects of the individual including their relationships, emotions, psychology, and even spiritual dimensions. These are all brought together in a kind of synergy that brings the subject and object together as a unified healing force. This, in turn, brings about a state of health that is defined as more than just the absence of disease but rather an efficient, dynamic state wherein all systems are operating at optimal levels.
Western Medicine:
Western medicine, as it is practiced in most hospitals and clinics, is narrowly focused on three things; (1) locating the cause of a problem, (2) identifying and ranking the possible remedies for the problem, and (3) treating the patient with the best available remedy. Medical schools historically train physicians with a focus on these 3 goals. If symptoms can’t be managed they can lead to chronic maladies that can become catastrophic in time. A small problem deferred can one day may become a bigger problem that you can’t ignore or fix.
The human body is based on the generalizable knowledge of how it works. That said, there are no generic humans out there. We are all different and those differences make a difference. Often times western medicine does not focus on the differences as they are trained to rely on what works for most and assume it will probably work for you. If what they try doesn’t work, they will try something else. It is only recently that people have been able to access tools, like DNA screening and next-generation sequencing, that may provide insight into the genetics of how an individuals body works and possibly of how you will respond to various treatment options. This is particularly valuable in cancer treatment where genetic variations in individual cancer tumors can be used as targets for next generation precision therapies. These targeted therapies guide drugs or biologics to the cancer cells, killing them without damaging healthy tissue. Precision or personalized medicine is the new wave of therapeutics in cancer treatments.
The germ theory of disease was a revelation for modern medicine. The idea that tiny organisms, too small to see without a microscope, invade humans, animals, and other living hosts, causing disease was an extraordinary claim when it was first proposed by Girolamo Fracastoro in 1546. And it took centuries before it was finally replaced by a more fully developed theory that was ultimately proven by Louis Pasteur whose experiments between 1860 and 1864, revealed a clear relationship between germ and disease. Still there was no explanation for why one individual would become infected and another not other than to call the infections opportunistic, pointing to the consumption or exposure to a pathogen which infected and caused the disease. These outliers are often revealing but hard to understand because they almost by definition defy the rules and conventions as we know them.
Modern medicines are produced in accordance with strict rules and regulations regarding their contents, safety, and effectiveness. Whether they are produced synthetically, as most drugs are, or are derived from natural sources, you can be confident that what you are getting is what was prescribed and that the effects will be predictable, for better or for worse. Not all outcomes will be positive, but modern medicine does a better job of predicting and bringing about positive outcomes where previously patients would surely die. Many drugs have natural origins, either mimicking or reproducing the activity of chemicals found in nature. For example, willow bark contains salicin, which your body turns into salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin. The South American Cinchona tree, which naturally contains the chemical quinine, can be used to treat malaria. The reason doctors don’t prescribe willow bark for aches and pains or Cinchona tree for malaria is because these natural products have variable concentrations of the active components along with other ingredients that may have an effect on its efficacy.
Naturopathic Medicine:
Chinese Medicine, a form of naturopathic medicine, has a wealth of vocabulary to both identify and describe such conditions as “damp heat” or “coldness.” These descriptive terms are also prescriptive and may call for a battery of treatments that may include dietary changes, lifestyle changes, or the use of herbs to improve the flow of energy throughout the body. Acupressure or acupuncture may be utilized to encourage the flow of energy throughout the body by stimulating points related to a traditional understanding of energy and flow.
The major claim, made by most practitioners of naturopathic forms of medicine and healing, is that these practices do a better job of maintaining, supporting and maximizing health, and preventing serious acute conditions, than is by treating them.
Naturopathic medicine has a more nuance vocabulary for observing and understanding an individual’s physical state of health and wellbeing, observing subtle patterns in the way the body moves or appears, testing for various energetic signatures which may reveal underlying states, and working with those patterns to correct deviations and bring the body back to a state of dynamic balance and good health.
Naturopathic medicine may be able to treat acute conditions. For instance, reishi and turkey tail mushrooms have powerful effect on cancer and osha root may help with symptoms related to anaphylaxis, or allergic reactions. Overall, naturopathic medicine shines for it’s gentle, ongoing support for a healthy, resilient, and robust life that is vital and full of love and goodness. This everyday practice often ends up resembling a lifestyle. Life is what you do between being sick, but what you do between being sick has a big impact on weather you get sick in the first place.
Divergence:
In a very simplified sense, western medicine can be seen as attacking what is wrong with the body using chemical and surgical interventions in order to achieve a positive therapeutic outcome. More traditional or naturopathic forms of medicine can be seen as seeking to nourish and support the individual's general health and wellbeing by addressing all aspects of their life including, diet, lifestyle, and environment and prescribe herbal, spiritual, or other modalities to promote healing and wellbeing. Western medicine is mechanistic and outcome based whereas naturopathic medicine is relativistic and subjective.
Another major difference between western and traditional medicine is how they approach chronic vs acute conditions. Chronic condition are those which develop over time, diseases like Cerebral Palsy, Huntington’s Disease, and Multiple Sclerosis and are often difficult to diagnose, treat, or understand. Physicians will use available tools to measure effects of the disease and treat accordingly. Naturopathic practitioners focus on the symptoms of these chronic diseases, to provide relief to patients.
On the other hand, when confronting acute conditions such as heart attack, stroke, or other major trauma, western medicine is nothing short of miraculous. The ability of corticosteroids to arrest an asthma attack or of epinephrine to stop an allergic reaction is nothing short of magic. There can be no doubt that western medicine has had some tremendous triumphs in a relatively short period of time. The deliberate use of the scientific method and evidence based practice has marshaled in a golden age of medicine where diseases that were universally fatal or debilitating, like polio or smallpox, have been eradicated and previously deadly diseases, like cancer, are increasingly treatable with better outcomes.
Another way that western medicine and naturopathic medicine diverge is their strict focus on observation and analysis. This analytical approach to medicine can only benefit from what can be measured or observed and is limited by its own technologies, methods, and concepts. Naturopathic practices are not limit by an analytical or materialist philosophy. Instead they appeal to more transcendental qualities such as esoteric energy, human awareness and intention. They focus on various healing practices in order to achieve a kind of universal practice of healing and wellness. Today some hospitals and clinics have incorporated complementary and alternative practices when effective and requested by patients. Departments of “integrated medicine” are found in many academic medical centers across the country.
The type of medicine you experience depends a great deal on where you are born, however if you go to a western trained doctor anywhere in the world, the treatment you receive is likely to be the same, assuming all the available resources. That is one of the great advantages of western medicine, it’s scalable. Naturopathic medicine is often dependent on the accessibility or availability of herbs that may or not be safe to consume.
Personal choices:
Now if I have a cavity, I go to the dentist and get the gas and novocaine. If I am in a car accident, I am going to a hospital and hopefully they will give me some morphine for the pain. When I get home I’ll turn to more natural remedies to aid my recovery. This is my choice in how I practice medicine in my own life with my own health care professional. It is a path that has evolved to this point and will likely to continue to evolve.
So what do I do on a day to day basis to stay healthy and feeling good? For me the first step is getting a good night’s sleep, I’m an 8 hour a night sleeper which means by the time I wake up the first thing I’m reaching for is a tall glass of water. Some will say to squeeze some lemon in there, I say do whatever you need to do to get a tall glass of water in you as soon as you wake up. After eating a piece of fruit and having a cup of coffee I grab my dog and take him for a good long walk. I like to eat spicy greens like dandelion, arugula, and watercress. These dark green leafy vegetables contain a variety of carotenoids, flavonoids and other powerful antioxidants that have cancer-protective properties and may be associated with a reduction in the risk of stomach cancer, the fourth most frequent cancer in the world. One such compound is Quercetin, a bioflavonoid found in leafy green vegetables that has proven antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects as well as displays unique anticancer properties.
So what do I do about the minor aches and pains caused by being a tall man, 6'8", living in an average sized world? Instead of reaching for an over the counter pain reliever, I would instead reach for a bottle of turmeric plus piperine capsules and wash it down with some Randy’s Remedy. The anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, along with the piperine and other natural cannabinoids in Randy’s Remedy, are all I need to get through the day. Most of these practices have come after a great deal of reading and experience in trying different things and finding what worked best for me. I have a great deal of respect for western medicine and passion for naturopathic medicine. I believe strongly that in the end, so long as the only person affected by your choices is you, it is ultimately your choice.
Regardless of how I use natural medicines, be as capsules, as a tea, or even Randy’s Remedy, which I use daily, my path is my own and a personal choice based on my own assessment of the risks and potential benefits. Overall I feel healthy and happy, able to manage the stress and worry that comes with running your own business. Meet my family and watch the video about our journey by visiting http://www.randysclub.org/.
