In the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NATURAL MEDICINE I found a table that juxtaposes the old and new paradigm of doctor/patient interaction very neatly so that the main differences become obvious on first sight. It spoke to me as the list of topics immediately resonated with what I experience in my general practice every day. Therefore, I am sharing my views here in this forum because I have discovered that, the more I treat my patients as human beings and as equals (rather than objects), the more successful the healing process will unfold.
Today, there is a great desire for understanding of what might be wrong. Today’s patients ask questions and want explanations. They want to know what is going on, and they want to be presented with options as to what can actually be done, at least in this country they do – provided they are educated and well off.
Furthermore, most of today’s clients aim for more than just feeling okay, or as the saying goes: to be fully functional even though slightly depressed. They want to achieve the highest possible level of health accessible to them. They want to feel empowered. If at all possible, they want to feel absolutely good and vibrantly healthy. However, vibrant health cannot be achieved through the old approach with the physician in control of the patient’s health decisions. For vibrant health to manifest, the patient has to be informed and fully in charge of his or her health care choices, while the physician is there to help the process along, to give expert advice and act as sounding board. In the old order of things, the doctor filled out prescriptions and more or less ordered the patient what to do, or not to do. In the new order of things, the patient is a co-creator in his or her own health. Thus, especially in naturopathy, through new evolving ways of patient/doctor interaction a whole new paradigm of medicine is evolving.
One of the first aspects of the old paradigm to be questioned is the idea that the body is a machine and in order to fix it or enhance its performance, all we have to do is to repair or service the parts. If my patient asks me questions, however, he or she does so as a whole person. Therefore, I also have to treat him or her not as a machine but as a whole person. Body and mind are not separate any longer. Body and mind are interconnected.
As I am specializing in a field of medicine with particularly strong points in prevention, for the benefit of my clients I necessarily emphasize the goal of achieving good health. The old approach was to only emphasize the elimination of disease. This change in emphasis goes hand in hand with a change in the overall therapeutic goal. Rather than treating symptoms, as the old paradigm would have it, my colleagues and I prefer to discover, discuss and treat the underlying causes.
As the underlying causes may not be directly related to the surface symptoms that the patient displays, the new paradigm in medicine cannot support specialization to the point of tunnel vision. Instead, we follow and integrated approach and if needs be consult a specialist in order to benefit for special diagnostic tools while, together with the patient we remain in in charge of the treatment of the underlying causes.
No doubt, high-tech in emergency medicine has saved many lives and continues to do so every day. Yet, for most of the complaints treatable in a general practice, a focus on diet, lifestyle and preventive measures is far more successful for and with the patient than new and expensive equipment ever can be.
We all know and mostly also detest the image of the doctor as a “god in a white overcoat”. Such gods when they manifest behind desks or in hospital corridors in their white overcoats always remain emotionally neutral, detached and display an air of aloofness. As a matter of fact this approach that follows the old paradigm is not very helpful because by now we know, through so many studies focusing on emotional intelligence, that the physician’s caring and empathy are critical to healing. Naturally, this empathy and caring never cross a certain line. Yes, it is okay to care for our patients and show it. And no, it is not okay to become meddlesome.
But as doctors, within the limits of decorum, we can show our emotions, too. After all, we are only humans trying to help. We may have some special knowledge, but that does not make us all-knowing authorities. We are simply that: partners in the healing process.