Download Elementary Health Consultant Medical mODEL vs Alternative

Once upon a time, there was a Greek physician named Hippocrates. He believed that the
key to vibrant health was a commitment to fitness and a nutritious diet. Hippocrates is often
referred to as the “founder of modern medicine.” In fact, each licensed doctor today has
recited the Hippocratic Oath, in which they vow to:
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Treat the ill to the best of their ability
Choose prevention over cure
Focus on the person instead of the disease
Use warmth, compassion, understanding before drugs and surgery
Pass down the teachings of health and medicine to the next generation
The principals were put in place as guidelines by which medicine should be practiced. When
followed, doctors and patients alike would experience the joys of life and health.
Hippocrates believed that health was the natural human state and that sickness was the
anomaly. It was his belief that a person could leverage all that was available in nature to
assist the body in achieving a natural state of health.
“Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food” – Hippocrates
The concept of simply treating, or covering up the symptoms of an illness, was foreign to
Hippocrates. He insisted that prevention of disease, which was the primary focus of
healthcare, should be achieved through a diet of nutritional food and exercise to improve
one’s overall health. His teachings stressed the importance of prevention, not just the
treatment of symptoms.
These concepts and principles were put in place over 2300 years ago. Yet today, the
recommendations of Hippocrates seem to be echoed only by alternative, integrative and
holistic health practitioners, and are all but lost in mainstream medicine. The advances in
medical technology and explosion of pharmaceutical drugs have taken center stage while
the founding principles of medicine fall by the wayside.
So when did it all go so wrong?
Shortly after the discovery of the telescope, which gave us the power to peer into the
vastness of “outer space,” the optics were altered, giving humans the ability to look deep into
“inner space.” The microscope was born. Scientists began to analyse biological structures
of the body; they discovered blood cells, microorganisms, and bacteria. This all led to the
improved understanding of the human body and the development of modern medicine.
With the technology and enthusiasm to understand disease at the microscopic level,
scientists and doctors turned their attention to major diseases of their times, such as polio,
typhoid, and tuberculosis, in search of a cure. Once the medical community realized they
could cure these diseases with vaccines and drugs, the focus of modern medicine shifted
from prevention of disease to the treatment of it. Physicians became more and more
engaged in the business of “sick-care,” diagnosis of disease, and the use of pharmaceuticals
and surgical procedures to treat their patients. The modern medical model practiced today
is illness-based, focusing squarely on diagnosing “diseases,” naming them, and applying
remedies aimed at managing the symptoms.
Gone are the days of prescribing a healthy diet and emphasizing fitness as a means to good
health. In fact, of the 130+ medical schools in the USA, 70% do not require a single course
on nutrition to become a Medical Doctor. Additionally, at 30% of these institutions, nutrition
isn’t even offered, let alone required. The very item that laid the foundation for medicine has
simply been omitted. Doctors, instead, spend a large amount of their time studying
pharmacology and which drugs are appropriate to treat each disease.
In the 1800’s most deaths resulted from the contraction of infections and the spread of
epidemic disease. Medical advances led to the development of powerful vaccines and
antibiotics. As a result, these forms of disease declined significantly.
Today, most deaths are not caused by infectious diseases. Sure, we still get scares from
time-to-time. Currently, the Ebola virus has many people alarmed. Not too long ago, H1N1
was a cause for concern; before that, it was SARS. The medical community is constantly on
high alert for the next global epidemic.
In 2014, people are less likely to die of infectious disease. These days, most illness and
death are associated with chronic degenerative problems such as heart disease, cancer,
and diabetes. More people die in one day from heart conditions and cancer than the overall
total that died from Ebola, H1N1, and SARS combined.
It’s time to put the “health” back in healthcare
Physicians must join with other health care practitioners whose focus is on building health
and wellness and not just managing disease and illness. Drugs and surgeries target the
main complaint and symptoms, but fail to address the cause of the problems plaguing
current day society. No amount of medication will address the true cause of degenerative
diseases if the dysfunction within the body is not identified and restored. The irony is that
the majority of the top 10 causes of death in modern society are rooted in diet and lifestyle
(heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, Alzheimer’s – to name a few). These conditions
may never have grown to their current epic proportions if the medical community would have
continued to honor the fundamental health building values of diet and exercise.
We are lucky to live in a time where medicine has become so sophisticated and advanced.
We can now monitor a baby’s heartbeat while still in the womb, we can use cameras to see
inside of our organs and even manufacture replacement body parts. We have medicines to
manage serious medical problems and prevent epidemic infections.
The problem is that all this shiny new technology and fancy pharmaceuticals monopolized
our attention. It can be very easy to get excited about the latest and greatest treatments and
completely forget the very foundations of good health: diet and exercise.
Would it not make sense for one who seeks to be healthy to first aim to consume nutritious
food and supplements in accordance to their unique needs, exercise and get proper sleep
before resorting to drugs and invasive medical procedures?
Of course that makes sense. Yet the majority of North Americans are doing quite the
opposite. The number of people currently taking medication for a chronic disease or health
condition, but still continue to eat fast food, is staggering. Conventional doctors are available
with pills and surgeries when needed, but they aren’t necessarily going to be able to walk
you through a healthy diet and behavior modifications.
Allopathic medicine refers to the practice of conventional medicine that uses medication,
drugs, or physical interventions (like surgery), to manage symptoms and the process of
disease.
Our current medical model is allopathically-based. Physicians practicing under this model
are trained to focus on sickness, not health. They hone in on the presenting signs and
symptoms and treat the manifestation of what usually is a much deeper issue. It’s a
symptoms-based system. If someone has high blood pressure, allopathic medicine provides
a drug to lower it.
Holistic medicine represents the idea that the system, as a whole (physical, biological,
social, etc.), determines how the parts function together. Dysfunction in one area can lead
to symptoms presenting in another. A holistic health practitioner will look beyond the
symptoms to determine the origin of dysfunction that caused the symptom to appear. The
high blood pressure is merely a clue to an underlying dysfunction, which holistic medicine
would seek to uncover.
The conventional allopathic medical model is effective and beneficial when addressing most
acute and urgent care situations, such as broken bones, blood loss, or loss of
consciousness. For example, if you are involved in a severe car accident, wouldn’t you want
to be treated in a well-equipped, modern facility and be treated for your presenting
symptoms? Of course you would!
This type of acute care is exactly what the medical model excels in: mending bones,
cleaning and healing wounds, surgery, blood transfusions, and pain medication to make it all
bearable. Again, we are blessed to live in a time when we have the equipment, drugs, and
knowledge that allow us to recover from otherwise life-threatening conditions.
After you are released from the allopathic care of your western doctors, it might be wise and
beneficial to follow up with a holistic practitioner, rather than simply continuing to take pain
medication. A holistic practitioner can meet additional needs of the patient such as
alignment problems, chronic stress, anxiety, poor nutrition another behavior requirements
The medical model is allopathic and focuses on illness while the holistic model focuses on
underlying causes and building health. Allopathic medicine is widely accepted, easily
accessible, and let’s face it, IT’S EASY and it can get you out of immediate trouble.
However, taking pills to control your condition or undergoing a surgical procedure requires
little behavior change for the patient. Holistic medicine, on the other hand, could require
hard work, commitment, and difficult lifestyle changes. And both have thier place in our lives.
Not everyone is ready or willing to take on a holistic approach since it usually means
undergoing many, sometimes uncomfortable, lifestyle changes and an extensive process in
which they will need to actively participate.
Know what is even easier, cheaper, more effective, and saves more time than allopathic or
holistic treatments?
Taking the time to understand your current health situation, optimizing your diet and exercise
in accordance to your metabolic type and lifestyle, getting enough sleep, drinking enough
clean water, and learning to control stress and cultivate happiness, is quite possibly the best
model of health that a person can follow. In other words, take care of yourself. Hippocrates
stressed prevention in his early teachings, and Ben Franklin eloquently stated:
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Unfortunately, many people aren’t doing a good job of caring for themselves. Many are not
taking full advantage of the lifestyle tools that can keep them healthy, whether it’s keeping
their weight in check, exercising 30 or more minutes a day, getting a good night’s sleep, or
eating real whole foods.
The truth is, doctors have a lot of tools to save lives and make you feel better… but, whether
they are allopathic or holistic, their efforts fall apart if you don’t step up to the plate and
perform as an equal partner in the doctor-patient relationship.
You have the power to help to make the best treatment plan in the world work — or fail. You
have the power to make choices every single day that may determine if you’re going to live
to a ripe old age in good health, or die miserably young. You have the power to avoid many
cases of diabetes, heart disease, certain types of cancer, and other diseases.
Educate yourself before you Medicate Yourself
Not feeling so powerful when it comes to taking care of your own health?
Don’t worry. Knowledge is power.
Perhaps you don’t need a doctor, you just need a teacher. Someone to dispel all the
confusion over what is healthy and what is not. You don’t have to spend years in school or
pour over piles of texts and case studies. There is a ton of information out there, but you
don’t need to learn it all. All you need is a coach to show you exactly what the best plan of
action is to improve YOUR health.
At Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® (FDN), each practitioner is trained in a scientificallybased and holistically grounded system of health. In turn, each practitioner educates their
clients on how to identify their own unique healing opportunities, how to listen to their bodies,
and how to determine their own personal best diet and lifestyle program. In other words,
with FDN, each client learns a complete system of self-care that they can use for the rest of
their lives to keep themselves and their families in the best of health.
The answers have been around for over 2300 years. Hippocrates understood true health
care and the importance of prevention through nutrition and lifestyle. Yet, modern medicine
is still focused on the treatment of chronic degenerative disease in industrialized countries.
Our culture has grown dependent on medications and medical intervention as a main form of
“health care,” and as a result, placed less importance on diet, exercise, and lifestyle, the true
foundations of health.