Clinical Holistic Medicine Research Articles

Clinical Holistic Medicine: The Existential Crisis—Life Crisis, Stress, and Burnout

The triple and parallel loss of quality of life, health, and ability without an organic reason is what we normally recognize as a life crisis, stress, or a burnout. Not being in control is often a terrible and unexpected experience. Failure on the large existential scale is not a part of our expectations, but most people will experience it. The key to getting well again is to get resources and help, which most people experience with shame and guilt. Stress and burnout might seem to be temporary problems that are easily handled, but often the problems stay. It is very important for the physician to identify this pattern and help the patient to realize the difficulties and seriousness of the situation, thus helping the patient to assume responsibility and prevent existential disaster, suicide, or severe depression. As soon as the patient is an ally in fighting the dark side of life and works with him/herself, the first step has been reached. Existential pain is really a message to us indicating that we are about to grow and heal. In our view, existential problems are gifts that are painful to receive, but wise to accept. Existential problems require skill on the part of the holistic physician or therapist in order to help people return to life—to their self-esteem, self-confidence, and trust in others. In this paper, we describe how we have met the patients soul to soul and guided them through the old pains and losses in order to get back on the track to life.

Clinical Holistic Medicine: The Patient with Multiple Diseases

In clinical practice, patients can present with many different diseases, often both somatic and mental. Holistic medicine will try to see the diseases as a whole, as symptoms of a more fundamental imbalance in the state of being. The holistic physician must help the patient to recover existence and a good relationship with self. According to the life mission theory, theory of character, and holistic process theory of healing, recovering the purpose of life (the life mission) is essential for the patient to regain life, love, and trust in order to find happiness and realize the true purpose of life. We illustrate the power of the holistic medical approach with a case study of an invalidated female artist, aged 42 years, who suffered from multiple severe health problems, many of which had been chronic for years. She had a combination of neurological disturbances (tinnitus, migraine, minor hallucinations), immunological disturbances (recurrent herpes simplex, phlegm in the throat, fungal infection in the crotch), hormonal disturbances (14 days of menstruation in each cycle), muscle disturbances (neck tensions), mental disturbances (tendency to cry, inferiority feeling, mild depression, desolation, anxiety), abdominal complaints, hemorrhoids, and more. The treatment was a combined strategy of improving the general quality of life, recovering her human character and purpose of life (“renewing the patients life energy”, “balancing her global information system”), and processing the local blockages, thus healing most of her many different diseases in a treatment using 30 h of intense holistic therapy over a period of 18 months.

Clinical Holistic Medicine: Chronic Infections and Autoimmune Diseases

The consciousness-based (holistic) medical toolbox might be useful in general practice and in cases of recurrent infections and chronic infection or inflammation. From our clinical experiences, there is hope for improvement from a number of diseases caused by disorders affecting the regulation of the immune system when the physician includes the holistic medical approach.Our scientific understanding of the connection between consciousness and cellular order is still limited. Consciousness-based holistic medicine removes (as explained by the holistic process theory of healing) the “blockages” in the tissues of the body and facilitates function and informational exchange of the cells of the body. Many blockages and repressed feelings in an area would imply “noise and disturbances” on the level of intercellular communications, which in turn means major difficulties for the cells of the immune system. For this they are totally dependent on the body information system, which the holistic treatment aims to recover. Processing the blockages increases the coherence of the cells and organism, thus increasing the intercellular flow of information in the area and thus strengthening the immune defense and healing the disease. The area of clinical holistic medicine is going through a rapid development and the toolbox of consciousness-based medicine is available for dealing with many diseases arising from disturbances in the regulation of the immune system. Holistic medicine has yet to be better explained scientifically and our proposed holistic cures have yet to be documented clinically. We invite the medical community to cooperate on this important challenge.

Clinical holistic medicine: applied consciousness-based medicine.

Consciousness-based medicine is our term for a form of medical treatment that works by direct appeal to the consciousness of the patient, in contrast to modern biomedical treatment where drugs are used to affect body chemistry. With this concept, maybe we are (in a sense) turning back to the “old medicine”, where the family physician was the all-concerned “old country doctor” who knew the child, the siblings, the parents, the family, and the village. In a series of papers on clinical holistic medicine, we would like to present the classic art of healing, where the physician works mostly with his hands, then show how the modern biomedical physician performs with biochemistry, and finally introduce consciousness-based medicine. Some of our questions will be: If you improve your quality of life, will you also improve your health? Will learning more about yourself bring more purpose in your life? Will finding someone to live with in a loving and mutually respectful relationship improve your health? Scientists and thinkers like Antonovsky, Frankl, Maslow, and Jung have pointed to love as a unique way to coherence in life, and thus to biological order and a better health. Several scientific studies have also suggested that patients who focus on improving their quality of life usually will not follow the general statistics for survival, since somehow other factors are at play, which sometimes you will find referred to as “exceptional”.

Clinical Holistic Medicine: Developing from Asthma, Allergy, and Eczema

This paper shows how consciousness-based holistic medicine can be used in the case of asthma, allergy, and eczema. We have many fine drugs to relieve patients from the worst of these symptoms, where many children and adults suffer health problems related to hyper-reactivity of the immune system. Many symptoms remain throughout life because the drugs do not cure the allergy and allergy today is the sixth leading cause of chronic illness. The etiology of the immune disturbances is mostly unknown from a biomedical perspective. Consciousness-based holistic medicine could therefore be used to treat these diseases if the patient is willing to confront hidden existential pain, is motivated to work hard, and is dedicated to improve quality of life, quality of working life, and personal relationships. Improving quality of life is not always an easy job for the patient, but it can be done with coaching from the physician. An increased physical health is often observed after only a few sessions with a physician skilled in using holistic medical tools and able to coach the patient successfully through a few weeks of dedicated homework. Children with allergy and asthma can also be helped if their parents are able to do work on personal development, to improve the general quality of life in the family and their relationship with the child.

Clinical holistic medicine: holistic sexology and treatment of vulvodynia through existential therapy and acceptance through touch.

Sexual problems are found in four major forms: lack of libido, lack of arousal and potency, pain and discomfort during intercourse, and lack of orgasm. It is possible to work with a holistic approach to sexology in the clinic in order to find and repair the negative beliefs, repressions of love, and lack of purpose of life, which are the core to problems like arousal, potency, and pain with repression of gender and sexuality. It is important not to focus only on the gender and genitals in understanding the patient's sexual problems. It is of equal importance not to neglect the body, its parts, and the feelings and emotions connected to them. Shame, guilt, helplessness, fear, disgust, anger, hatred, and other strong feelings are almost always an important part of a sexual problem and these feelings are often “held” by the tissue of the pelvis and sexual organs. The patient with sexual problems can be helped both by healing existence in general and by discharging old painful emotions from the tissues. The later process of local healing is often facilitated by a simple technique: accepting contact via touch. This is a very simple technique, where the self-acceptance of the patient is to be promoted, for example, asking the female patient to put her hand on her stomach (uterus) or vulva, after which the holistic physician puts his hand supportively around hers. When done with care and after obtaining the necessary trust of the patient, this aspect of holding often releases the old negative emotions of shame bound to the touched areas. Afterwards, the emotional problems become a subject for conversational therapy and further holistic processing. Primary vulvodynia seems to be one of the diseases that can be cured after only a few successful sessions of working with acceptance through touch. The technique can be used as an isolated procedure or as a part of a pelvic examination. When touching the genitals with the intention of sexual healing, a written therapeutic contract with the patient is highly recommended and a strict ethical code is necessary to avoid malpractice. As about one woman in three suffers from sexual problems, many of which seemingly can be efficiently alleviated by the simple holistic techniques of “holding and processing”, it is very important that the holistic physician is also trained to work in the sexual sphere in order to be able to support his patients fully.

Clinical holistic medicine: tools for a medical science based on consciousness.

Biomedicine focuses on the biochemistry of the body, while consciousness-based medicine — holistic medicine — focuses on the individual's experiences and conscious whole (Greek: holos, whole). Biomedicine perceives diseases as mechanical errors at the micro level, while consciousness-based medicine perceives diseases as disturbances in attitudes, perceptions, and experiences at the macro level — in the organism as a whole. Thus, consciousness-based medicine is based on the whole individual, while biomedicine is based on its smallest parts, the molecules. These two completely different points of departure make the two forms of medicine very different; they represent two different mind sets and two different frames of reference or medical paradigms. This paper explains the basic tools of clinical holistic medicine based on the life mission theory and holistic process theory, with examples of holistic healing from the holistic medical clinic.

Clinical holistic medicine: a psychological theory of dependency to improve quality of life.

In this paper, we suggest a psychological theory of dependency as an escape from feeling existential suffering and a poor quality of life. The ways in which human beings escape hidden existential pains are multiple. The wide range of dependency states seems to be the most common escape strategy used. If the patient can be guided into the hidden existential pain to feel, understand, and integrate it, we believe that dependency can be cured. The problem is that the patient must be highly motivated, sufficiently resourceful, and supported to want such a treatment that is inherently painful. Often, the family and surrounding world is suffering more than the dependent person himself, because the pattern of behavior the patient is dependent on makes him or her rather insensitive and unable to feel. If the patient is motivated, resourceful, and trusts his physician, recovery from even a severe state of dependency is not out of reach, if the holistic medical tools are applied wisely. The patient must find hidden resources to take action, then in therapy confront and feel old emotional pain, understand the source and inner logic of it, and finally learn to let go of negative attitudes and beliefs. In this way, the person can be healed and released of the emotional suffering and no longer be a slave to the dependency pattern.

Clinical holistic medicine: problems in sex and living together.

When the problems of sex and living together are understood as symptoms of underlying old existential wounds in need of healing, and when the physician accepts the role as coach supporting the patient to confront these emotional pains, then the patient can heal existentially in order to obtain the wanted closeness and intimacy. The change of perspective from: “He or she is not all right in...” to “I see that this is really about me, and what I have to learn is...” is where the patient assumes responsibility and this is often efficient in helping the patient with problems in his/her sex- and love life. Intimacy is the most difficult art, where sexuality cannot exist without trust, vulnerability, and surrender. This is often only possible after the patient has found his or her true self, including the purpose of life. The physician who will give “holding” (care) and processing to the patient with the intention of healing the “wounded child inside” who cannot love and open up, can often help the patient to improve self-insight and change the whole quality and atmosphere of the relationship. The healing will end a series of symptoms of poor thriving, physically, emotionally, and mentally, and make life worth living. Sometimes a few successful holistic sessions are enough to change the whole picture and solve an emotional “knot” that has the potential to destroy the relationship.

Clinical holistic medicine: treatment of physical health problems without a known cause, exemplified by hypertension and tinnitus.

In the medical clinic, we often face health problems that have no known cause, even after a thorough examination. Biomedicine is often unable to find a cure in these situations, leaving the problem unsolved or leaving the patient on a palliative pharmaceutical cure, which is often for a lifetime. In this case, consciousness-based, holistic medicine could be an alternative. Using the theories and tools of holistic medicine wisely, the physician can often provide treatment for the patient. The toolbox of holistic medicine makes it possible to work on everybody because there is always something related to the patients quality of life that can be improved: his love, his purpose of life, and the way he uses his talents, his mind, his feelings, his body, and his sexuality. For treatment in holistic medicine, it really does not matter as much that you cannot give the patient a precise medical diagnosis, because you can always work on the patient with the intention of healing his or her whole life and existence. It is quite a paradox that many of these diseases can be understood on the level of the individual patient at the same moment that the patient is cured; many of these diseases seem to be clearly related to the repression of the individual character, as stressed already by Hippocrates. So if you simply start working with the patient to help him confront old existential pain and coach him in his personal development of his life by intensifying its meaning and purpose, the symptoms very often simply disappear. The toolbox of holistic medicine also seems relevant to even difficult, neurotic, psychosomatic, and hypochondriac patients. Believing in the treatment and not giving up on your patient, and moving forward in the treatment with the patient himself is the ultimate goal, even when you yourself do not understand the mechanism fully. This will force you to develop your own competence and is, in essence, what makes an outstanding holistic physician.

Clinical holistic medicine: the "new medicine", the multiparadigmatic physician, and the medical record.

The modern physician is often multiparadigmatic as he serves many different types of people in many different existential circumstances. The physician basically often has three, very different sets of technologies or “toolboxes” at his disposal, derived from three different medical paradigms: classical, manual medicine; biomedicine; and holistic or consciousness-oriented medicine. For lack of a better term, we have called the extended medical science — integrating these three different paradigms and their three strands of tools and methods — the “new medicine”. The excellent physician, mastering the “new medicine”, uses the most efficient way to help every patient, giving him or her exactly what is needed under the circumstances. The excellent physician will choose the right paradigm(s) for the person, the illness, or the situation, and will use the case record to keep track of all the subjective and objective factors and events involved in the process of healing through time. The case or medical record has the following purposes: A. Reflection: To keep track of facts, to provide an overview, to encourage causal analysis, to support research and learning, and to reveal mistakes easily. B. Communication: To communicate with the patient with a printout of the case record to create trust and help the patient to remember all assignments and exercises. C. Evidence and safety: To provide evidence and safety for the patient or to be used in case of legal questions. D. Self-discipline: To encourage discipline, as a good case record is basically honest, sober, brief, and sticks to the point. It forces the physician to make an effort to be more diligent and careful than a busy day usually allows.The intention of the case or medical record is ethical: to be sure that you, as a physician, give the best possible treatment to your patient. It helps you to reflect deeply, communicate efficiently, provide evidence and safety, and back your self-discipline, never to be carried away by the high speed of modern-day clinical work to give less than the optimal treatment. The patient's life, now and in the future, is in the palm of your hand, and to assume this huge responsibility, the physician must be anxious and careful about the quality of the medical record. Much too often, the essence of the session is nowhere to be found in the case record, so most of the generated value is lost between consultations.

Clinical holistic medicine: a pilot study on HIV and quality of life and a suggested cure for HIV and AIDS.

This study was undertaken to examine the association between the immunological impact of HIV (measured by CD4 count) and global self-assessed quality of life (QOL) (measured with QOL1) for people suffering from HIV, to see if the connection was large and statistically strong enough to support our hypothesis of a strong QOL-immunological connection through the nonspecific, nonreceptor-mediated immune system, and thus to give a rationale for a holistic cure for HIV. This cross-sectional population study in Uganda included 20 HIV infected persons with no symptoms of AIDS and a CD4 count above 200 mill./liter. The main outcome measures were CD4 count, global QOL measured with the validated questionnaire QOL1, translated to Luganda and translated back to English. We found a large, clinically significant correlation between the number of T-helper cells (CD4) and global self-assessed quality of life (QOL1) (r = 0.57, p = 0.021), when controlled for age, gender, and years of infection. Together with other studies and holistic medicine theory, the results have given rationale for a holistic cure for HIV. We suggest, based on our findings and theoretical considerations, that HIV patients who improve their global QOL, also will improve their CD4 counts. Using the technique of holistic medicine based on the life mission theory and the holistic process theory of healing, we hypothesize that the improvement of QOL can have sufficient biological effect on the CD4, which could avoid or postpone the development of AIDS. A holistic HIV/AIDS cure improving the QOL draws on hidden resources in the person and is thus affordable for everybody. Improving global QOL also means a higher consciousness and a more ethical attitude, making it more difficult for the HIV-infected person to pass on the infection.

Clinical holistic medicine: when biomedicine is inadequate.

The modern physician is using pharmaceuticals as his prime tool. Unfortunately, this tool is much less efficient than you might expect from the biochemical theory. The belief in drugs as the solution to the health problems of mankind, overlooking important existing knowledge on quality of life, personal development, and holistic healing seems to be one good reason why approximately every second citizen of our modern society is chronically ill. The biomedical paradigm and the drugs are certainly useful, because in many situations we could not do without the drugs (like antibiotics), but curing infections or diseases in young age is not without consequences, as the way we perceive health and medicine is influenced by such experiences. When we get a more severe disease in midlife, we also believe drugs will make us healthy again. But at this age, the drugs do not work efficiently anymore, because we have turned older and lost much of the biological coherence that made us heal easily when we were younger. Now we need to assume responsibility, take learning, and improve our quality of life. We need a more holistic medicine that can help us back to life by allowing us to access our hidden resources. The modern physician cannot rely solely on drugs, but must also have holistic tools in his medical toolbox. This is the only way we can improve the general health of our populations. Whenever NNT (Number Needed to Treat) is 2 or higher, the likelihood of the drug to cure the patient is less than 50%, which is not satisfying to any physician. In this case, he must ethically try something more in order to cure his patients, which is the crossroads where both traditional manual medicine and the tools of a scientific holistic medicine are helpful.

Clinical holistic medicine: holistic treatment of children.

We believe a holistic approach to problems in childhood and adolescence will benefit the child, adolescent, and the whole family. As a rule, children have far less to say in the family than their parents. Therefore, it is the parents who set the agenda and decide how things are done at home and in relation to the child. Most often, it is also the parents who have a problem when the child is not thriving. The child thus acts as the thermometer of the family. When children are not feeling well or are sick, the parents are not doing well either. Most problems arising from dysfunctional patterns are almost impossible for the parents to solve on their own, but with help and support from the holistically oriented physician, we believe that many problems can be discovered and solved. Not only can health problems be addressed, but also problems of poor thriving in the family in general. With the physician in the role of a coach, the family can be provided with relevant exercises that will change the patterns of dysfunction. Consciousness-based medicine also seems to be efficient with children and adolescents, who are much more sensitive to the psychosocial dimensions than adults. Five needs seem to be essential for the thriving and health of the child: attention, respect, love, acceptance (touch), and acknowledgment. The physician should be able to see if the child lacks fulfillment in one or more of these needs, and he can then demonstrate to the parents how these needs should be handled. This should be followed by simple instructions and exercises for the parents in the spirit of coaching. This approach is especially relevant when the child is chronically ill.

Clinical holistic medicine: induction of spontaneous remission of cancer by recovery of the human character and the purpose of life (the life mission).

The recovery of the human character and purpose of life with consciousness-based medicine seems to be able to induce spontaneous remissions in several diseases. On two different occasions, we observed breast tumors reduced to less than half their original diameters (clinically judged) during a holistic session, when working with the patients in accordance with the holistic process theory of healing, the life mission theory, and the theory of human character. One tumor was histologically diagnosed as malign breast cancer prior to the session, while the other was under examination. As both patients had the affected regions of the breast surgically removed immediately after the session, we are unable to determine if they were actually healed by the holistic treatment. We find it extremely interesting that the size of a tumor can be reduced dramatically within a few hours of holistic treatment, when the patient is highly motivated for personal development. The reduction of tumor size is in accordance with the holistic view that many types of cancer are caused by emotional and existential disturbances. From a holistic perspective, cancer can be understood as a simple disturbance of the cells, arising from the tissue holding on to a trauma with strong emotional content. This is called “a blockage”, where the function of the cells is changed from their original function in the tissue to a function of holding emotions. The reduction of the tumor in the two cases happened when old painful emotions were identified in the tissues, in and around the tumor, and processed into understanding; when the patients finally did let go of negative beliefs and attitudes that had kept the feeling(s) repressed to that part of the body, the tumor first softened and then disappeared, presumably by apoptosis. We believe that the consciousness-based/holistic medical toolbox has a serious additional offer to cancer patients, and we will therefore strongly encourage the scientific society to explore these new possibilities. Our holistic medical research meets both ethical dilemmas and practical difficulties, as it obviously is important for the research in induced spontaneous remissions that surgery and chemotherapy is not used before it is absolutely necessary. On the other hand, is it important for the patient's survival that they receive any well-documented treatment as soon as possible. An additional aspect for the patient who is able to cure her own cancer is that she is much less likely to get cancer again and much better prepared to deal with other diseases and challenges in life. Knowing that one can fight even cancer gives a strong belief in life and the need to improve quality of life. The high incidence of secondary cancers and the physical and emotional wounds from the biomedical treatment seem to justify a focus on prevention and additional holistic treatment modules. To support the patient in learning the mastery of coherence of body and life, using the crisis of cancer to recover the human character and the purpose of life, seems turning a personal potential disaster into the greatest gift of all. When it comes down to it, life is not just about surviving; what is more important is to live fully, to learn from the great challenges of life, and to obtain the optimal quality of life while being here.

Clinical holistic medicine: social problems disguised as illness.

Many of the diseases seen in the clinic are actually symptoms of social problems. It is often easier for the physician to treat the symptoms than to be a coach and help the patient to assume responsibility in order to improve quality of life, social situation, and relations. If the physician ignores the signs of the disease as a symptom of social problems, and treats the patient with pharmaceuticals, he can give the patient the best justification in the world not to do anything about the situation. It is very important that the physician is not tricked by the games the socially troubled patient, more or less unconsciously, is playing. A firm and wise attitude that confronts the patient with his or her lack of responsibility for solving social problems seems to be a constructive way out. The physician can give holding and support, but the responsibility must remain with the patient. Often it is better for the patient that the physician abstains from giving drugs that can remedy the symptoms and takes the role of a coach instead. Suffering is not necessarily bad, suffering is actually highly motivating and often the most efficient source of learning. Coaching can help the patient canalize his motivation into highly constructive considerations and behavior. A holistic approach thus gives the patient learning and helps him rehabilitate his social reality. Concerning children with recurrent or chronic pain, we have observed an overuse of painkillers, where we believe part is of a psychosomatic nature due to poor thriving in the family. Here the physician has an important job helping the parents to develop as persons, teaching them the basic holding of awareness, respect, care, acknowledgment and acceptance of their child. Most of the chronic pain and discomfort with children can be improved if the physician understands how to use the holistic medical toolbox.

Clinical holistic medicine: use and limitations of the biomedical paradigm.

The biomedical paradigm is so convincing from a biochemical point of view, and highly efficient in many cases of acute medical problems and emergencies, but unfortunately most patients do not get much better only treated with drugs; they need to do something about their lives themselves. It is highly important for the modern physician to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the modern biomedical paradigm, to understand when and when not to administer drugs to their patients. Often a symptom can be eliminated for a while with drugs, but this is not always good as the patient might need to learn to study the imbalances in life that cause the disturbances and symptoms. For the elderly patient, sometimes life can be extended in spite of the subjective fact that life has come to its end. Sometimes treatment with a drug can teach the patient that quality of life is the responsibility of the physician and not the patient. This learned attitude can give the patient problems later or make them less active in helping themselves (responsibility transfer in the wrong direction).This paper gives a number of examples where medical drugs really are the treatment of choice in general practice and some more doubtful examples of using of the biomedical paradigm.