I believe in the power of the human brain - and not in a mystical, woo woo way. Through my work as a molecular biologist, I understand how the thoughts we think trigger various neuroendocrine responses in our bodies. For instance, our stress response is the exact same for when we are actually fighting a bear versus just thinking about fighting a bear. Same neuroendocrine cascade, just different strengths.
When we talk about woo woo concepts like spontaneous healing and thinking yourself well and all that, it’s a genuine physiological effect. It’s the exact same reason why the placebo effect occurs. The body operates in a balance between your sympathetic response and your parasympathetic response. Tissue healing and repair ONLY happens in your parasympathetic response. So if you can turn off your sympathetic (otherwise known as your fight or flight response, stress response, etc.) then healing CAN actually ‘spontaneously’ happen. It’s literally what our bodies do all the time. But if you spend a larger proportion of your time in your stress response, guess what? No tissue healing or repairs occur. So your tissue is weaker and more likely to become damaged. And that damage doesn’t heal. Which leads to chronic inflammation, which leads to disease states that are fed by that chronic inflammation like heart disease, diabetes, neurological disorders, metabolic dysfuctions, etc etc.
So the ‘woo woo’ - otherwise known as alternative or complementary therapies by the medical professionals - is actually extremely important for healing and wellness. Because the woo woo side of things knows how to harness the power of the parasympathetic response and can help you train your neuroendocrine system to have a better balance between the two states to function more optimally. All of those positive affirmations and massage therapy sessions and mindfulness and meditation training are all so incredibly beneficial for healing and wellness because they allow people to get out of their stress response and allow healing to occur. So I don’t care if it’s crystals or shamans or gong baths - whatever is necessary for that patient to be able to click in to their parasympathetic state, that’s what is important for THEM to do. We as practitioners don’t have to believe in the same stuff our patients do, but THEY do. All we have to do is be respectful of their beliefs. Because studies show us that a belief in spirituality is actually beneficial for their health, no matter what kind of spiritual practice they follow. So who are we to tell them that auricular therapy doesn’t have proven double blind placebo controlled studies and therefore it’s a garbage treatment? Does that patient believe it will work for them? Then I’m all for trying it out and seeing if it helps. If it’s enough to get them into their parasympathetic state more often so their medical treatments and my osteopathic treatments work better, then whatever man. In my view, it’s done its job because that parasympathetic state is the difference between them actually healing or them staying in their chronic pain.
I believe in meeting my patients where they are and being able to talk with them using the language they understand - if it’s medical, awesome; if it’s not, then I use their reference system and add in some scientific explanations in their reference language. So if that’s a buddhist belief structure, a mental/emotional framework, an energy therapy one, angels, whatever, I meet them where they are and I build up from there. Whatever gets the job done. If they want a natural anti-inflammatory because they’re worried about side effects from NSAIDs, then I recommend they see a naturopathic doctor but also have a discussion about what’s in the medical literature about proven natural remedies - like following an anti-inflammatory diet, omega 3’s, tumeric, etc. Because a patient already worried about side effects is likely to have a stronger nocebo reaction, which means any actual side effects are likely going to be perceived as worse and hello stress response and reduction in healing. That’s the opposite of helpful.
This is where integrative medicine shines. By utilizing a biopsychosocial model, which is already being shown to be the new gold standard of care for people with chronic pain, we can help people not only achieve health but also achieve wellness. And in the end, isn’t that the point? Think of it like a jail system recidivism rate. If you get a person back to ‘health’, but they’re only just maintaining their dysfunction, that patient is going to be in and out of the medical system a lot more frequently than a person you get all the way back to a wellness state. The wellness state person has a much larger compensation ability for life events than a person just hovering at the dysfunction state, which means less frequent injuries and illness and less time spent in the medical system, leaving the medical system freer to do what it does best - save people’s lives.
That’s why the woo woo is important. And it’s why we need to spend more research dollars towards figuring out which alternative and complementary therapies actually work the best to achieve optimal wellness rather than just saying all of it is hogwash. Sure, compared to life saving surgery, you’re right, maybe massage therapy is just not going to cut it. But it’s apples and oranges. Why not combine the surgery with physiotherapy, and then the massage therapy as well as the proper nutritional guidance, and maybe a prayer circle, and all of the other different modalities that that patient believes in that makes them feel supported and cared for by a social community of caregivers. And for someone hovering at the edge of dysfunction, it could prevent them from needing that medical intervention and return them to a state of optimal wellness to begin with. Which is what preventative medicine is all about - how to prevent medical intervention. Which means a focus on how best to achieve a parasympathetic state more often. And no one does that better than all that woo woo stuff.