Health and the Integrated Person

By John Bruchalski, MD, FACOG

Tepeyac OB/GYN

. http://www.tepeyacobgyn.com/

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Health and the Integrated Person

We are not merely bodies. Quality medicine takes a holistic approach to each individual patient; listening to the story that their bodies are speaking through symptoms and signs. Because stress manifests itself from our relationships, our environments, our dysfunctional bodies, and our souls; this integration is important to health and wholeness in the doctor/patient relationship.

Focusing on the reasons for less than optimal health, doctors need to treat the diseases underlying the symptoms, and try not to band aide patient problems. Patients should ask themselves-what is going on in my life right now that might be adding to my symptoms? As I say, optimal health is a stool with three legs body, soul, and spirit. If any one area is array, that can lead to the stool tipping over and becoming unbalanced. To define and delineate these areas is essential to quality medicine.

When the above approach is taken, nutrition, conversation, exercise, meditation or prayer, journaling, and counseling can be incorporated alongside medications, exams, supplementations, and surgery. All of these methods become tools to effect change in belief, behavior, and physiology so that each patient can grow healthier and fully live with meaning and purpose.

Every patient deserves holistic healthcare. To be listened to. To be taken seriously. To find the underlying cause of the problem. To be respected. And to get real options for health.