The Principles of New (Holistic) Medicine

Holistic (həʊˈlistik): of or relating to the the medical consideration of the complete person, physically and psychologically, in the treatment of a disease

1. Holistic physicians embrace a variety of safe, effective diagnostic and treatment options, including: a) education for lifestyle changes and self-care; b) complementary diagnostic and treatment approaches; and c) conventional drugs and surgery.
2. Searching for the underlying causes of disease is preferable to treating symptoms alone.
3. Holistic physicians expend as much effort in establishing what kind of patient has a disease as they do in establishing what kind of disease a patient has.
4. Prevention is preferable to treatment and is usually more cost-effective. The most cost-effective approach evokes the patient's own innate healing capacities.
5. Illness is viewed as a manifestation of a dysfunction of the whole person, not as an isolated event.
6. A major determining factor in the healing process is the quality of the relationship established between physician and patient, in which the patient is encouraged to take responsibility for his or her health.
7. The ideal physician-patient relationship considers the needs, desires, awareness and insight of the patient, as well as those of the physician.
8. Physicians significantly influence patients by their example.
9. Illness, pain, and the dying process can be learning opportunities for both patients and physicians.
10. Holistic physicians encourage their patients to evoke the healing power of love, hope, humor, and enthusiasm, and to release the toxic consequences of hostility, shame, greed, depression, and prolonged fear, anger and grief.
11. Unconditional love is life’s most powerful medicine. Holistic physicians strive to adopt an attitude of unconditional love for patients, themselves, and other practitioners.
12. Optimal health is much more than the absence of sickness. It is the conscious pursuit of the highest qualities of the physical, environmental, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social aspects of the human experience.