Integrative medicine is an almost all-inclusive approach, which infers that it makes use of everything that works in helping the patient. Therefore, prescription drugs and other modalities of modern conventional medicine are naturally incorporated in any individualized treatment plan, whenever the circumstances call for it. In other words, at Healthy Healing we are NOT, as a rule, trying to eliminate prescription drugs from all treatments. We are only evaluating on a case-by-case basis what their proper place in a particular treatment might be.
There is another marked difference. Most doctors go with the dosages that are either suggested by the manufacturer, or mentioned in the Physician’s Desk Reference on available medicines. Indeed, most doctors may themselves be totally unaware of the fact that the choice for individualized dosages even exists. Strangely, no one has told them.
Pharmaceutical companies do not produce drugs tailored to individual needs. Their products are based on the presumption, by now proved misguided, that one size can fit all… as if we all were wearing the same shoe or pant or dress size, which of course we are not. Each of us is different. Some wear shoes size 7 and some wear size 11 ½. We are individuals, after all, and we, and our physician need to respect our individuality by taking it into account when giving us medication. Furthermore, not only do we differ in terms of our size and our weight – there are also huge differences in the way our metabolism works. Some people get the jitters after one cup of morning coffee others need at least three to wake them up. Similarly, some people drink a glass of champagne and feel tipsy others need more than half a bottle to enjoy the same effect as if pleasurably floating on a white cloud in the wide blue sky. This is commonplace knowledge. And although commonplace it may be, it still pertains to prescription drugs as well.
As a matter of fact, as early as in 1956, Roger Williams, a biochemist at the University of Texas, coined the phrase ‘biochemical individuality’. He also proceeded to write a book by the same title. The value of the research that had gone into writing it, however, was fully appreciated only half a century later, when Biochemical Individuality was republished. The chapter on pharmacology explains how, even though the chemistry of each is known, drugs effect people in different ways, due to differences in body chemistry. In Dr. Williams’ own words, “While the same physical mechanisms and the same metabolic processes are operating in all human bodies, the structures are sufficiently diverse that the sum total of all the reactions taking place in one individual body may be vary different from those taking place in the body of another individual of the same age, sex, and body size.”
Factors I look out for in particular when prescribing a drug are:
1. Can the drug contribute to healing the underlying condition of my patient, or will it give only symptomatic relief? (If the latter is the case, I only go forward and prescribe when relief of the symptoms is of paramount importance before the healing of the underlying causes can be tackled.)
2. How good is the patients liver function? (When the dosage is high, and the liver function below average, more and more troublesome side effects can be expected, as most drug detoxification is happening in the liver.)
3. Can abnormal hormone functions be observed? (Especially important for women patients; even more so because in the research phase the drug companies test most of their drugs on healthy adult males, as they are easiest to measure and control against other variables. However, a woman’s body is quite different from a man’s body.)
4. Does this drug have a long list of side effects? Are they common or rare? Are they major or minor? (If there is a ‘yes’ to any of the three questions, I try and chose another medication that appears less hazardous to the patient’s long-term wellbeing.)
As a rule of thumb, except in emergency situations or acute infections (like in a case of typhoid fever, for example), regarding dosages, I always start low and go slow. This usually means that I begin treating the patient with a dose that is lower than the one recommended by the manufacturer. Then we wait and see, and adjust according to the patient’s response.