Have you noticed how the onset of an illness can herald a cascading downward spiral of even more illnesses? You may have seen someone develop one medical problem, then quickly pick up a whole lot more. Or, worst case, you know of someone who got sick and then pretty much gave up on life? In our practice as integrative medicine physicians, we have seen how certain patients can learn to bounce back from serious illness. They learn to take their health problem, one that might be devastating to most people, and use it to make themselves-and even the world-a better place. They learn how to heal physically and grow spiritually. They not only get well, they get better. To use a well-known phrase, they turn lemons into lemonade. We know from treating these kinds of patients that it is possible to move toward well-being by learning to transform symptoms of disease and discomfort into a new state of better health. We call this approach Transformational Medicine.
What Is Transformational Medicine?
Transformational Medicine uses the best of conventional, integrative and complementary medicine to create a new state of vibrant health. It integrates high-tech, cutting-edge medical science with age-old wisdom of traditions such as acupuncture and naturopathy to help understand and treat illness. While Transformational Medicine guides you to cure illness where possible, it also teaches you about the healing that is possible with an illness that is not curable. Transformational Medicine teaches you to reinterpret your health crisis as a turning point. It looks at ways you can optimize your physical health, promote psychological well-being and spiritual growth.
In order to transform your health, you need to see where you came from, assess where you are, and then make positive changes to influence where you are going.
Assessing Your Health
We all have a certain set of predispositions to illness. This may be because of our genes, the environment we have been exposed to, infections, emotional trauma, dietary issues and more – it is the interaction between the our environment and our genetic predispositions that sets us on what we call a trajectory toward illness, whatever that illness may be. In order to understand this trajectory, we need to learn to unravel the past.
Assessing your current health is equally complicated. A good medical exam may only give you partial insight into your health. A medical exam is helpful if it uncovers an illness or problem, especially if there is a good medical answer. However, there are many times when your exam may fail to uncover what is really going on. It is in these cases that we find that a Transformational Medicine approach may be helpful.
How to Transform Your Health
We believe you can transform your current and future health and turn away from your trajectory toward illness. As we explain in our book, Get Well & Stay Well: Optimal Health through Transformational Medicine, to achieve lasting change means looking at five main aspects of your health:
- Making an expanded medical diagnosis to find functional problems.
- Evaluating the effects of stress on the body.
- Evaluating imbalances in nutrition, immune function, metabolism, and body chemistry.
- Evaluating hormonal imbalances.
- Evaluating imbalances in body mechanics and bioenergy.
In Transformational Medicine, we spend time and effort on prevention and early intervention. We work closely with our patients and help them understand how their health relates to everything else in their lives – and vice versa. Our patients get the best possible standard medical care, and we also work with chiropractors, acupuncturists, energy healers, massage therapists, and others who provide healing care.
Our goal is to reduce the burden of illness both now and in the future. Because our patients take a greater role in their own health care, they develop and expand a new sense of well-being. We want you too to participate actively in your own health care, to get well, and to stay well.
By Drs. Steve and Sandi Amoils
