HERBALIST AND HERBS
The constant and consistent rap of alternative medicine is that pharmaceutical drugs are harmful and therefore should not be used in the treatment of disease. Dogma is dangerous. It’s not the drugs, it’s the model of application. Change the model and a revolution in modern medicine will occur.
The contemporary model of application is based on a pharmaceutical model. This static model says the body is a machine that can be treated in isolated parts (kind of like a car) and the whole will respond positively. This can work with short term application. Even then, there can be complications.
The general approach is based on risk v.s. benefit. This idea has its place, but is still square pegged into a round hole. You can get the body to fit into the pharmaceutical model if you just use a large enough hammer. In real time, if the person is strong enough (capacity to rebuild and detoxify), they will recover from short term use. It’s a different world in the treatment of chronic disease with long term pharmaceutical drugs use. In this case, adaptation is a downward spiral.
All traditional models of healing have this paradigm trio in common.
HEALTH-DISEASE-HEALTH
Modern Medicine has this
HEALTH-DISEASE-SYMPTOM FREE
Traditional medicine (TCM, Aurvedic, Tibetin ) defines health as something dynamic and robust.
Standard practice medicine defines health as the absence of overt disease. This is already a weakness in the model. There is plenty of sub clinical stuff going on in lots of us, that is undermining quality of life and if left unattended will eventually add to or produce a state of disease. With this model, there is nowhere to put those facts. In traditional medicine these facts fit into a bigger picture. A larger, living, fluid model. That model, for those cultures, is steeped in the imagery and language of those cultures.
In western culture our model is based on Physiology and Anatomy. These two sciences have been viewed from the mindset of a reductionist mentality looking for specificity. The pharmaceutical model fit perfectly with this perception of the body. You could find the exact drug/s for each problem, once you identify what that problem is. Certainly sounds good and definitely works under the right conditions. i.e. acute crisis care( short term use). The drugs used in these situations often save people’s lives. Benefit definitely outweighs risk.
Using this same model to treat chronic disease is a huge error and continues to prove itself so. Does that mean we should not use drugs under these circumstances? It does not mean that at all. Viewing the body in a different way is a game changer. Natural Medicine takes the same information and fits it into a more comprehensive holistic model (the science of physiology and anatomy exist independent of the paradigm of application). It changes the way we apply the drugs. Drugs no longer become the first line of approach in the treatment of chronic disease. However, we do not get rid of the drugs.
The following is a short addendum to an earlier article “FOLLOWING MEDICAL METHODOGY WITH NATURAL MEDICINE”
The general premise of the article is based on the idea that the science of Physiology can be applied as a fluid, living model( a truly holistic model). A model that goes from Health to Illness then back to Health. Standard practice medical model is a static one that does not mirror reality, but imposes a symptom-drug model idea (pharmaceutical model), that has resulted in the kind of medical practice we see today. This model is based on Health to Illness to symptom free and stops there. This Idea works in an acute crisis care situation, but misses the mark in the treatment of chronic disease. The strengths of modern standard practice medicine are in it diagnostic technology, emergency care, and surgery. The treatment of chronic disease by standard practice methods is in a very grey area. This is not due to a lack of intelligence or knowledge, but to the model of application. Facts are one thing, how you put them together to draw a conclusion is another. We need to go back to our Holistic Physiologic model and apply common sense. One of the aspects of that Common Sense is looking at the results of your applied ideas and asking “Does this really work”? If not, why would you continue in the same way?
So if you do not use the drugs first what do you use? Remember, we are talking about chronic disease, which generally has a long slow onset, occurring over decades, with accumulation of enough problems to create a full blown disease. Always, the core energy, balance and strength of the person has been undermined by numerous negative influences. This results in a disorganization of the core controlling systems of the body: Neuro-endocrine, endocrine, and central nervous system with its sub divisions autonomic and somatic. In short, a long term developmental adaption that is producing a downward spiral.
No doubt, as a practitioner, if your not affecting symptoms, your not doing well. The other side is, if your only affecting symptoms, your not doing well. In the state of chronic disease, the set points in the neuro-endocrine system have been changed through long term attempted adaptation to all stressors ( poor diet, environmental toxicity, lack of sleep and sunlight ect ). This attempt by the body to just keep going, produces a total systemic alteration of how the these core systems (Central Hormonal Axis and Central Nervous System) work. These core systems tell the cells of our body what to do in a very big way ( i.e. progesterone, estrogen and testosterone have a major effect on over 300 tissue sites ). This class of hormones bind directly to gene sites and dictates cell behavior. This is really big stuff in how our bodies work. When these things are out of balance, there is a big impact on our health and quality of life in general. Natural medicine takes this fact into consideration and wraps a protocol structure around this central theme. In traditional medicine there is the imagery of root and branch when referring to a core problem and its symptoms respectively. This aspect of protocol, that I referred to as central theme, is the root part. It is where physiologic disorientation has its basis. Building on this foundation, other wings of the protocol are added in, based upon that persons’ presentation. It’s good that a full blown disease has the same name, even though it is manifest in different people. Unfortunately, the uniformity end there. A factory approach to healing is impossible if you want to accomplish real change. So what’s a real change? It is when a person comes to see you in rough shape and after 6 months to a year he/she is way healthier than when they were 10 years younger. Change from the cellular level up. Natural Medicine is not just about changing symptoms, it’s about changing the direction of the forces in the body that created those symptoms and in doing so reintroducing a healthy balance. Our bodies have an amazing ability to regenerate if given the right help.
Diagnostic technology gives us an ocean of facts that would be unattainable any other way. How those facts are worked with becomes a real point of departure between Natural Medicine and Standard Practice Medicine. Both use the same physiology, the same language with very different approaches and very different conclusions. Follow the bloodstream, connect the dots in the physiologic data that’s been presented through testing and respect the science of physiology, instead of trying to reinvent it to fit into what has proven to be an unsuccessful model of approach. All the tools of Standard Practice Medicine can fit under the umbrella of Natural Medicine. All the tools of Natural Medicine can dovetail perfectly with all the tools of Standard Practice. This can and does work.
Harry Chrissakis
Herbalist and herbs.com
530-933-8244