Here’s something to consider: our natural medicine influence is small in comparison to other mainstream medical models presently at play. Our presence is akin to the yin within yang ideology, if you will. And we’re getting shouldered out before we can provide a preventative game plan… because, as we all know, our current health care crisis predicament won’t be solved by rocket-medicine alone. 
Need I mention natural medicine’s tenets of diet and nutrition, learning to live in balance with oneself and the environment, or perhaps even the concept that responsibility for health care begins in the community or home. Ironically, our simple, at-home, no-nonsense, common sense models for preventative health care are more than appropriate for our ailing times.
Yet, no one seems to know about natural and sustainable forms of medicine outside of our little Pacific Northwest bubble! Moreover, those that do know about us seem hell-bent on debunking natural medicine philosophy… and I would even venture a guess that most have not even walked into a naturopathic or Chinese medicine clinic. But, I digress. This article was not meant for a Captain Obvious crowd, nor is it meant to fan any flames… quite the contrary. My proposal is to seek out how we can all work together to solve the health care crisis. If we learn to understand one another, we can build bridges to reduce suffering and sickness, or dare I propose to truly prevent the pandemic cancers and diabetic conditions plaguing our society.
Heather Z., Director of the Helfgott Research Institute, has focused her efforts on not necessarily fighting fire with fire, but rather trying to see existing ‘arguments’ and look for ways to increase all levels of understanding surrounding natural medicine and its respective research. Current scientific methods, most responsibly the linear cause-and-effect model, are unable to elucidate the mechanisms behind more holistic forms of medicine. This is not surprising to most organically minded individuals because our world is truly interconnected and that the inter-dynamic relationships of medicine’s mechanistic actions must be assessed in a weblike fashion. In other words, we don’t live in vacuum and therefore it doesn’t make sense to only study medicine using a singular and specific mechanistic format.
To explain the beauty behind the principles of natural medicine, is to design an interconnected, multi-disciplinary web using databases (such as Practice Based Research Networks aka PBRNs and Informatics). Creating this new point-of-view approach to researching populations, therapeutic modalities, and disease is paramount to solving our current health care crisis. This stands as a critical issue when we attempt to translate our philosophy into words and terms (such as publications by means of symptom indexes, standardized tests and biomarkers) that other, more rationally minded scientists and clinicians can understand and embrace… especially when it comes time to talk legislation and the world of ‘evidence-based’ medicine.
How you can help change the paradigm:
The articles below serve as examples from websites denouncing naturopathic medicine, Chinese medicine, and NCCAM (a portion of NIH designated for complementary and alternative medicine research). It will give you a small taste of the ‘atmosphere’ around medicine’s science-based agenda…. The comments are also worth sifting through, as most importantly, this demonstrates other areas of misinformation and misunderstanding surrounding holistically-minded medical communities.
Naturopathic medicine
Chinese medicine and acupuncture
Research and NCCAM
I’ve found that surveying conventional scientific websites and publications a helpful and successful exercise, as it allows me to think on my feet and be prepared when talking in mixed company about what it is that naturopathic and Chinese medicine practitioners do. Luckily, I also have my feet planted firmly in both scientific and organic worlds, as my resume foolhardily follows the footsteps of Renaissance men such as Richard Feynman and Leonardo DaVinci. More often than not, I can take a negative perspective and change it to a positive point of view for our philosophy and alma mater, or in the very least, get a nod of recognition for natural medicine’s ability to effectively assess and treat on several tiers (mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual) with multi-faceted tools. Most of the spin-doctoring, so to speak, has more to do with examining the bigger picture and demonstrating that models of scientific examination are simply out-dated, archaic, and remain unable to truly assess and treat the whole individual. Our current health care system as well as patient dissatisfaction within mainstreet’s medical model is my case in point.
However, I would also like to note that this article is by no means a condescending commentary towards conventional medicine. In fact, most well funded universities have access to some rather tantalizing tools, of which may help solve the puzzle of how to explain acupuncture, naturopathic approaches, and observational, multi-pronged research to conventional medicine. SEED’s February 2009 issue, aptly entitled “Science Can Fix This” is right on the money. Perhaps the sharing of ideas and machinery can help unfold the black boxes enshrouding placebos, acupuncture meridians, and other mind-body modalities. As it stands now, the proposal to defund NCCAM, the dandelionian counterpart to ivy-league research, appears rash and impulsive, especially considering that most ‘alternative’ therapies are older than the pharmaceutical and bio/genomic approaches of today. Defunding or discrediting NCCAM would not only act as a disservice to the 36% of US citizens who seek out alternative medicine, but would potentially eliminate any means to explore alternative therapies given today’s equally ailing economy.
There is, in the very least, something to be said for medicines that have lasted for thousands of years, carefully carried, planted and propagated across continents and newfound lands.
Whether we, as natural medicine proponents, agree or not with ‘evidence-based’ ideas, that’s the direction that mainstreet’s medicine is heading… and governmental funding is certainly following….
Therefore, I feel compelled to say to advocates of natural medicine: We walk the walk, but do we talk the talk?
Paradoxically natural medicine just might be the solution to health care’s current problem (recall that our philosophies are based upon prevention, right?); yet if we do not reach out and work to help scientists/western-minded clinicians decipher natural medicine, then we remain part of the problem.
Furthermore, the lock-and-key, limiting reagent to our time-sensitive equation to fix health care may be, in part, due to our inability to effectively communicate. A sincere attempt between all parties is in order. An appropriate analogy would be a foreigner looking for a restroom in a overseas country; if a failure to transmit critical information occurs, then the delicate balance within cultural context is surely upset… on both sides of the equation. Translation of naturally oriented philosophies is key to genuinely moving medicine in the direction of preventative medicine. Call me crazy, but I simply refuse to settle for pap-smears and blood glucose monitoring as a means to an end for the definition of ‘prevention.’
As a firm believer in the power of the public and sustainable medicine and of the pen, I think it’s time to step up the plate, friends, our voices are presently not loud enough to be heard over the crowds. Conventional scientists possess powerfully intellectual minds; therefore, let us look for ways to explain natural medicine in terms they understand. Moreover, if we truly follow both medicines’ philosophies, we must “first do no harm.” Therefore, it is vital that we embrace our differences, set aside the gloves, and try to see eye-to-eye with a common goal: to build bridges between our medical communities and construct an effective model that delivers simple, yet high quality, affordable medicine. I’m betting that the solution to our health care crisis is really that simple.
Here Ye! Here Ye!
Medical interpreters desired.
Phone lines are open and ready for business. Please spread the word to those that can expedite the above mission.
Needless ranters need not apply.
Thank you.
Ps. Here is a helpful, comprehensive starting point for natural medicine, other than the obvious, if you need one.