Hippocrates defended 25 centuries ago: “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.” Even today there is this belief that many diseases can it heals itself with certain healthy habits. Surprisingly, according to a survey by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 40% of Americans believe that cancer can only be cured with alternative medicines, ie without chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy or surgery.
Alternative medicine and lifestyle: it is not the same
There is a trend in our modern society to use alternative treatments to traditional medicine based on “natural”. But there is a bit of confusion between what it is Alternative medicine and what is lifestyle medicine or “Lifestyle medicine”. Alternative medicine consists of recommending therapeutic methods or techniques that do not fall within conventional treatments which we do in traditional medicine and that, unlike it, has the advantage of not having apparent side effects. Here we could include acupuncture, detoxification cures through specific fasts or diets, certain herbs, homeopathic remedies, vitamin supplements, etc.
What is “lifestyle medicine”?
This type of lifestyle medicine, which is very fashionable all over the world, is based on take care of our habits: diet, exercise, sleep, how we relate, how we take care of our minds, exposure to certain toxic, etc. Many chronic pathologies (diabetes, obesity, coronary heart disease, hypertension, depressive or anxious images, etc.) can be prevented and even cured only by taking care of our habits. This means not only an improvement in the quality of our lives, but also a huge drop in health spending. And more and more clinical trials are showing the effectiveness of acquiring these habits.
You have to trust science
The pandemic has clearly demonstrated this. In less than a year it was possible to create a safe and effective vaccine against this pandemic using the scientific method of clinical trials. It must now be manufactured, distributed and administer it to the world’s population, but this is another problem that no longer depends on scientists. Israel, which has already vaccinated almost half of the population, dropped to 0.015% of infections after the second dose of vaccine.
The problem with alternative medicine is the lack of scientific evidence
Personally, I am against drugs that do not meet scientific criteria based on proper diagnosis and treatment, which has been shown to be effective through clinical trials. This is the problem with alternative medicine: lack of scientific evidence. In medicine, “things went well for me” is not worth it. Patients should understand that if any of these alternative methods worked well, traditional medicine would demonstrate this and quickly incorporate it into their therapeutic arsenal.
I remember a patient who came to a mouth ulcer consultation and had months of herbal treatment, attention and special diets. I did a biopsy and it was a Cancer oral. If I had one earlier diagnosis, this patient would have been saved.
How do you know if what I promise is false?
Therefore, lifestyle medicine can be a great complement for traditional medicine. But Take care! In these complementary and alternative drugs to the traditional one exists very opportunistic. Therefore, the American Cancer Society recommends that patients consider the following warning signs to detect these scams:
- Suspicion of advertising complaints against serious diseases difficult to treat with traditional medicine (vitiligo, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc.).
- Suspicion of treatments that have only benefits and they have no side effects. Even herbs and vitamins can have side effects. I will talk about this in a next post.
- The suspicion of those who promote attacks versus established treatments of traditional medicine (examples in dermatology would be Roacuan for acne or cortisone for dermatitis).
- Suspicion of treatments that can be performed only in one clinicespecially if you are in countries with more relaxed legislation. If the treatment really works, there will be several clinics that can offer it.
- Suspicion of personal stories. What happened to a person can be due to many causes, including a spontaneous improvement of the disease itself. Trust the medicine based on clinical trials performed on many patients.
- Check if these treatments have been published in scientific journals prestigious after being reviewed by other experts in the field. In many cases, what appears on social media, books and media is just that marketing strategies.
An extraordinary complement
This medicine based on habits or “lifestyle medicine” should not replace the traditional one, but can be a great complement. Take care of your diet, exercise, sleep well, manage stress, take care of your mind and learning to relate to others are habits that will make us live longer and better.
Traditional doctors should be trained on how pass on these healthy habits to our patients, but it is true that we often do not have the training or time to do it. On the other hand, doctors should be informed by our patients about any complementary treatment they perform, as sometimes there may be contraindications. I remember a patient who he bled a lot during surgery skin cancer and turned out to take a lot of antioxidants to prevent aging, which can alter a person’s ability to coagulate.
Skin and mind, incredibly related
This lifestyle medicine attaches great importance to the relationship between body and mind. As I wrote in a previous post, there is a fascinating relationship between skin and mind. Many skin diseases (eczema, alopecia, psoriasis, etc.) worsens with certain moods. On the contrary, many skin conditions (vitiligo, angiomas, acne) can cause anxiety, depression and lack of self-esteem. In fact, skin cells and neurons are derived from the same embryonic cells.
Example of the Mayo Clinic
I remember the lobby of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. When someone enters the lobby of the main building (the Golda Building), in a studied attempt to create a good first impressionOne is in a double-height, open, bright space with a grand piano. I was amazed that the patients were constantly approaching and they played the piano spontaneously and occasionally some spontaneous sing. I once witnessed an opera singer, suffering from cancer at the clinic, who began to play in the hallway, while a nurse spontaneously began to accompany him on the piano. People, including me, watched the scene with wet eyes. At the Mayo Clinic, they defend that art promotes healing (They call it Art & Healing). It is another way to take care of the mind, especially in such stressful situations as experiencing an illness.
In short, lifestyle medicine (“Lifestyle medicine”) it is not an alternative the Traditional medicine, but a fill to the health needs required by new Times. Assessing what we eat, how we approach physical activity, mind-body connections, how we relate, how we deal with stress, what toxins we are exposed to, and how we feed our spirits can help us to we improve our quality of life, prevent disease and it ages better.
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Sometimes doctors do not have the proper training or resources to cope with these changes in patients’ lifestyles. Trying to introduce these healthy habits should be a priority in any health system, and is the basis of true preventive medicine. Covid-19 cruelly showed us the importance of having good personal health to cope certain infections. In addition, promoting these healthy habits would save huge costs for the system, as this type of drug is not only effective, but also it’s not expensive. Perhaps the revolution in medicine is a return to its roots. Really personalized medicine of the future should be based on sitting next to the patient, listening to him, educating him and motivating him to eat well, to perform regular physical activity, to sleep well, not to be exposed to certain toxins and to maintain an adequate social relationship. We live in times when it is a priority to maintain a balance between our mind and our body to resist emotional wounds of this pandemic.