Yin versus yang. East versus West. Technology versus theology. Two Fox topics I covered within a single week were at seemingly opposite ends of the health care spectrum. Both were moving. Both made a meaningful difference in peoples lives. Which was better? I was confused…until I started writing the last paragraph of this blog.
Bill Carlson is a 60-year-old man who I met online about a year ago during the weekly Fox chat with viewers. “Shellback,” his screen name, signed in every few weeks with progress updates on his recovery from a heart transplant, and then he always commented on the wonderful care he received at the University of Minnesota. Since April is National Donate Life Month, I invited him to be a guest on Tuesday, April 20. His story was a medical miracle.
Bill’s congestive heart failure symptoms were easily managed on medication for the first several years that he was diagnosed. Then, in early 2008, his cardiac function quickly deteriorated and by September 2008, he was dying. His ejection fraction was 10 percent. He had multi-organ failure, gastrointestinal bleeding and was comatose. His family had decided to withdraw life support, but just in time, Bill stabilized and the University surgeons decided to insert an LVAD-- an implanted mechanical pump that helps the ventricle pump blood throughout the body. If it worked, there was a chance he’d survive the wait for a donor heart.
Bill had a cardiac arrest during the LVAD placement. Unable to regain a heart rhythm, the surgeon found the family in the waiting room and told them the bad news: “I am so sorry. We lost Bill on the table.” He sat with the Bill’s wife and daughters for a bit then went back into the operating room to finish up. But, he came back twenty minutes later and said, “Don’t go too far. He’s alive again.”
For the next nine months, Bill changed his LVAD batteries every four hours, and on June 7, 2009, his cell phone rang. A young man in Pittsburgh had just died. Then next day, Shellback got a new heart.
If Bill had end stage heart failure just five years earlier, he’d wouldn’t be alive. Technology had defied death. This was the yin. Health….from the outside in.
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The next Fox segment was on Friday, April 27. I interviewed His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a world-renowned Indian spiritual leader. Through his Art of Living Foundation, he promotes “peace and stress-free living” by teaching millions of people around the world a technique called Sudarshan Kriya. a set of rhythmic breathing processes.
To finish reading this article, go to http://archelleonhealth.blogspot.com/2010/05/when-opposites-attract-we-get-better.html
While I am skeptical of Sri Sri’s organization, my preparation for the interview led me to the research behind the health benefits of breathing meditation. Published studies in reputable journals have demonstrated that rhythmic breathing can reduce stress and improve immune function. How does it work? Think about the difference in your breathing pattern when you are scared versus when you are feeling calm. Fast and shallow versus deep and slow. Your emotional state affects your respiratory rate, Conversely, your respiratory rate affects your emotional state by stimulating the nervous system and parts of the brain that control joy, anxiety, calmness, worry, and pleasure. Therefore, voluntarily manipulation of breathing patterns is a “treatment” to address stress, which then affects immune function and the body’s ability to prevent and fight disease.
This was the yang…the body’s innate ability to create health…from the inside out.
In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang are complementary opposites. They co-exist and interact to form a greater whole. Similarly, Westernized health care (yin) and mind-body therapies (yang) can and should be used together, as appropriate, to meet the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of an individual. This expanded approach to health and health care was a key theme at the Institute of Medicine’s Summit on Integrative Medicine in February, 2009:
“Integrative health care is integrated across approaches to care—e.g., conventional, traditional, alternative, complementary—as the evidence supports. In addition to the best application of conventional allopathic approaches, it may use evidence-based interventions or practices derived from ancient folk practices, cultural-specific sources, contemporary product development, or crafted from a blend of these."
Unfortunately, while clinicians are passionately committed to treating the pathophysiology of an illness, the vast majority are unable, unwilling or uncomfortable addressing the needs of the whole person unless symptoms can be addressed with drugs, radiation or surgery. This mindset is consistent with the NIH definition of Western Medicine and the medical training curriculum that influences how practitioners define their role and responsibilities. Physicians, in particular, are not trained to be responsible for healing; they only feel responsible for treating.
The narrow focus and limitations of Western Medicine also explains why a 2008 report published by the National Center for Health Statistics showed that nearly 40 percent of American adults use therapies such as yoga, massage, meditation, natural products and supplements. Americans are spending $34 billion in out-of-pocket expenditures for alternatives that help them feel in control, empowered and able to cope. The message is loud and clear: If the medical system doesn’t offer a balanced, harmonious approach, people will find it and finance it on their own…because it is essential to healing.
As I was writing this blog and listened more carefully to the elements of Bob Carlson’s story, I realized that both yin and yang were present and equally important elements of his journey. He is one of the lucky few whose doctors recognized the importance of an integrative medicine approach and referred Bob to Second Chance for Life, a support group for heart transplant recipients and people on the waiting list. This is where Bob learned to cope with the fear of organ rejection, the need to respect his donor family’ s decision to remain anonymous, and the personality changes that seem to occur when living with another man’s heart.
For Bob Carlson, the transplant team gave him a new heart, and the support group gave him a new life. Integrative medicine must become mainstream.
Create Health,
Archelle