What exactly is meant by holistic?
Tony Conway
June 2007

It is a term that is bandied around these days with increasing vagueness, like ecological or alchemical. Can you have holistic holidays? Or an holistic diet? And of all the different therapies now available in the realms of alternative and complementary medicine, which ones are actually holistic?

A holistic system of medicine treats the individual as a whole person, and not as an assembly of separate disease conditions. A patient with headaches, period pains, acid reflux, arthritis and depression, who receives a different treatment for each condition, with no attempt to perceive the whole as a single individualised condition, is not being treated holistically. Note, however, that the non-holistic approach can be applied using pharmaceutical drugs, as is current practice in modern medicine, or equally, by using herbs, supplements, homoeopathic remedies, or other complementary concoctions. In other words, the style of drugs does not determine whether the treatment is holistic or not. What determines this is the approach of the practitioner.

The first question to be asked by a physician who treats her patients holistically is: what needs to be cured in this individual patient? Of course, you could argue that the GP also asks that question in order to prescribe, advise, or refer correctly. And to some extent, this would be true. But the assumption is totally different for the holistic practitioner.

A holistic perspective requires individualisation. In analysing the patient’s symptoms, the physician pays close attention to the personal, unusual aspects, which illuminate the patients unique nature and condition, so that a treatment can be applied which targets the root cause. In the case of our fictitious patient, the symptoms involve imbalances in the circulatory system, producing headaches, hormonal system producing menstrual problems, digestive system producing acidity, articulation creating arthritis and the emotional/chemical balance, resulting in depression. The patient would also be asked about their feelings, and what events in their life preceded the onset of their symptoms. The sum of all the symptoms adds up to a recognisable totality, and it is this totality that uncovers the unique pattern, which individualises the patient.
But now comes the difficulty. Even if we can see the singularity out of which the multiplicity of ailments has arisen, how is it possible to target this unitary source with treatment?
The answer is that the symptoms are not at the root of the problem, they are the various attempts by the body to harmonise or re-stabilise itself. All disease is rooted in a disturbance in the vital force, or energy body. The force which animates all living organisms, creates symptoms in our bodies as adaptation to change, especially trauma.

Holistic medicine begins with perception of the totality, and seeks to treat causes, rather than effects. It aims for the tip of the pyramid; the centre of the circle; the heart of the matter. Treatments targetted in this way can legitimately be said to be treating the whole person. Such medicine is not chemical in nature, but energetic. This approach includes various energy medicine systems, such as acupuncture, cranial osteopathy, homoeopathy and shiatsu, to name a few.

Going to the whole food shop, and filling the basket with supplements and vitamins does not constitute holistic medicine, whatever the hype on the label, (although eating nourishing food is essential for maintaining good health).

Can Western (allopathic) Medicine be practiced holistically? Although the concept has been central to human thought for millenia, medical science is unwilling to accept, and unable to observe a unifying vital force, anima, chi, or prana. Disease is regarded as pathology, and treatment is focused upon the chemical suppression or masking of the pathological symptoms. You can decide for yourself whether this is holistic.

So what about holistic holidays? Take your whole self, not just your body parts! And the holistic diet? : Eat sensibly, chew your rice.

Please send comments or feedback to:

tony@remedycentre.org

 

 

Health and Disease
Tony Conway
October 2006

A young woman who came to see me was suffering from severe cramping pains in her abdomen, diarrhoea alternating with constipation, and sleeplessness. She had consulted her doctor, and had been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. She explained that as a child, she often suffered with tummy aches, especially in the mornings on school days, and had taken a lot of time off school. It was especially bad when she felt “under stress.” I asked her what kind of situation caused her stress, and she said anything where she had to “perform,” such as tests, exams, or PE lessons, which she hated. When asked what she hated about PE, she said that she was very self-conscious and didn’t like people to look at her body. She felt fat, ugly, and awkward, and it embarrassed her to be observed. She preferred to remain as invisible as possible, keeping out of the limelight, and staying in the shadows, not drawing any attention to herself.
The cramping pains became more persistent when she went to university. She had to make friends and get used to a new environment. She became sleepless with anxiety, often going over the events of the day, and reproaching herself for her foolishness, for something she had said, or not said. All these concerns added to her anxiety, and the bowel symptoms became more severe, and occurred more frequently, resulting in the diagnosis of IBS.

To help the patient, a physician must first understand the problem? What needs to be cured in this young woman? IBS is not a complete answer, as we can ask why did she have IBS? Besides cramping pain and the other abdominal symptoms, she suffered with anxiety, lack of self-confidence, embarrassment and sleeplessness. Anxiety manifested in the body by producing changes in the endocrine and nervous systems, and resulted in cramping in the digestive tract. Vital energy was being spent in avoiding being seen. This was a protection mechanism. Why did she fear being seen? Because she felt she was fat, ugly and foolish. Why did she feel this way about herself, and from where did this feeling arise? If the aim of medicine is to create health, rather than merely to control symptoms, then this is an important question.

We can ask: What must change in this woman if she is to move towards health?
The cramping symptoms are the result of reactions in her nervous systems, which are caused by anxiety and embarrassment. If she didn’t feel so anxious or embarrassed, then the IBS would clear up. How could she stop feeling anxious or embarrassed? She would need to stop thinking of herself as ugly and foolish. Her own self-image is at the core of her problem. This root state, from which her disease has sprouted, comes from her ancestry, and was reinforced by childhood experiences. We are pre-disposed by our inheritance, and we unconsciously build upon these tendencies. As our inner problem develops, it separates us from the rest of Life. We feel limited and disconnected and an increasing yearning to return to wholeness – this is the true nature of disease.

Yet within us is the potential to become free of such limitations, and to live in harmony with the creative forces that regulate the natural world, the seasons, the moons, and the rhythms of the Earth. Self-healing is an intrinsic property of Life. The role of medicine is to guide, facilitate, and encourage change. The power to transform already exists within each one of us.

The progression towards health means becoming more who we truly are, and no longer who we thought we were. It means accepting ourselves. Living each moment, being more awake to what lies under the surface. It means acknowledging the deeper truth in others, and not flinching from difficult choices. As we move more towards health, we may feel more – if our emotions have been frozen by past trauma, or less, if we have been overly emotional as a form of protection. We would no longer comfort ourselves with addictive habits, substances, or friendships, but would prefer instead to trust ourselves on life’s open waters.

Health means to embrace change.
Everything must change.
To embrace change means to embrace life. 

Please send comments or feedback to:

tony@remedycentre.org