Spiritual disciplines are provided for our good, not for our bondage. They are privileges to be used, not duties to be performed. To take off on a familiar quotation from Jesus, “Spiritual disciplines were made for man, not man for spiritual disciplines” (see Mark 2:27).
Jerry Bridges

The Holes In Holistic Medicine

The Holes In Holistic Medicine

THE HOLES IN HOLISTIC MEDICINE, Densie Hatfield

Reprinted from “ACSH News & Views”, Nov/Dec 1985, a publication of the American Council on Science and Health, 1995 Broadway, New York, NY 10023.

If you or your family are considering using holistic health care services, you should be alerted to the term “holistic medicine” as a code word for an increasingly anti-scientific and anti-medical approach to health. As it is used now, it can refer to treatments that range from the inanely innocuous to the deviously dangerous. Corruption of the term “holistic” has tainted its traditional meaning of simply viewing the individual as a whole person rather than as a set of organs and systems.

In evaluating specific holistic health care services, you should strike a balance between openness to new ideas and cautious skepticism in the face of so much misuse of the term “holistic.” However, in keeping our minds open, we should not, as in the words of the late philosopher Alan Ross Anderson, keep our minds so open that our brains fall out.

THE CONCEPT OF HOLISTIC MEDICINE

The concept of holistic medicine conjures up visions of everything good, holy and pure. Contrast this with the concept of traditional medicine and the mental images of doctors, hospitals, needles and pain. How accurate is this portrayal of holistic medicine vs. traditional medicine?–Well, not very. To really understand what holistic medicine is, and how it fits into the scheme of things, you first have to go through the field to cull the wheat from the chaff. And, unfortunately, there is a lot of chaff out there to be culled.

The term holistic medicine as it is used today encompasses a hodgepodge of practices meant to improve the health of an individual by focusing on not just the absence of illness, but the presence of an exceptional state of well-being both physically and mentally. The flashier side of holistic medicine boasts of curious diagnostic techniques and therapies such as iridology, reflexology and rolfing, while the more conservative constituency prefers to think of it as merely a different but better approach to traditional medicine.

FACTS OF HOLISTIC MEDICINE

As the concept of holistic medicine grows in popularity, it is being distorted by proponents and critics alike. The purist’s definition of holistic medicine is based on the belief that in the proper physical and emotional environment, the sick can heal themselves without the use of drugs and surgery. The practitioner of the purist’s form of holistic medicine relies on proper diet, breathing exercises, massage, muscle alignment and emotional well-being to both prevent and cure illnesses. Such purists are actually on the fringe of even holistic medicine.

Mainstream promoters of holistic medicine recommend that you steer clear of any practitioner who refuses to consider conventional medicine when needed. In fact, the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA) states that “Holistic Medicine encompasses all safe modalities of diagnosis and treatment INCLUDING the use of medication and surgery, emphasizing the necessity of looking at the whole person, including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, spiritual and life style values.” No one would argue with this statement, and it should even be commended for its recognition of outside influences on a person’s well-being. However, one questions the group’s true philosophy when on the first page of one of AHMA’s newsletters, they deride a physician who was convicted of prescribing excessive amounts of controlled drugs to patients, not because he was obviously an irresponsible physician, but because he called himself holistic and was prescribing these drugs at all. Further perusal of the newsletter reveals advertisements for a vitamin supplement with raw gland tissue and sea kelp and a full page ad for a “live cell therapy clinic” in Mexico. While AHMA’s stated cause may be commendable, some of its materials and methods are not.

There is also the Coalition of Holistic Health Organizations in Washington, of which AHMA is a member. The Coalition boasts a membership of some 30 organizations including such singular members as the National Colon Hygiene Association and the National Dental Acupuncture Society. The Coalition lists among their primary goals “to develop and support progressive health care legislation.” However, based on their actions it would seem that their main goal is to squash any legislation that might limit their freedom to practice holistic medicine in the ways that they deem fit. Such legislation was recently successfully opposed in the 98th Congress.

One of the proposed bills stated in part that an individual would be subject to imprisonment and a $5,000 fine for “knowingly selling or offering for sale a drug, device or medical treatment knowing it is unsafe or ineffectual or unproven for safety or efficacy.” Legislative Alerts were sent out by the Coalition encouraging everyone to “work together to defeat this legislation in the next session of Congress or face a future of curtailed alternatives.”

Another portion of practitioners are physicians who have decided to separate themselves from the now-standard impersonal approach to medicine and treat their patients more as individuals with unique life situations rather than just a collection of ailments to be categorized and appropriately treated. Some may not even label themselves as “holistic practitioners.”

THE TENETS AND TOOLS OF HOLISTIC MEDICINE

The different philosophies that make up holistic medicine are really just variations on a basic set of tenets that emphasize good nutrition, physical exercise and self-management techniques for relaxation, while applying the basic principle that mind and body are interdependent. While these may sound like common-sense guidelines, they provide little help in treating specific maladies. Some practitioners carry these to the limits of medical credibility and common sense by using many unproven diagnostic tools and therapies to the exclusion of conventional medical treatments. Some of the diagnostic tools and therapies that are commonly used by holistic medicine practitioners include:

HOMEOPATHY–based on the belief that a medicine which can cause certain symptoms in a healthy person can bring about a cure of those same symptoms in a sick person. It also goes on the assumption that the more dilute a solution of the substance is, the more potent curative powers it has.

ACUPUNCTURE–its purported healing powers are based on the belief that the life force circulating through the body flows through pathways called meridans. By inserting special needles into the proper meridans it is alleged that pain and disease can be relieved.

IRIDOLOGY–an analysis of health and diagnosis of disease based solely on an examination of the iris of the eye.

BIOFEEDBACK–a relaxation technique that teaches one to control one’s own involuntary body processes (blood pressure, heart rate, etc.)

HYPNOSIS–a technique used to relieve anxiety and pain. Under professional instruction, patients are taught self-hypnosis.

REFLEXOLOGY–uses reflex points in the feet and hands that supposedly stimulate different organs to help in curing various illnesses.

KINESIOLOGY–a technique that relies on the testing of muscle tissue to diagnose nutritional deficiencies.

ROLFING–involves manipulation and reordering of the body to bring the head, shoulders, chest, pelvis, and legs into “proper vertical alignment.”

Of these methods, hypnosis and biofeedback are the only two that are used in traditional medical practices at all. The others are either unproven, such as homeopathy or kinesiology, disproven, such as iridology, or potentially dangerous in the hands of unqualified persons, such as rolfing. While reflexology and other methods of massage won’t cure disease, they are certainly relaxing. Anyone who has ever paid $15 for a massage will attest to that.

HOLISTIC HEALTH–MEDICAL HERESY?

Whether or not the whole concept of holistic health is medical heresy depends entirely upon the practitioner in question and the methods he or she uses. What it boils down to is that holistic medicine can mean whatever you want it to mean. Under the umbrella of holistic medicine you are just as likely to find quacks and charlatans with inadequate if any health training admonishing you not to seek any traditional medical care, as you are conventional physicians who have simply opted for a more personal approach in caring for their patients and their patients’ families.

Overall the recipe for holistic health is three parts nonsense to one part common sense. This one part of holistic health has a philosophy that rings true, and some physicians, whether or not they have labeled it as such, are practicing holistic medicine through preventive medicine efforts and spending more time with their patients to find out more about their lives outside a ten-minute office visit.

The original theories and ideals behind holistic medicine are commendable and worthwhile for maintenance of health through good nutrition, exercise and positive outlook on life. However, its purist notions of no drugs, no surgery, and the emphasis on the mind’s healing power have no place in the treatment of illness and disease.