Is Medicine
biomedically-oriented practitioners. That comes as a shock to Americans accustomed to drugs, surgeries, and high-tech equipment; but the World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the world’s population uses herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care. The family doctor of a century
Coming Full Circle? W
by Dr. Martha Grout
orldwide, only 10% to 30% of human health care is delivered by conventional,
ago in America was a holistic doc- tor. He knew three generations of the patient’s family, was familiar with the work and home environments, and knew that the mother’s diabetes got worse when the teenager acted up. He saw the big picture. In the year 1900, homeopathy was the prevailing medicine practiced in America. But times changed. The American
Medical Association shaped a new paradigm of “Better Living through Chemistry.” Patients stopped taking an active part in their own healing. Doctors were trained to approach dis- eases as if waging war on a particular organ or function of the body. Yet, conditions like type II diabetes, heart attacks, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, and the many chronic diseases commonplace today were rare or non-existent in the year 1900. Ironically, conventional medicine became a leading cause of death in America. Further, conventional medicine is not a good paradigm for solving the interlocking complexities of chronic degenerative disease. What almost all of these chronic diseases have in common is a weakened immune system. Your 90-year-old grandfather may have smoked and drunk alcohol all his life, but most elders who have lived to that age did not have today’s sedentary lifestyle. Their lifestyle near- ly always involved exercise (moves the lymph system and lowers insulin levels) and time outdoors (raises vita-
min D levels), and their food did not contain the substances that perme- ate our foods today. Today’s average American is said to eat a pound of herbicides and pesticides each year. Today’s holistic physicians know
that American children are literally polluted from birth, compared to the children of a century ago, born with more than 200 chemicals in the bloodstream. This sets the stage for all sorts of problems. We also know that fresh farm food is on the endangered species list in many homes. Vitamin D, B6, B12, folic acid, magnesium, and iodine defi ciencies are rampant. America is considered the developed world’s most unhealthy country. The road back to health is
pretty much the same for everyone with a chronic disease. There is no all-powerful Oz behind the curtain who can reverse a chronic disease in a week or two, and scalpels and high-tech equipment are not useful in most chronic conditions. Instead, our toolbox must contain due dili- gence, patience, and a multi-faceted approach. Twenty years ago, few conventional doctors would have advised patients to take folic acid to prevent birth defects or vitamin C to bolster their immune systems; today, the lifesaving benefi ts of these vita- mins are well-known. Twenty years ago, acupuncture, guided imagery, and therapeutic touch were con- sidered outright quackery; today, non-traditional therapies are gaining
PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT 2010-2011
acceptance as testimonials and studies report their success with such chronic maladies as back pain and arthritis. A Center for Disease Control sur-
vey reveals that many Americans rank cancer, plane crashes, and shark at- tacks as health issues they feared more than diabetes. Statistically, people are at far greater risk of developing diabe- tes (10%) than cancer (6%), let alone plane crashes and shark attacks. And the medical establishment has a long way to go to get the public’s attention focused on the biggest threat to the average person’s health: obesity. Holistic physicians are leading
the way to help people correct nutri- tional defi ciencies and food sensitivi- ties, detoxify the body of heavy metals and chemicals, destroy pathogens, balance hormones, and build new neurons in the brain so the body’s inner communication systems can function properly again.
Martha Grout, MD, MD(H), is a mem- ber of the American Academy of Envi- ronmental Medicine, and the Arizona Board of Homeo- pathic and Integrat-
ed Medicine Examiners. She special- izes in the reversal of chronic illness at the Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine, 480-240-2600, ArizonaAd-
vancedMedicine.com. See ad on back cover.
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