Video Playback Time: 17 minutes

I urge you to listen to the whole video.

For those who want the juicy snippets, cliff notes, and/or the references, the write-up and notes are below.

Stay tuned for part II!

The Video Recap and Summary: Shifting You Mindset About Medicine and Living Your Best, Vibrant, Healthy Life

Over the past few months, I’ve been taking you on a journey to shift your mindset about medicine.

Many have become too comfortable and settled into a sick care system that suppresses pains and physical symptoms and doesn’t fully promote healing.

My goal has been to move you away from accepting the mediocrity of living within a healthcare model that only offers disease management.

If I’ve made you uncomfortable and wanting more for your body and mind, yay!

It’s only with discomfort that most people take the action to evoke change.

I believe it’s well beyond time that doctors and patients merge and commit to more! We can come together to create a wellness world with a way of living in which people can thrive, not just survive longer!

In this video, I review the twists and turns of traveling from being a passive patient to a health-empowered, whole-body healing partner.

We are at a turning point in medicine. Many are living in fear and forgetting the power they have within their own minds, and the innate healing capacity of their body.

Let’s make the commitment to become more confident that true transformation and well-being is possible.

Below are the topics covered in my video and some main points:

(1) The problems with sick care and how naturopathic medicine can support one in an integrative, personalized way:

• The United States Healthcare System is the most expensive compared to much of the developed world. Furthermore, it has the least impressive results. Our nation has the lowest life expectancy and the highest rates of chronic diseases. This means we are paying a lot and receiving very little.
• How it is insane to rely on symptom suppression without addressing the cause of the illness and the problems with using acute care for chronic diseases.
• Why we should address the root issue to avoid several different medications addressing all the seemingly “disconnected” symptoms. I give an example of how supporting the liver could be the solution to rebalancing hormones and cholesterol, support for biotransformation and detoxification, and easing inflammation.
• As a naturopathic doctor I form therapeutic relationships with my clients and work with them to help them reach their health goals. I use individualized, whole-person wellness plans based on their genetics, socioeconomics, culture, spiritual, and lifestyle priorities. This differs from the sick care model which approaches health by trying to reverse or prevent further pathology.

(2) The importance of holistic mental health:

• Recently, Mental Health America (MHA) assessed fifteen psychiatric health measurements from national surveys, compiled the results, and compared their incidence across the states. It was found that even prior to the traumas and uncertainties of the events of 2020-2021, 19% of Americans experienced mental illness. This is equivalent to over 47 million people! The state prevalence ranged from 16.14% in New Jersey to 25.25% in Utah. Further troubling, MHA reported that depression and anxiety are increasing at an extraordinary rate.
• I view mental health as brain health with various biological causes. I explain how the brains of those with anxiety or a psychiatric diagnosis are different from those who do not have a psychological imbalance.

(3) Addressing the root cause of illness and considering the whole person, not just lab values!

• I highlight the inefficiency of using labs to measure “health.” For example, an estimated 60-70% of decisions for patient care are based on lab results, yet these results are highly variable based on the lab, the instruments used, and a person’s age and gender. Furthermore, all labs use different reference ranges, complicating interpretations and the consensus of “normal.” Another issue is that these ranges are based on different populations of individuals who are not displaying symptoms of a specific disease that the lab is set to determine. This doesn’t necessarily make these ranges optimal measures of health.
• Results based on randomized, controlled trials often do not translate into real world settings. Many trials don’t even look at drug interactions at all, even though most people are on more than one medication!
• Naturopathic doctors are trained to look at the impact of different treatment modalities and the context within which they are used. This differs from providers who are not aware of the potential prescribing dangers of drug-herbal and drug-nutrient interactions.
• The reasons people are confused about supplements and why some studies have negative results include:
  1. not testing for the need for an intervention or nutrient (such as using baseline measures to determine a deficiency exists before applying the treatment)
  2. leaving out co-factors that are needed for a particular nutrient to be utilized in the body
  3. not considering quality of the product
  4. using incorrect forms of the natural substance or poor absorptive forms
  5. and/or not assessing for nutrient-nutrient, nutrient-drug, or herbal-drug interactions

(4) How the six principles of naturopathic medicine are leading to a movement in medicine which include:

• The Healing Power of Nature (Vis Medicatrix Naturae): Naturopathic medicine recognizes an inherent self-healing process in people that is ordered and intelligent. Naturopathic physicians act to identify and remove obstacles to healing and recovery, and to facilitate and augment this inherent self-healing process. (In other words, naturopathic doctors do not view human beings as ticking time bombs destined for deterioration and decline!)
• Identify and Treat the Causes (Tolle Causam): The naturopathic physician seeks to identify and remove the underlying causes of illness rather than to merely eliminate or suppress symptoms.
• First Do No Harm (Primum Non Nocere): Naturopathic physicians follow three guidelines to avoid harming the patient: Utilize methods and medicinal substances which minimize the risk of harmful side effects, using the least force necessary to diagnose and treat; avoid when possible the harmful suppression of symptoms; and acknowledge, respect, and work with individuals’ self-healing process.
• Doctor as Teacher (Docere): Naturopathic physicians educate their patients and encourage self-responsibility for health. They also recognize and employ the therapeutic potential of the doctor-patient relationship.
• Treat the Whole Person: Naturopathic physicians treat each patient by taking into account individual physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, and other factors. Since total health also includes spiritual health, naturopathic physicians encourage individuals to pursue their personal spiritual development.
• Prevention: Naturopathic physicians emphasize the prevention of disease by assessing risk factors, heredity and susceptibility to disease, and by making appropriate interventions in partnership with their patients to prevent illness. (source)

(5) The concepts of treating the whole person, prevention, and doctor as teacher as transformational to health:

• Integrative health providers do not portray that one is a victim of circumstances, destined to their genetic history. Rather, they believe that actions taken with lifestyle, mindset, and nurturing connections with others and their surroundings can impact wellness outcomes and change one’s epigenetic impact.
• The tools that we use, including essential oils, are in alignment with our form of medicine that honors our clients’ or patients’ own unique biochemistry and healing process. Furthermore, this is often done with incorporating the best of conventional medicine.

(6) Using naturopathic medicine on a global scale:

• Naturopathic doctors embrace the fact that individual one-on-one care can only take us so far. It is only with embracing social connections that society can truly thrive.
• We must address biases in medicine to eliminate the injustices in availability of health services.
• There is a need for medical education, access, and treatment to reflect all cultures and ethnic groups.
• We must learn to embrace environmental health. The health of our planet impacts our health and what we do impacts our planet. There is power in connecting humans to their roots again.
• The importance of public health and community care for accessibility to holistic health.

In the next video I will continue on with synthesizing the information you need to become more empowered and take control of your healthcare.

If you need something to buoy your new beliefs on, in part two I will go over the power of mindset and I will leave you with some amazing stories and studies on what is termed “spontaneous remission.”

Please comment below.