Clinica Salutare: In the Service of Salutogenesis

I am back after many months of silence.  Our clinic is now, Clinica Salutare: Center for Integration in Medicine.

Clinica Salutare exists to serve the salutogenic consciousness.  Each time i use the word salutogenesis — I always spend time explaining what it means because it is not known, thus not used often enough.  I have used the word in discussions with medical students and health professionals where it is also unheard of.    For this reason, we have decided to dedicate our clinic to keeping this consciousness alive again.

As we have often discussed, salutogenesis comes from the latin word “salus” which means health and “genesis” from the Greek word origin. Thus, the salutogenic consciousness brings back —what we have always known :  there are powerful practices within us that has kept us well all along, and have kept our families well.  What are they? What are our salutogenic treasures?

Salutogenesis was developed further by a medical sociologist, Aaron Antonovsky. Antonovsky looked into the different factors that have kept people in crisis situations survive and stay well.

Salutogenesis is at the heart of our medical practice.  When a client comes to us, we first consider what basically keeps this particular client well and reinforce that.  For example, it may mean restoring the balance of basic nutrients which we need to make our neurotransmitters like serotonin.  Pathogenesis (patho meaning illness) is brought into the picture only if illness is present despite the nutrient balancing done.     Thus, the pathogenesis frame of mind will need  to look at a person as a patient or a sick person first of all.  Salutogenesis will first look at a person as someone with an innate capacity to get well and stay well.

What does it mean if we allow salutogenesis to be at the core of our health care programs? What will this wellness consciousness mean for us and our doctors?  Most important, will this create more well people and less sick people? More people who are happy, active, looking good and enjoying life.  And less people who are tired, irritable, burdened with their sickness, unable to do what they are meant to do.

 

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Minty-Fresh™.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,800 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 11 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 22 posts.

The busiest day of the year was January 4th with 46 views. The most popular post that day was About Dra. PVB.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were topblogs.com.ph, panjeetapales.com, waldorfmom.wordpress.com, blumea.com, and heartbalance.org.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for paulita baclig, integrative doctor, what is an integrative doctor, dr. paulita baclig, and baclig.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

About Dra. PVB April 2008
2 comments

2

Chronobiology: Listening in to the body’s rhythm April 2008

3

Conference on Integrative Medicine February 2009

4

Try visiting an Integrative Primary Doctor July 2008

5

Becoming Less Anxious over Anxiety May 2010

Our Family’s Secret Recipes for Good Health: Keep the Recipes Alive

As a Family Medicine Specialist , I continue to believe that our health and wellness and thus also our dis-eases are very much influenced by our Good Health recipes at Home.  Thus, I encourage all families to keep alive these very original family secret recipes.  How do we keep them alive?  By resorting to them, using them, improving them, and making new recipes each time.  One of our tasks as family doctors, is first and foremost, to help the family develop confidence in managing simple illnesses that can be managed at home. And second to help them decide when a visit to a doctor is already necessary. Staying healthy and managing simple illnesses at home will be easier if we have our Family ‘s Secret Recipes for Good Health Manual.  This manual reminds you all the time, what usually works in the family.  The manual may be an old overused notebook or a member in the family who knows them all or the wise grandmother who still remembers. It helps when what is distinctly effective in the family, is on hand when needed.

During family encounters in our clinic, we exchange secret recipes.  I have my own secret recipes that i still rely on and which I also share with my patients and their families.  By sharing, my recipes have also stayed alive.  For pain, I have very good experience with the old cupping or ventosa. If someone in the family can be taught to do this well and carefully, this is a recipe all families should have .

Before the onset of flu, when one is feeling cold — the wind cold attack as described in Traditional Medicine , the old old way of sweating by steam called “tuub” in Visayan still works.  It is a traditional steam bath.  If you can be careful not to get scalded, you just go under a thick blanket  with a big pot of boiled water with herbs(we use Blumea or sambong leaves) and slowly open the lid, till you sweat.  You must be careful not to get scalded.  Cover your eyes because it can be very hot.  And after you sweat out all the cold inside (as traditional healers explain) , make sure you immediately wipe your sweat away and avoid feeling cold again.  You are supposed to sleep after this ritual.  But i find that the more urban, the more strange this becomes.  Thus, my more urbanized patients have developed their own versions of this.  Like doing this in the toilet by turning on the faucet with hot water and sweating it out with the steam.

As I observe, there is a healing force behind this traditional ritual.  For me, the tradition brings us back to our grounding with nature (leaves, wind, cold, water, warmth) which we may lose when we become busy with our work and we stay most of the time with our gadgets.  Going back to tradition and going back to how my parents, grandmother, or old healers taught it to me — is more healing for me.  Perhaps, it is reconnecting, re-grounding that makes the recipe work .  It is the power to re-connect that makes the recipe alive.  Its good to share — some of our secrets.

When the Doctor is privileged to be a Patient

One of the  tasks that our clinic treasures is the care of carers. WE consider this the 7th specialty service of our clinic.  This means the care of doctors, therapists, nurses and all carers.  When a doctor or nurse comes to our clinic , we offer them the privilege to become patient .  I believe this is the greatest privilege we can give a carer — that when they come to us , we care for them the way we care for our patients.  Often, when doctors consult they are  expected to know what to do, and thus end up having to doctor themselves.  This can become very tiring and definitely not therapeutic.   The privilege to become a patient, means one can let go, trust and entrust, and be cared for –this can be truly liberating and rejuvenating.  But this may be difficult for most doctors, especially if one knows that one is highly competent and an expert in the field.  Or , it can be humbling and embarrassing to others.  This then becomes part of the process, to handhold until the shift towards accepting vulnerability can take its rightful place.

One of the blessings we have received is when we were called to care for a famous oncologist who was sick of  breast cancer with bone metastasis.  All that mainstream medicine could offer had been given already.  The patient herself looked for an alternative doctor because she still wanted to live.  As we knelt beside her bed to examine her and care for her, I felt a deep reverence for a colleague who humbly accepted the need to be helped.

As members of the community of the healing profession, we have the oath to care for one another.  Its nice if we can help each other in wellness , and in illness.  Its nice if every week, we can find ourselves in a space where we can also be given rejuvenating care, without having to wait for a time when we are already very sick.  We can do that to one another.  We just have to remove our white coats, accept the vulnerability, and entrust ourselves.

I am sure our patients will be happy to know that we also take care of ourselves, of each other and become privileged patients once in a while.

Pain is usually physical and non physical

Pain -  first, we make sure all physical reasons behind the pain is carefully, medically, competently addressed.  Most important is to validate the vital structures especially the nerves and the organs affected.   Next is to evaluate the bones, the muscles, ligaments around the painful site.

Once, this is fully treated and the pain still lingers, recurs, and recurs for a chronic period of time, it is time to look into the non physical.

What could be causing this pain?  What are the thoughts and feelings that usually go with the pain?  If we dont go into this aspect of the pain, we will find ourselves going from one pill to another, from one therapy to another from one MRI to another.  It can be expensively endless.  If we need to hang on to thepain for awhile, it is understandable.  Eventually, we may want to allow the pain to bring us into a higher consciousness and a higher awareness.

Then pain slowly makes its exit, only to come back as a friend when we need it.

 

 

Nutrients: Take some, but aim for High Quality

Many of us are now becoming more aware of the benefits of nutritional supplements.  Although we still would rather get the necessary vitamins, minerals, amino acids from the food we eat.  However, since we are beginning to see the good effects of taking well selected nutrients — we are getting more and more convinced that we cannot find all these good stuffs in our food today.  It still is wise to continue to look for biodynamic and organic products and be careful with how we store, cook and prepare our food.  But when we have signs of deficiency, we must take the nutrients we need and be careful not to take what we dont need.

There is a need for us to investigate further if pesticide farming has indeed reduced the zinc content in soil.  Or if there is less omega 3 when animals are kept in pens and not allowed to graze freely.  This will make us understand why we are needing to take these vital supplements.

In the care of the mind — for those suffering from depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, ADHD, and early dementia we are finding that supplements are becoming extremely helpful.  But we need to be careful not to give what is not needed even if these are nutritional supplements and to give what is actually needed.  Giving them what they do not need can really make the condition worst, even if these are only in minute quantities.

The next thing to consider is looking for high quality supplements.  It is common practice to look for the cheapest supplements and buy them by bulk.  but we have to consider if these are indeed of high quality with less additives and fillers that have to be metabolized by the liver.

If we are beginning to invest on supplements, we may want to start being more selective so that we only take those of high quality.  Even if they may cost more, you will always benefit from the quality you pay for.

In this age of coffee and cafes, try coffee enema

Welcome to the Coffee Enema Bar.

Seriously speaking, coffee enema is one simple home based wellness practice that I would like to teach everyone.  I remain grateful to Dr. Max Gerson who did a lot of succesful therapies using enemas and  the Gerson Institute who continues to teach this.   I usually require that all our patients who are willing to do coffee enema come to the clinic for their first coffee enema session.  We teach them the procedures, precautions and indications.

I remember when we were children, my mother would do a lot of enemas with us when we had fever.  Doing a chamomile enema when one has fever can lower the fever faster and make one feel better sooner.

According to Dr. Max Gerson (Gerson, M, 1979) , caffeine enemas cause dilatation of bile ducts which facilitate excretion of toxic cancer breakdown products by the liver and dialysis of toxic products from blood across the colonic wall.  Thus , coffee enema was always a part of the treatment regimen for cancer patients under the care of Dr. Gerson.  If one reads the beginnings of the work of Dr Gerson, enemas were first used for migraine headaches.  In addition to cancer, his treatments using enema and vegetable juices also helped other patients suffering from degenerative illnesses such as arthritis and even those with atherosclerosis, diabetes, and other illnesses.

Thus, when one does a coffee enema it is really the detoxification of the liver and the lowering of toxic load in the body that is being achieved.  We all know that the liver plays a central role in keeping us healthy.  Thus, a simple, not costly procedure ,done properly may be worth our time and effort.

 

 

And How am I going to take care of Myself as a Doctor ( 1st of a series)

I must have mentioned earlier that I have been working with medical students and young doctors since the 1990s on learning how we as doctors must take care of ourselves. It was my studies on integrative medicine that made me realize that we could have been taught wellness during our first years in medical school . Medicine would be even more nourishing, body shaping, and mood balancing if only we did wellness earlier — and evidence -based at that!

i had another chance to meet a few young doctors recently and true enough — out of the 15 young doctors — no one had the time to spend a regular 40 minutes 3x a day ( thats evidence based data) on a physical exercise program to stay well and fit. It is sad — that we have studied soooo much, yet have forgotten to study how to be healthy , before the disease which we have mastered so much sets in.

So I made a series of workshops for these doctors and the first topic is on Physical Exercise. What physical exercise can a doctor do regularly — without blaming the busyness. Since physical exercise is also an attitude — going around the hospital walking through the steps although helpful — cannot replace your regular physical work out. Because in your work out — the center is YOU. Not the task to be done. Not the consultant’s lecture. NOt the patient, especially if toxic. Not the fellowship to be completed.

During these modules my colleague demonstrated the Inner Power Exercises developed by a Filipino Master Del Pe for the doctors. I have been doing these regularly as a warm up to my exercises and I find it very energizing. This can be a habit doctors can start doing because it is powerful yet simple. Afterwhich, we did some eurythmy exercises that can be done as a group to build the team spirit or nicely called the “group soul”.

I know all doctors know what is a good physical exercise. Because even walking is already very good. This is just a whisper — to remind our dear colleagues to live the physiology and anatomy they have learned very well, with outstanding grades!

And if our doctors do regular exercises — they will definitely be excellent teachers to their patients of a good wellness physical program. Patients will always know when a doctor is teaching something he or she is not actually practising. No wonder very few patients are exercising — maybe because doctors have not found the time to exercise?

If we doctors start exercising regularly — we will teach our patients with passion— and this passion is healthfully contagious!

You can start now — or dear patients, you can remind your doctors to exercise with you. It will be a gift they will hold dear.

Is your child having a hard time in school?

Is your child having a hard time in school? Is it because he/she is unable to remember what he reads? Or is it because he/she tends to be always angry with rages and temper tantrums, irritable, or even depressed? Is he/she having a hard time getting up early in the morning for school?

Your child might have Kryptopyrrholes in the urine, a condition called pyroluria. And once given the right nutrients — you will see your child as the happy, smart, active child once again.

Pyrrholes are tested via the urine so it will not be difficult for your
child.

Pyrroluria results from an inborn error affecting one’s hemoglobin. This results in the accumulation of pyrrholes in the urine which have no use in our body. Once elevated, the pyrrholes bind essential nutrients which are needed by the brain as building blocks for neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters are needed for proper learning, emotional balance and even for good sleep.

Thus, the key is to make a diagnosis via urine and then treat your child with the proper nutrients needed. Usually in less than a month, you will notice happy changes already. It is best to keep the nutrients for 1-2 years and even longer if your child tends to lose the nutrients. But afew are able to stabilize and need less of the nutrients in due time especially if you start giving the child organic and biodynamic food.

I have seen a few young adults in my clinic with symptoms linked to elevated pyrrholes. I am glad that the treatment is not very complicated and better , not very expensive. Thus, in a few weeks they have come back — grateful and happy.

This is really great news and a wonderful discovery.

Parents , teachers and guardians — if a child is having difficulty in school and with his moods — consider checking the child’s urine immediately. Childhood and adolescence are precious foundation years that we can no longer go back to. They can enjoy these years today.

Integrative Approach to Pain

Last Friday, January 29, 2010 -  I gave a lecture on the Integrative Approach to Pain during the UP Grand Scientific Symposium.  I was happy to see old friends, classmates, dorm mates.  I was extra happy to discover that there are doctors who are interested to collaborate and truly be integrative in our approach to pain. Integrative meaning bringing together the safest and most effective modalities whether conventional and alternative or a combination.

The lecture presented our experiences in our clinic following the integrative approach to pain. What has worked for our patients, and which situations needed co-management with conventional pain specialists. We have almost 15 years of experience and this has made it possible for us to speak with conviction, and with so much freedom. I know this is what the doctors wanted to hear.

I included the 18 studies on pain using Anthroposophic Medicine evaluated for the HealthTechnology Assessment Report submitted to the Swiss Federal Government. These were well researched studies that showed statistically significant improvement in pain when using Anthroposophic Medicines. Conventional medicines were not necessary. The anthroposophic remedies were well tolerated with very minimal side effects.

The integrative appraoch allows us to develop a program for our patients following the 4-fold approach of Anthroposophic Medicine. Thus our pain management includes: Physical Body Nutrient Therapies and other remedies; Etheric Body Massages and other Energy Body Treatments; Artistic Therapies for the Emotional Forces and Biographical Counselling to address the Human Spirit which provides the inner strength to conquer the pain.

From our experience, acute and severe pain may need co management with conventional pain specialists. For example, we had to refer our patient with breast cancer in severe pain to an anesthesiologist for a nerve block.

But what i have observed is that the 4fold programs we develop for the patient broadens the possibilities for them and more important gives them the venue to take part in their own pain management. They discover what has brought about the pain, and how they can address it using their self-regulatory mechanisms.

The message i left was: if you or your loved one is in pain , unrelieved by any of the conventional modalities we have today— wouldnt you want to start thinking outside the box? and think integrative?