Advocates of a multidisciplinary approach to illness argue that alternative and conventional methods can work in harmony. Sylvia Thompson reports.
More and more people are choosing to go down the holistic healthcare route as a first choice in the treatment of illnesses including asthma, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis and cancer, according to Dr Stephen Gascoigne, a medically-trained doctor who practises acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in Clonakilty, Co Cork.
Dr Gascoigne was speaking at a seminar on the multidisciplinary approach to chronic disease, attended by more than 50 holistic healthcare practitioners in Dublin earlier this month.
"People are much more aware of the problems that drugs and surgery can cause. That is not to say that surgery and drugs aren't sometimes necessary but my contention is that they are less necessary than we are generally led to believe," said Dr Gascoigne.
"I recently treated a patient who had ulcerative colitis with herbs, acupuncture and changes to the diet.
"The consultant had said, it's nothing to do with your diet, you can eat what you like. But even people who are not medically trained know now that is not true. Also, most Western medicines aren't very effective but they are still prescribed. It's a philosophical viewpoint to rely on drugs."
Dr Gascoigne stressed that holistic healthcare practitioners need to build up a network of professional contacts similar to that which exists in the primary healthcare team.
"The public should phone practitioners to find out their training and experience with certain illnesses before going to see them and use a bit of discrimination like they do when choosing doctors and dentists.
"Also practitioners need to look after themselves holistically as burn out is endemic [among such practitioners]. We need to be as well as we can, follow our own treatments, have good nutrition, do yoga or t'ai chi rather than just telling others to do so."
Gaby Wieland, naturopath, herbalist, lecturer in nutrition and former nurse took up the theme of the importance of holistic practitioners "having a knowledge about food and the skills to use it".
"It's important that we bake and make our own food so that we can experience this move from the fast pace of life for ourselves and our patients. All our therapies should be grounded and connected to the spiritual side of life so sometimes we can even show our patients how to bake, encourage them to grow their own vegetables and visit places where things are growing such as the Organic Centre in Rossinver, Co Leitrim," she said.
Another speaker firmly committed to the importance of getting patients involved in growing organic vegetables is Dr Hussain Bhatti, a medical doctor turned naturopath.
His residential and day care centre, The Village in Craughwell, Co Galway, which opens soon, will include polytunnels and outdoor gardens, some of which will be wheelchair accessible.
The centre will also have also alternative practitioners working alongside conventionally-trained doctors. "My dream is for the two disciplines to work together rather than being pulled in opposite directions," Dr Bhatti said.
The health risks associated with dental amalgams which contain mercury received a lot of attention at the seminar with talks by two dentists who work without mercury, Dr William McCollam and Dr Russell McLean and Simon Rees, a holistic practitioner who has extensively researched heavy metal toxicity.
"In Scandinavia, the use of mercury in industry, manufacturing and dentistry is banned and in the US, the use of mercury in dental amalgams and vaccines is being called into question," said Dr William McCollam.
Filling containing mercury, commonly called silver filling, contains between 43 and 54 per cent mercury.
"Mercury is four times more toxic than arsenic and the only metal more toxic than mercury is plutonium.
Mercury is not a stable compound and half of the substance dental amalgams containing mercury leak out into the body tissue over 10 years," said Dr McLean.
However, getting a diagnosis of mercury toxicity is very difficult as the 150 symptoms associated with it can also be caused by other conditions.
There are also variations in different people's sensitivity to mercury. Several countries - including Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden have nonetheless decided to discontinue the use of mercury in dental amalgams.
"The time will come when mercury will be recognised as a silly thing to use in dental amalgams," said Rees, who suggested the careful removal of amalgams with mercury needed to be backed up by a supplement and detoxification programme to cleanse the body's organs of the mercury which has already leaked into them.
Colonic hydrotherapy is another form of body cleansing which also received attention at the seminar. "Seventy to 80 per cent of your immune system is derived from the colon so if you have a toxic colon, you'll have poor immunity," said Stephen Langley, naturopath, homeopath, acupuncturist and medical herbalist.
Colonic hydrotherapy is deemed to be a useful treatment for conditions including chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome.
The seminar on the multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of chronic disease was hosted by the Association of Naturopathic Practitioners in Ireland.
Naturopaths are sometimes called the GPs of holistic healthcare, using nutritional supplements, herbal medicines and/or homeopathy combined with a physical treatment such as acupuncture and massage while also giving the patient informationwith which to address lifestyle issues through exercise and diet.
Naturopaths will refer patients to homeopaths, medical herbalists and other holistic practitioners when further specialised treatment is deemed necessary.
See also www.anpireland.com