Photo by Larm Rmah on Unsplash

 June 3, 2019

"I believe in your capacity to heal", says the fabulous educator Dr. David Rakel at a recent Institute for Functional Medicine conference on healing chronic pain and addiction. If we as a culture want to see our healthcare system change for the better, we need to start increasing the art and positive healing side of medicine. It cannot be a system that only supports the science of dysfunction and healing through pharmaceuticals without lifestyle and stress change. Rather it should be a system that looks to empower the human mind to aid the healing process. For years, I have been discussing the fact that

in the chronic disease space most pharmaceuticals only band-aid diseases and often make us less healthy in the long run. We need a comprehensive shift where drugs are only a small adjunctive part of a greater healing process. Think about the massive cost savings! Not to mention the better outcomes that have been proven as presented by Dr. Rakel from large Veterans Administration studies.

When you look at the ACES study, we see that 60% of children have some sort of physical or psychosocial abuse concern or trauma driving their disease concerns. If that is a potential genesis point of disease, a psychological trigger or repeated triggers, should we not begin the process of healing at this location?

Dr. Rakel goes on to ask these questions:

What do you want your health for?

What do you really want your health for?
What do you really, really want your health for?

You plus self-care plus professional care plus community equals whole health. That is the essence of truth that is lost in the American health care system.

Where does your current provider of care ask what you truly want? Do they really care about you or does the system ask, no, tell the provider to get you in and out in 12 minutes, which is the average length of a health care visit in our current insurance model? Or does the system empower and tell the patient to rate the provider on the services rendered lending the Emergency room physician to prescribe the narcotic pain killer requested or face the consequences of a bad review and a pay cut based on bad reviews. What a mess! I no longer and never again will pay attention to a complaint that is not given to me face to face with honor and integrity that should go along with the healing experience. I look forward to every actionable concern that a parent has about the experience that occurs at our institution.

We should be asking our patients; how can our professional services help you on your journey of health. Where do you need or want to start on your health journey? Who is on your health team? What is your support system? Think of a twelve-step program to support alcohol dependence resolution and maintenance. Meeting each person where they are goes a long way toward beginning the therapeutic healing process.

We as clinicians of care want to engage you the person to be alive, happy and successful in whatever way that means for you and your child. Therefore, at this moment, no matter where you are, stand up, say to yourself out loud or in your head,

May I be filled with loving kindness
May I be well
May I be peaceful and at ease
May I be happy

If you feel so inclined, also say for your provider of care,

May You be filled with loving kindness
May You be well
May You be peaceful and at ease
May You be happy

I am sure that I will appreciate the energy of your thoughts. As I write this newsletter on my flight home from Texas I am saying to myself (hard to do out loud with the lady next to me snarling) that,

I wish that You will be filled with loving kindness
I wish that You will be well
I wish that You will be peaceful and at ease
I wish that You will be happy

Finally, I pray and hope that powers that govern this OUR medical system read this newsletter and think a little bit more about allowing us, the providers of care, more time to be with you in the healing process.

Dr. M

ACES PDF