HOLISTIC MEDICINE is about MEDITATION, NUTRITION AND EXERCISE. It is NOT about “Natural” supplements and vitamins.
HOLISTIC MEDICINE IS ABOUT EMPOWERING PATIENTS TO DO WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR THEMSELVES:
- MEDITATION,
- NUTRITION, and
- EXERCISE.
The term ‘holistic” is attributed to Jan Christian Smuts, a South African estates man who while fighting the apartheid movement stated that “AFRICA AS A WHOLE WAS MUCH MORE VALUABLE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS”.
Holistic medicine is about seeing the patient as a whole, not as “a part”, a stomach, a colon, a hemorrhoid, an ulcer, a diarrhea, a polyp, etcetera. The brain is connected to the rectum, and anything that happens in the rectum has an impact in our nervous system; similarly, anything that happens anywhere in our body has repercussions somewhere else –the most evident is the effect it causes in our mental wellbeing.
HOLISTIC IS NOT about “Natural” pills or supplements, “Natural cleansers”, “Natural” enemas. This is a very “convenient” way of approaching it but it is a “dead end”. We live in a society that demands instant gratification, our society does not wish to work on self fulfillment because we are not trained to practice self-worth. We want a bunch of pills we can take so “we can go on with our lives”, we frequently do not care if we have to take eight pills three times a day to lose weight or to regain our energy –as long as, God forbid, we do not have to make time to rest, or make an extra effort to find a healthier substitute for overeating, overdrinking, overworrying, etcetera.
Our society wants to “possess” either material things or “control” over others. We do not know how to care for us because we are “nothing”, we are what we “do”, not who we “are”. We want a big house; once we get it we want a bigger one. We want to control over the future of others; yes, we do! We want control over the future of our children, our loved ones, the people we judge are worthy of living; we also want control over those who we do not care much about, frequently we believe they should be taught a lesson –and who better to do that than us! This way of thinking can gradually drain our “reserves” if we do not stop and reassess our behavior. It is time to “take care of business”, the business of caring for ourselves so we can be an example and those we wish to change have a “role model”.
© 2009 Rafael E. Cuellar, MD
