Eastbound Training

Western doctors’ attitudes toward alternative medicine are shifting as more M.D.s integrate treatment traditions
Metroactive, July 31 – Aug. 7, 2002 issue
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/07.31.02/altmed1-0231.html
By Rebecca Patt

IN EASTERN MEDICINE, “chi“–meaning the integration of mind, body and spirit that makes up a person’s life force–is possibly the most powerful of all healing concepts.

Conventional Western medicine has no word for it. And no one seemed to think they’d ever need one.
On the contrary, Western medicine made its name on a powerful distaste for such an idea, with a medical discipline that generally separates the problems of the body from the problems of the mind. And for years in this country, it was the only game in town.

But you can’t, it seems, keep thousands of years of tradition down. Alternative medicine has now gone mainstream, with recent studies showing that more than half of Americans are seeking out non-Western wellness. And in the process the East vs. West issue has become a whole other kind of health care debate, with alternative-healing advocates often looking down upon the “rigidness” of Western medicine with the same dismissiveness long doled out to them by many a med-school graduate.

Peace in Our Time
But a lasting truce in this philosophical battle royale may finally be in sight. Spurred on recently by Dr. Andrew Weil, who started an integrative medicine program at the University of Arizona, a movement is under way in medicine to take the best of alternative therapies and integrate them with mainstream Western practice.

As you might expect, Santa Cruz is somewhat ahead of the curve, with many doctors here open to both traditions.
[...]

Dr. Erin O’Shaughnessy, clinical program director of the Elysium Wellness Center and also a psychotherapist with a private practice, says that she’s come to understand that traditional Western medicine is great for emergencies–when someone has an acute condition and their life needs to be saved in a dramatic way–while alternative medicine tends to work better with more chronic medical conditions. She says that Western medicine often attempts to reverse or mask symptoms and put a quick fix on things without taking into account the possibility that the person may be fundamentally out of whack.

“Alternative medicine tends to approach the whole person more, looking at bringing them into balance on all levels, not just symptoms but mentally, emotionally, physically and socially,” says O’Shaughnessy.

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