As many of you know, I have lived in both worlds…the world of using only allopathic medicine (MD’s) where prescriptive and surgical remedies reign and the world which uses alternative medicine where the body is honored for its self-healing capacity and where food and lifestyle modifications are utilized in addition to the treatment modality offered by the doctor (such as spinal manipulation).

 In all honesty, I don’t like calling chiropractic and other treatments rendered by “alternative” practitioners alternative at all. After all, what we call conventional medicine is little more than 100 years old and forms of chiropractic date back over 20 centuries. (Shouldn’t that qualify chiropractic as mainstream medicine?!!)

The actual profession of chiropractic – as a distinct form of health care — dates back to 1895. However, over 2000 years ago Hippocrates advised: “Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases.”

Herodotus, a contemporary of Hippocrates, gained fame curing diseases by correcting spinal abnormalities through therapeutic exercises. If the patient was too weak to exercise, Herodotus would manipulate the patient’s spine. The philosopher Aristotle was critical of Herodotus’ tonic-free approach because, “he made old men young and thus prolonged their lives too greatly.”

So now that I’ve inserted my little chiropractic soapbox, here are my feelings on what I believe modern medicine is missing and why that’s important.

Allopathic medicine, as a whole, declines to acknowledge any creative force and bases its belief system on evolution. As such, it only takes into account the physical body and the symptoms and/or illnesses it presents. By only acknowledging the body, allopathic disregards the spirit of the body (the other half of the soul). In so doing, it eliminates critical components of our health: spiritual, mental and emotional health.

Allopathic does a wonderful job of treating trauma and emergencies. However, I believe it dramatically fails in regards to honoring the patients it treats.

Eliminate giving a patient the time and consideration they deserve, ignore their emotional, spiritual, or mental health, discount that a patient needs to be a central contributor to or part of their own healthcare, or operate from a foundation that the doctor always knows best (in the five minute patient time slots that most allopathic doctors are forced to work within) and I believe you see patients and their health short-changed.

I have been treated by too many allopathic doctors who had no interest in my health history – their only interest was in my current symptoms so they could write a quick prescription. I have been treated by doctors who, when they found that no prescription worked, were all too quick to declare that it was “all in my head”. They were right…my headaches were “all in my head” but the causes weren’t. If I were the only one ever to have been told that a health issue was all in my head – this personal experience wouldn’t even be mentioned. Unfortunately, too many patients have been given that diagnosis by doctors who were unwilling to consider anything other than prescriptions and expensive high tech tests. I believe too many MD’s operate from the ego-driven assumption that prescription medicines, expensive tests and surgery are the only competent tools available in treating patients.

So…here is my short list of the components that I believe modern medicine is missing that should be vital to all healthcare:

• Sufficient time with patient
• Honoring the contribution of the patient in their own healthcare
• Embracing the importance and power of nutrition in health
• Recognizing the influence that a patient’s spiritual, mental, and emotional health has on their physical health
• Eliminating the ego of the doctor in patient care
• Respecting the creative force that created the patient and the world we each are a part of

Some allopathic practitioners are catching on…they have seen the difference that nutrition and chiropractic treatment makes and are chaning their mindsets. I look forward to the day when more of them get the big picture!