East Meets West
Today’s Medicine Is The Best Of Both Worlds

While countries all around the world try to catch up with sophisticated advances in Western medicine, our own culture is looking to the East for simpler, more holistic approaches that follow ancient philosophies of looking at the whole person rather than just what ails them.

Techniques that were once considered "alternative," like acupuncture, yoga, and massage therapy, have slowly moved into the mainstream as doctors and patients alike see the benefits of adding these feel-good procedures to their treatment programs.

"The term ’alternative medicine’ has undeservedly developed a negative connotation because it sounds like it’s trying to be a substitute for necessary medical procedures like chemotherapy or surgery," says Daniel Vicario, MD, co-founder of the San Diego Cancer Research Institute (SDCRI), the nonprofit arm of the San Diego Cancer Center. "The reality is that both disciplines are vitally important and must be used in conjunction with each other, because together they offer unbeatable health benefits to patients."

For this reason, Vicario and social worker Michele A. Rodgaard founded the Integrative Medicine program (for which they received the 10News Leadership Award) at the San Diego Cancer Research Institute in 2002, providing cancer patients with a menu of complementary — and complimentary — treatments, including everything from Reiki and qigong to meditation, hypnosis, and visualization.

"Every one of these modalities has been proven to be successful in helping people heal," says Vicario. "Even patients who start out not believing in some of these techniques love them when they try them."

North Carolina resident John Star is a prime example. Diagnosed in 2005 with stage IV adenocarcinoma, Star was told he had six months to two years to live. He turned to the country’s top cancer institutions like Sloan-Kettering, UNC, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and found they were just that: institutions. "They basically turned me out to pasture," remembers Star. "It was like, ’Next.’"

Star came out to the San Diego Cancer Center where, under the care of Vicario’s partner Mark J. Adler, MD, he experienced what he calls "my greatest success," explaining that "Dr. Adler’s philosophy is that cancer is very personal, and with his care and attention, I experienced some pretty dramatic results."

In addition to state-of-the-art medical treatment, that care and attention included techniques 60-year-old Star had never before considered, like acupuncture and Reiki, which he admits he would have been hesitant to try had he not been in a life or death situation, but to which he attributes his optimism and newfound energy.

"I used to believe chemo was going to save me or not," says Star. "But now I realize I have all these other options, and it’s very empowering. I thoroughly expect my latest scans to show the tumors have decreased significantly or are all gone."

That positive state of mind is, according to Reiki master and registered nurse Mary Hollander, a powerful healing tool in itself. According to Hollander, if you can alleviate the emotional distress related to illness, you make it easier for the body to fight the actual disease. She compares the body’s response to disease to running after eating a big meal when the body can’t decide whether to digest or put its efforts into the run. When a person is ill, the body doesn’t know whether to concentrate on healing the disease or the stress that’s come from it.

"Do we still have to be reminded that stress kills?" asks Mimi Guarneri, MD, cardiologist and co-founder of the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine. "We’ve proven that healing touch can decrease pain and anxiety by 50 percent, and that we can lower blood pressure without medication. These are incredible results from something that also feels good."

Acupuncturist Kim Taylor, who volunteers at the SDCRI’s Integrative Medicine program, sees results like this every day. "We have great success relieving the side effects of cancer treatments, like nausea and vomiting," she says. "Plus, treatments like acupuncture can speed up patients’ recovery after surgery and allow them to tolerate chemotherapy and radiation more easily."

Evidence like this continues to grow about the interconnected relationship between mind, body, and spirit and the importance of addressing all three. "Doctors have tended to ’pooh pooh’ a person’s emotional state, but I’ve treated patients whose multiple sclerosis was definitely worse when they were feeling stressed," says David Simon, MD, co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing. "It’s much more difficult to navigate the waters of disease without inner peace."

Simon cites a study on wound-healing in which patients with blisters on their arms were divided into two groups. In one group, the spouses were told to start an argument with their wounded partner. The resulting emotional stress caused a 24-hour delay in the physiological healing of that group’s blisters.

"I don’t think there’s an illness on the planet that doesn’t have some connection to the mind," says Simon. "If, for example, a parent is fighting constantly with their teenager and starts experiencing frequent heartburn, a doctor might just prescribe a proton prohibitor rather than ask questions to try to find the underlying cause. Unfortunately, this is the attitude that pervades traditional medicine, and it ends up treating symptoms, not addressing causes."

Valerie Youngblood, MD agrees. "Families used to stay with one doctor for life, so that physician really knew everyone’s background and could meet their individual needs. With healthcare in the state it’s in, though, doctors just don’t have that kind of time to spend with each patient. It’s a lost practice."

To bring back that intimacy and build lasting relationships with her patients, Youngblood founded Continuum Aesthetics and Age Management, a San Diego medical facility designed to be an "oasis" where patients can experience "inside-out health."

Along with noninvasive beauty treatments, Continuum offers a variety of holistic therapies including meditation classes, which she has had to call "stress management" to attract people intimidated by what they think of as a New Age kind of practice. "Meditation is really amazing," she explains, "because once you calm the mind, the immune system starts creating cells that help cortisol levels come down, which relaxes the blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. When people try it for the first time, they don’t want it to end."

So much of integrative medicine — which Vicario defines as "bringing together the best that medicine and science have to offer, with the wisdom of the human body, the riches of nature, the strength of social interactions, and the power of the human spirit to heal the whole person" — seems to be such common sense; it’s surprising the field has had any resistance at all.

"Because it can’t be captured in a bottle or pill, the pharmaceutical companies fight it," says Rodgaard. "And traditional Western doctors have trouble putting it into their paradigm, so they haven’t encouraged it and patients don’t even think of trying it until they’re in a crisis."

According to Guarneri, the goal is to shift that paradigm so that these types of treatments can be used preventatively, as well. "We’ve bridged the gap between East and West, and the key now is knowing when to use which tool in the toolbox. I feel as comfortable recommending acupuncture for specific conditions as I do recommending bypass for others."

Doctors in this discipline, whose passion, determination, and genuine concern for their patients’ well-being truly make them the Marcus Welbys of a new generation, believe that the tide is turning and that one day integrative medicine will be the standard.

"Just like the brain has a left and right hemisphere and we can’t live without either one, medicine has the West, which is top dog, and East, which is balance," says Youngblood. "We need both methodologies for optimum health and well-being."

As research continues to show the benefits of mind-body treatments — they build the base core of a person’s health; cut the number of heart-related hospital admissions in half; positively impact cholesterol; in fact, over a period of 30 years, 200,000 people achieved an astounding 90 percent success rate treating more than 185 diseases with qigong alone — insurance companies are taking notice. Medical schools are incorporating integrative medicine into their teachings, healthcare providers like Scripps, Sharp, and Kaiser Permanente are starting to put the emphasis on lifestyle management, and even the National Institute of Health has a National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

"Really, the most powerful healing approach that’s lacking now is education," points out Simon. "To quote philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, ’All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; and third, it is accepted as self-evident.’" — Lois Alter Mark