INTRODUCTION:  “In the past decade it has become apparent that many people want to take charge of their own health.  In order for you to accomplish this task, it is necessary to understand the body and its process of healing.  It is with this goal in mind that Dr. Rebecca Phillips, a chiropractic-physician, has prepared this tape.” 

Dr. Phillips graduated from Western States of Chiropractor College in 1984 and she practiced for the past seven years in Hoodriver, Oregon.  Dr. Phillips approach is holistic. She specializes in the treatment of the medibolic patient, those with allergies, headaches, neurological disorders, rashes, and nutritional imbalances.  Prior to chiropractor college, Dr. Phillips spent eight years as a researcher for the Comparative Oncology Unit in For Collins, Colorado, where she co-authored two articles on her research.  She was also a research assistant for the Veterinarian Viralogy Department at Kansas State University.

DR. REBECCA PHILLIPS:  “The title of this is ‘HOLISTIC HEALTH, PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE’.  The roots of holistic health go back to 3000 B.C. with oriental medicine.  The Chinese believe that there is an imbalance in life forces.  This imbalance can cause illness and this imbalance can be corrected through manipulation, finger pressure, electrical impulses, heat, massage, vibration, needle, and ultra-sound.  These can be placed in a certain position on the body.  Also specific herbs or food changes can be used to correct these imbalances.  Also, emotional or spiritual changes can correct these imbalances.  Today we have many types of holistic practitioners.  These include chiropractors, naturalpaths, osteopaths, and Chinese doctors. 

There are five basic concepts of the healing process:

1.      If the human body has a life force.

2.      If the human body has innate intelligence to restore and maintain homeostasis or balance.

3.      When there is an interference with homeostasis.  This can result from external forces or internal forces.

4.      Imbalances can end in physical, physiological, neurological, or emotional weaknesses.

5.      There is a pattern how the body heals.

 I would like to discuss each one of these 5 basic processes of healing.

 1.  LIFE FORCE

 The Chinese believe that there is a life force.  This life force is electrical.  It is a part eon or yang, positive or negative.  They also believe that this life force changes with nature.  It changes with seasons, with moon cycles, with barometric pressure, with time of day, and with moving from one time zone to another time zone.

They also believe that this life force is composed of two parts.  It has an original part.  This part is that which you are born with.  It has a nourishment part, that which is produced from the food you eat, or from the oxygen you breathe, or the rest you obtain, or the activity that you do.

They also believe that this life force flows daily through the twelve meridians in a constant pattern in the same direction each day.  They also believe that when this life force is imbalanced, the body tells us.  It sends out heat sensors or hot spots.  The Chinese call these osso points.  Eventually, there are no more hot points when these are corrected.

2. INNATE INTELLIGENCE

This belief encompasses the idea that the body has the ability to heal itself.  The body knows what it needs and doesn’t need.  For example, there are food adversions.  If the body doesn’t like a food, you may experience nausea.  People also experience they have no normal feelings around fluorescent lights.  Fluorescent lights cause an imbalance in the body’s energy.

Dosage is also important.  Any herb or supplement may hurt the stomach if it is at the wrong time of day or the wrong dose.  We also experience headaches.  Headaches are a warning sign of imbalance.  The body also has the ability to heal itself when it is given the right nutrients or the right stimulants.  For example, chiropractors work on structure to restore balance to the nervous system physically.  They also work on function by supplementation or herbs to correct digestion and to restore proper function physiologically.

In the same manner Chinese doctors correct structure through acupuncture and function through herbal supplements.  The basis of western medicine is the treat the symptoms rather than to address the cause.  For example, if a patient has gall bladder problems, they will remove the gall bladder rather than correct the stomach, the pancreas, or the liver function.  The Chinese believe that to suppress pain is to retard the cure.

3. IMBALANCE AND THE CAUSE OF IMBALANCE

There are external causes and there are internal causes.  External causes, for example, the B-climate.  If someone has a weak spleen or pancreas, they will not do well in a moist or cold climate.  They will develop kidney problems.  An oxidize environment would also imbalance the body.  This could be due to sounds or to smells.  Computers also cause imbalance in energy, creating, for example, miscarriages.  Examples of internal causes of imbalance would be food.  Too much acid in the diet can cause acid joints.  Too much sweets in the diet can cause yeast infections. 

Emotions or stress would also be an example of internal causes of imbalance.  For example, when you are under sever stress, you affect the adrenal gland function which releases epinephrine which can then cause an imbalance in any of your internal organs.\

4. PATTERN OR HOW THE BODY HEALS

There is a specific order to detoxification.  For example, meats will detox first, then fruits, then alcohol, then sugar and drugs.  This may take up to six months.  There is also a specific pattern to detoxification symptoms.  For example, the pain pattern, when you start going through a healing process, follows a specific pattern.  It starts in the center of the body and then works up and down.  The head is the last area to go through the elimination of pain.

This pattern of detoxification symptoms depends on the body’s weak links.  For example, if the liver is weak, you will experience skin rashes or headaches.  If the stomach or the intestine is weak diarrhea or frontal headaches can be experienced as you detox.  If the thyroid is weak, you may experience hot or cold flashes.  If the lung or adrenal is weak, you may experience wheezing as you are going through the elimination process.  If the gall bladder is weak, you may experience a change in your bowels.  If the heart is weak, you may experience heart palpitations.

The pattern to detoxification symptoms depends on the amount of water you drink or other foods that you are taking in during the elimination process.  The pattern to detoxification also depends on does and time of day that they herb or supplement is taken or that acupuncture is given.  Improper dose or time of day causes a healing crisis.  For example, you may experience diarrhea, tingling or headaches.

There is also an order to which the organs’ systems can be corrected.  First you need to correct digestion and elimination.  This would include; large intestines, stomach, small intestine, kidney, lung and liver.  The second area that should be corrected after digestion and elimination include hormones and the immune system.  This would include:  thyroid, adrenal, ovaries, spleen, and pancreas.  Lastly, after digestion, elimination, hormones and the immune system are corrected, the heart and the circulation should be corrected.  The condition of the person determines the treatment program, not the age.  A young child may need a higher dose because they are more imbalanced than an older person.

Chronic conditions, or long standing conditions, need a larger dose over a longer period of time for correction.  For acute conditions, you may have to start out with a smaller dose, but they will need a large dose over a shorter period of time.  Acute conditions are more sensitive to treatments, so you have to begin slowly at a low dose and work up to the correct dose. 

The time of day to take the herb is extremely important.  The body lets you know when the appropriate time of day may be.  For example, when you are fatigued, this is an appropriate time to take the supplement.  When you are nervous or irritable, again, an appropriate time. Rashes, kidney problems, digestive problems, headaches, the times of day these symptoms come on will tell you what time of day to take your supplement.

5. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE BODY’S ENERGY

The body, for it to heal properly, has to work on all levels.  There is a physiological, structural, spiritual, emotional level or area that needs to be corrected for the body to heal.  The Chinese believe that the balanced diet is the most important of these areas.  They believe it takes 10-12 days of proper eating to correct a minimal change, up to 7 years to correct a major change in the body’s imbalances.

The chiropractic-physician who deals with structure only may or may not correct the cause.  It may take him 30 treatments.  A holistic practitioner may accomplish the same task in 6-12 treatments because he corrects structure and function at the same time.  They have a synaesthesis effect.  For example, holigy patients, who are wheezing, need an adjustment to the middle of the back.  This may or may not correct the wheezing.  If you add acupuncture to that same area, or add a supplement of herb you take that supplement 9-11PM or 1-3AM, according to the Chinese time clock, you will stop the wheezing.

Today, because of our multiple health challenges, you have to be holistic.  Frequently, I like to close with a quote I found in one of the acupuncture texts.  It says:

“For all practitioners of the healing arts, it takes courage and dedication to withstand entrenched forces of orthodoxy and conventionality.”