Integrative Medicine

This limited definition can certainly be expanded however, because other factors should also be taken into consideration. These include prevention and not merely the treatment of diseases; cutting-edge diagnostics and therapies not yet used by conventional medicine; emphasis on maintaining an active, mobile and healthy lifestyle; as well as the fundamental desire for safe and natural therapies, free of any side effects.

A growing global trend towards integrative medicine is rapidly developing because conventional medicine simply does not meet the needs of a large segment of society. As a result people are seeking other options and voting with their pocketbooks. Many patients are demanding, and getting, medical practitioners and medical institutions that place the entire patient and their individual needs at the center of attention. Patients want medical practitioners who are good listeners, caring and show empathy. They are also demanding that their medical practitioners understand that the whole is more than just a sum of the individual parts and treat them accordingly. In addition to standard medical test these patients may also be willing to try diagnostic tests that are not yet recognized by conventional medicine.

Patients who turn to integrative medicine may or may not already understand that their medical condition may arise from factors that can be modified. These factors may actually be modified to a certain extent when the patient becomes actively involved in improving their own health. Patients can play an important role in controlling their own destiny – what a novel concept! This is in stark contrast to conventional medicine alone as pharmaceutical drugs have extreme limitations and may only mask the symptoms, but usually do not resolve chronic medical conditions. As a result, integrative medicine is a logical development by conventional medicine towards holistic, natural solutions demanded by a rapidly growing number of patients.

 

 

 

 German Integrative Medicine

Most readers will be interested to know that the concept of integrative medicine is not an especially new concept. German Integrative Medicine – which loosely describes and encompasses a traditional field of medicine in German-speaking countries – traditionally emphasizes the use of natural healing methods, incorporates the latest medical achievements, and takes a holistic view of the patient. Homeopathy represents the greatest and most well-known contribution to this extensive school of natural medicine.

An attempt to combine conventional medicine with natural medicine was already made in Germany, by renowned German-speaking physicians, including the German Professor August Bier, in the early 20^th century. The term used was Biological Medicine. Josef Schier M.D. defined Biological Medicine as, “those natural methods that support the natural attempts of the body to heal it.”(1)

According to Gerhard Madaus M.D., “Confidence in medical doctors was shaken. People spoke of a crisis in medicine. At a very early point a group of physicians joined together and attempted to prevent an excessive mechanical perspective by physicians and promote natural medicine in the tradition of Hippocrates. They attempted a synthesis of all good medical philosophies. In 1905 Dr. Bachmann united these physicians together in the Biological Medicine Society (Medizinish-biologische Gesellschaft). The conventions held by this organization attempted to promote Biological Medicine (Hamburg in 1912, and Dresden in 1924) and were attempts to motivate physicians to accept their perspective. However, they met with little success.”

“The true development of a New German Medicine only occurred after the National Socialist seizure of power in 1933.” (2)  Indeed, it was only under the National Socialist regime (1933-45) that conventional and complementary medicine were united, albeit only until the complete destruction of the Nazi regime at the end of World War II.

In his Nuremberg speech of May 23, 1935, the chief German physician, Reichsärzteführer Gerhard Wagner, proclaimed, “In one word we strive to create a synthesis of the previously one-sided conventional medicine with natural medicine. We reject the extremists and fanatics of either side.” (3) As a result, a single, all-encompassing “New German Medicine” was founded that reflected the Weltanschauung of the National Socialist regime and controlled anyone actively involved in the medical field.

Needless to say, German Jewish physicians were excluded from practicing medicine in the Third Reich and many chose emigration. As a result, the respected professional medical journal HIPPOKRATES, which advocated the integration of conventional and complementary medicine since it was founded in 1928, lost many of its founding members. These irreplaceable Jewish physicians included Professor Georg Honigmann, Dr. Bernard Aschner and Dr. Otto Leeser. Ironically, in September, 1935, an article by Professor Karl Kötschau was published in the same HIPPOKRATES medical journal praising Reichsärzteführer Gerhard Wagner’s speech of May 23, 1935, as marking the beginning of the new German Medicine. (4)  No mention was made of the Jewish physicians who no longer wrote articles for the magazine. It would take another 10 years until the National Socialist regime would finally come to an end and a new renaissance would begin for German Integrative Medicine.

On an interesting historical note after World War II West German physicians collectively made one, but only one, major concerted effort to uncover the atrocities of a limited number of medical doctors in the Third Reich, after which almost any further attempts to uncover atrocities by German physicians came to an abrupt halt for several decades. In 1949 a single edition of the book Science without Humanity, Medical and Eugenic Mistakes under Dictatorship, Bureaucracy and War (Wissenschaft ohne Menschlichkeit, Medizinische und Eugenische Irrwege unter Diktatur, Bürokratie und Kreig) was printed. There was only one edition ever printed consisting of 10,000 books. It focused on 20 SS physicians and researchers and 3 highly placed civil servants in the Third Reich who were tried at Nuremberg Trials for crimes against humanity beginning in November, 1945. Only recently has there been extensive interest in Germany to uncover the dark side of some physicians in the Third Reich.

As Germany began to recover from the ravages of World War II Integrative Medicine and rose like a phoenix from the ashes. In 1950 Werner Tiegel M.D. wrote an article in the journal HIPPOKRATES entitled, “Has Natural Medicine Lost its Importance in the Post War Era?” He answered his own question by asserting that Natural Medicine is as important as ever because it was necessary to heal a variety of illnesses that cannot be healed with conventional drugs. This concept has not outlived its usefulness.

 

 

 

The Roots of German Integrative Medicine

 

Without a doubt German Integrative Medicine (German: Naturheilkunde) is the most modern and most effective form of medicine. It makes use of not only conventional diagnostic tools and therapeutic modalities, but also traditional and cutting-edge diagnostic and therapeutic modalities not accepted by conventional medicine. The philosophy and some individual therapies that have traditionally been a part of German Integrative Medicine may seem familiar to reader, because they have been knowingly or unknowingly adopted by medical practitioners over the course of decades.

German Integrative Medicine is a term that loosely encompasses a field of medicine in the German speaking countries of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. This school of medicine advocates the use of natural healing methods. It includes homeopathy and other historically established natural healing methods dating back 2,500 years to classical Greece and Rome, but it also encompasses the latest achievements of modern medicine. In addition, it embraces some concepts found in the general field of complementary medicine such as Chinese acupuncture and Indian Ayurveda, while other concepts and therapies are exclusive to this school of medicine. Furthermore, in treating illnesses it has traditionally emphasized diagnosis and treatment of the entire individual. Today we use the term “holistic.” This includes treatment of psychological and emotional conditions that can play a role in the development of diseases. German Integrative Medicine also focuses on treating hereditary genetic burdens or weaknesses which have received special attention since the time of Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy. This is extremely important because genetic burdens lay the foundation for the development of chronic diseases, including cancer, which plague many families from generation to generation. Finally, this field of medicine focuses on aiding the intrinsic healing abilities of the body and not suppressing the natural healing process.

German Integrative Medicine has its roots in German folk medicine, as well as the works of the Greek physicians Hippocrates and Claudius Galen, whose writings were passed on to the German-speaking people via the Christian monasteries and other routes. The list of most prominent individuals in German Integrative Medicine traditionally includes:

Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), Paracelsus (1493-1541), Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), Dr. Christoph Wilhlem Hufeland (1762-1836), Reverend Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897), Emil Schlegel, M.D. (1852-1934), Maximilian Bircher-Benner, M.D. (1867-1939), Bernhard Aschner, M.D. (1883-1960), and Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg, M.D. (1905-1985).

Due to personal convictions – as well as a steadily growing demand from their patients for treatment that includes natural healing methods and excludes chemical drugs – thousands of Austrian, German and Swiss physicians have incorporated the concepts of German Integrative Medicine to varying degrees into their practices. These health care professionals use natural healing methods as much as possible, if not exclusively.

In 1953 the German physician S. Klein, M.D., listed some of the most important concepts of Germany complementary medicine in the medical journal HIPPOKRATES:

•The healing process is also the illness process. Medical conditions that develop occur with the body’s best intentions as it attempts to heal itself.

•The absolute unity of spirit, mind and body.

•The individuality of every person, both anatomically as well as functionally. As a result, an illness should not be treated according to a particular model or pattern, but rather emphasis should be placed on supporting the healing processes of the patient.

•Emphasis should be placed on proper nutrition, natural remedies and stimulating the excretion process via the intestinal tract, kidneys, lung and skin.

•Diagnosis and therapy should be from the functional perspective and, therefore, capable of diagnosing and addressing those processes that lead to the development of the illness. Functional therapies carry information – such as homeopathic medications – or restore order – such as acupuncture. Any therapy must absolutely include enhancement and stimulation of excretion.

•Heat and cold, dryness and moisture, light and air, as well as proper nutrition, can all be used to heal the patient. A healthy diet with water therapy in the tradition of Hippocrates are important cornerstones of a natural therapy.

•Every patient is influenced by climate, soil and individual physical characteristics, and these factors should also be taken into consideration.

•The therapy should be natural. Natural physical processes, such as fever, should be treated but not combated or suppressed.

•The medical practitioner should emphasize preventative medicine as well as healing. Diagnosis and treatment are important, but educating patients is just as important.

German Integrative Medicine maintains that “Illness is an attempt by the body to heal itself.” This idea can be traced back to Hippocrates who wrote, “The illness process is also the healing process.” As the German physician Professor H. Lampert, M.D., emphasized in 1935, “Biological healing methods are those that support the natural healing process.” (5) These natural healing methods attempt to stimulate and restore the body’s impaired natural functions and “get the entire body involved.” Alfred Brauchle, M.D., explained, “As opposed to methods that address the illness-causing pathogen directly and hope to eliminate it from the organism, the natural healing methods always address the defense and self-regulating mechanisms of the body.” (6)

The goal of any treatment using complementary methods and medications is to enable the body to regain its natural, inherent abilities to heal itself. 

German Integrative Medicine and conventional Western medicine both agree that the goal of medicine is to restore ill patients to health. They only differ in the means and methods used to accomplish this noble end. Conventional Western medicine has certainly made many important contributions to the health and well-being of humanity over the past two hundred years. The discovery and medical use of insulin, hormones, vitamins, analgesics, anesthesia, pain killers, and advanced forms of surgery, as well as the practical application of discoveries in the fields of cellular biology and immunology are just a few of the revolutionary contributions. Emergency medical services are also a much-needed boon to mankind. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved by the fast and efficient treatment of stroke and heart attack victims. It should be emphasized, however, that the treatment of many illnesses by conventional medicine may also have drawbacks and limitations.

 

 

 

Why should medical practitioners feel the need to explore alternative therapies outside the parameters of conventional medicine? What makes therapists look elsewhere for alternatives in the first place? The reason is that these physicians are frustrated with the limitations of conventional medicine and feel the need to look for other therapies. They heed the call of Paracelsus who said, “The physician has only one duty: to heal. How he does it, and in which way he does it, is of no consequence.”

Peter Dosch, M.D., wrote, “What makes the student of conventional medicine an outsider? The only reason is that he cannot be satisfied with the small percentage of patients that can be healed with the officially sanctioned healing methods. Practice shows him that the medical therapy is the stepchild of the higher medical schools and he must find for himself the necessary information for improving his medical practice. The vocation that should be the basis of his occupation forces him to orient himself elsewhere, trying another way that promises success. The established medical community remains one-sided, dogmatic, and intolerant, insisting on all too narrow limits of healing.” (7)   

It is important to emphasize that there is common ground, but also fundamental differences, in the “Weltanschauung” or view of the world between mainstream and German Integrative Medicine. These differences at times include, but are not limited to, the following:

1.  How each defines illness and health.

2. The perceived cause of many acute and chronic illnesses.

3.  Local versus systemic approaches in diagnosis and treatment.

4.  Treatment of diseases with chemical drugs that cause side effects (as the lesser of two evils between the disease and side effects) versus almost exclusive use of natural medications and therapies.

5. Eliminating disease-causing microbes and suppressing symptoms versus restoring and activating the body’s own intrinsic healing mechanisms to eliminate the symptoms.

6. Viewing some microbes as the exclusive cause in the infection process versus the perception that some of these microbes are indicators of local or systemic dysfunction.

 

 

 

What is health? What is illness? These are the most important questions in medicine, and conventional and German Integrative Medicine generally have different views. How these schools of medicine perceive and define health will determine which means and methods are used for treatment or if treatment takes place at all. For example, it can take a cancerous tumor years to grow but no therapy may take place during this period of time in conventional medicine because it cannot yet be detected. The logic is as follows: “Cancer cannot be diagnosed, therefore it cannot be present.” However, this does not take into account the fact that a tumor may be developing but simply cannot yet be diagnosed with the standard medical diagnostic tools available to conventional medicine. In addition, conventional cancer therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are essentially destructive and do not support the body’s intrinsic healing capabilities. As a result, it is logical that these therapies should not be considered if a medical practitioner suspects the development of cancer may be taking place but this suspicion cannot be verified by any standard diagnostic tools. On the other hand, since the goal of German Integrative Medicine is always to stimulate and support the body’s natural healing abilities and eliminate any weaknesses, the therapies advocated by this school of medicine can be administered at any time and without any debilitating side effects.

Since how health and illness are defined is so fundamentally important, the views of several German physicians in the field of German Integrative Medicine should be presented.

•Alfred Brauchle, M.D., wrote in 1939, “If the physician is asked what definition can be given for health, then initially the answer will be that a person is defined as healthy if the scientific diagnostic methods show normal results. But then the next question is: If a person is found to be healthy according to the most modern and exact diagnostic methods and still feels unhealthy and ill, do we then have the right to ignore their subjective feelings and regard the diagnostic results as absolute proof? This question must be answered with a resounding ‘No.’ Only when the subjective feelings and objective results match can we in good conscience call the person healthy but never when the subjective feelings contradict the objective diagnosis.” (8)

•In 1939, Karl Stauffer, M.D., explained, “Illness symptoms are an attempt to regulate against stimuli that have disrupted the equilibrium of the body in an unusually severe manner. For the number of stimuli that exist, as many attempts are made by the body to regulate…The practitioner who recognizes the illness symptoms as warning signs – that something in the life process is not correct; who recognizes therein the defensive attempts of the organism against disruptions to its normal functions; who sees certain secretion and excretion processes not as an illness but rather as excretion and healing processes; who does not disrupt the healing attempts of the organism but rather supports and promotes them; who is finally able to come to the right conclusion about the defensive capabilities of the organism and which reaction remedies it is able to use without causing the body damage – that practitioner is a long way ahead in prescribing a proper therapy.” (9)

•In 1962, Joachim Zinke, M.D., wrote a comprehensive definition of health and illness:

“According to Hahnemann, if the life energy of the body is unimpaired, then all the life processes are in balanced harmony. This is health. If the life energy is disrupted and out of tune, then ‘abnormalities arise in the mental and emotional state and in the functions of the organism’ and then ‘changes in how the person feels’ or symptoms appear.

“In the case of an illness, at first only the vital energy is disrupted. If a person becomes ill, the first step is a change in the way they feel. They may feel weak, irritable, in an otherwise bad mood, or apathetic. They lose – and this should be especially noted – their resistance against external influences. The illness, according to Dr. Salmanoff, is preceded by the weakening of the life energy. Pathological changes in the organs can initially be missing.”

“Dr. Leriche said: ‘The illness is a play in two parts. The first act takes place in the dark silence of the tissues, without any light shining upon it. If pain or other disruptive factors appear, then we are usually already in the second act.’” (10) Dr. Zinke continues, “The organism can certainly be ill without any changes taking place in the organs. To see this, we can observe over and over again in medical practice that a patient feels ill without any of the possible diagnostic tests finding ‘objective test results’ and, as a result, a clinical diagnosis of an illness is impossible… Depending on the type of illness, it can take hours, days, or even months or years until the first diagnosable ‘objective symptoms’ appear and show the allopathic diagnostician that an ill organ is present. Let us consider infectious illnesses. At first, the patient does not feel well, perhaps breaks into sweats and general increased sensitivity to pain occurs. The child is ‘coming down with something.’ The physician examines the patient and finds no objective signs of an illness. Then, in the morning, poliomyelitis, mumps, or some other illness suddenly appears. Or for months there is a weakness and susceptibility to illnesses without any clinical test results, until the disruption of the life energy manifests itself in a cancerous tumor. This is the drama of the ‘Illness,’ Act Two.”

“The allopathic way of thinking is anchored in the logical conclusion: no objective symptoms = no diagnosis = no therapy. For all practical purposes, this is merely looking on and doing nothing. The smoldering fire is visible in the house, but the physician waits until the fire has broken out into a roaring flame before putting it out. The homeopathic doctor, on the other hand, is already able to intervene in the first act of the drama, based on subjective symptoms, and thereby shorten the illness process in the organ or organ system or even prevent it from breaking out in the first place.”

“Illness is preceded by a disruption of the life energy or the weakening of the life functions. The organism loses its ability to resist external and internal influences. Only after this – that is, secondarily – are the organs involved and do organ changes result.”

In conclusion, Dr. Zinke emphasized, “Bacteria and viruses cannot harm an organism with an intact life energy. Only when the life energy is already weakened and the resistance of the body is eliminated can they develop disruptive effects, cause illnesses and lead to pathological organ changes.” (11)

 

 

 

 

               Conclusion

In conclusion it is essential to eliminate chronic diseases and other debilitating conditions not only because they compromise our mental and physical well-being but also because they are a considerable impediment to our personal development. Chronic illnesses rob us of a certain amount of our dignity and freedom, and this should be totally unacceptable to anyone. According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (Centers for Disease Control), more that 90 million Americans suffer from chronic illnesses. In addition, chronic disease accounts for 70 percent of all deaths in the United States, and the cost of caring for these patients represents more than 60 percent of the nation’s health care bill. It is high time to look at tried and proven therapeutic options to change these shocking statistics by looking closer at options presented by Integrative Medicine.

Peter W. Gosch

 

 

              Footnotes

 

  1.      Josef Schier, M.D., Biologische Erfahrungen, Hippokrates Verlag, Marquardt and Cie.,   Stuttgart, 1941, p. xv

  2.       Gerhard Madaus, M.D. Lehrbuch der Biologischen Heilmittel, Volume I, George Thieme Publisher, Leipzig, 1938,  p. 8

  3.       Gerhard Madaus, M.D. Lehrbuch der Biologischen Heilmittel, Volume I, George Thieme Publisher, Leipzig, 1938,  p. 9

  4.      Professor Karl Kötschau, Hippokrates-Zeitschrift für Einheitsbestrebungen der Gegenwartmedizin”, Volume XVII,  Hippokrates Verlag, Stuttgard, 1935, p. 579

  5.      H. Lampert M.D., Hippokrates-Zeitschrift für Einheitsbestrebungen der Gegenwartmedizin”, Volume VI , Hippokrates Verlag, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Zürich, 1935, p. 404

  6.      Alfred Brauchle M.D., Hippokrates -Zeitschrift für Einheitsbestrebungen der Gegenwartmedizin”, Volume VI , Hippokrates Verlag, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Zürich, 1935, p. 643

  7.      Peter Dosch M.D., Erfahrungsheilkunde Zeitschrift für diagnostische und therapeutische Sondermethoden, Schulmedizine und Aussenseiter, Volume XIV, Karl F. Haug Verlag, Ulm/Donau, Germany, 1965, p. 202

  8.      Alfred Brauchle M.D., Naturheilkunde des Praktischen Arztes, Volume I, Hippoktrates Verlag, Marquardt & Cie., Stuttgart, Germany, 1939, p. 15

  9.      Karl Stauffer M.D., Homöotherapie, Hippokrates Verlag Marquardt & Cie., Stuttgart, Germany, 4th Edition, 1950, pp.1-2

10. Joachim Zinke M.D., Erfahrungsheilkunde Zeitschrift für diagnostische und therapeutische Sondermethoden, Volume XI, Die Denkweise der Homöopathie, Karl F. Haug Verlag, Ulm/Donau, Germany, 1962, p. 224

11. IBID, p. 225