The word “holistic” has been kidnapped by practitioners of alternative medicine and marketers. Holistic has become synonymous with “all natural” treatments and cures. Those who kidnapped the word holistic imply that medical doctors are not holistic. The implication is that docs treat the disease and not the person.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, holistic means, “relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts <holistic medicine attempts to treat both the mind and the body>.”
I am a holistic physician.
As a family physician, not only am I trained to look at my patient as a whole being (mind, body and soul), but I am trained to look at the whole of my patient’s existence within the family structure. Yes, medical docs are taught to “dissect” and treat illness. We are also trained to recognize the effects illness have on our patients and their families and provide the care necessary to restore balance to the patient and family unit.
What family physicians aren’t are good marketers of their services. I have been writing on this blog for the better part of a year, marketing health and “Wellth”. “Wellth” is the ultimate in holism. To be “Wellthy,” you need to be balanced physically, emotionally, spiritually, nutritionally, and financially.
It’s time I rescue the word holistic from its captors and restore it to its proper home, the medical home provided by your family docs. Its time family docs start teaching their patients the tenets of family medicine and reclaim their role as holistic practitioners. The primary job of the family physician is to care for you and your family.
Mirriam-Webster defines care as, “painstaking or watchful attention”. I must admit that, on occasion, while taking great pains to uncover what is eating away at my patient, my job demands that I have to dissect my patient into parts, focusing on the source of the individual ailment, in order to restore the whole.
If you ever feel like your physician is anchored to a diagnosis or body part and missing the whole picture, share your thoughts with him/her. You are the most important member of the holistic team. The beauty of family medicine is that, if the physician and patient are missing the bigger picture while anchored to a diagnosis and treatment course, family members can help both their loved one and doc reorient and focus on the whole being/family.
Holistic medicine has been rescued and is alive and well in your family physician’s office.
Stewart Segal is a family physician who blogs at Livewellthy.org.
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