Bioenergetic Medicine
Bioenergetic Medicine employs the natural healing power of the body, along with homeopathic therapies, to produce curative affects on the body in a gentle manner, without the ill effects of pharmaceuticals and surgery. While Western Medicinal therapies are targeted toward a particular pathology and work in an attack mode, Bioenergetics seeks to harmonize and balance the separate functions of the body bringing them together as an integral whole.
As with all Traditional Chinese Medicine therapies, the person as a whole, comprised of body, mind and spirit, is examined when diagnosing and treating patients utilizing a bioenergetics approach to healing. The physical symptoms displayed by a patient are only a part of the whole picture. An entire history of the patient is taken at the time of examination. Even factors that seem unrelated are taken into account. A patient's well-being and quality of life is a cumulative effect of experiences throughout a lifetime, from a childhood fall to the emotional response to a divorce. Like TCM, Bioenergetic Medicine is founded on the premise that energy or Qi, controls and regulate the vitality and well-being of a person. The various physiological systems, such as the nervous and endocrine systems, each play a vital role in a patient's heath, however, it is the energy flowing through the body that overrides these separate systems to identify and qualify life. It is a force from within that cannot be seen or touched, yet it is palpable. This bioenergy does not exist in a vacuum. It is relative to the energies found outside the body, such as weather, society as a living entity and the energy produced by the ecological world around us.
While Bioenergetic Medicine is gaining recognition as a viable health therapy, it is not acknowledged by the medical community as a whole because it cannot be tested or measured for scientific evidence commonly utilized as proof of effectiveness. Yet it does not exclude information provided by modern medicine to evaluate the patient's condition. For example, a doctor of naturopathy may use laboratory tests and physician notes to support a diagnosis. More information creates a more accurate diagnosis. And there are occasions when a holistic healer will refer a patient to a physician with a specialty. Homeopathic treatments comprise most of the curative therapies in Bioenergetic Medicine. Yet before a treatment can be prescribed, much information must be gathered from the patient during the examination.
1. Mental symptoms: Mental symptoms can create great disharmony in the body, causing illness. These symptoms include delusions, paranoia, forgetfulness, etc., and other deviant behavior such as incoherence and lack of reasoning.
2. Emotions: Emotions can also cause imbalance: anguish, sadness, apathy, fear, jealousy, etc.
3. Physical Symptoms: Physical symptoms manifest in specific areas of the body, such as the liver, bones, and muscles. The symptoms can range from muscle spasms to gallstones, depending upon which organ or tissue is affected.
The Homeopath will then categorize the symptoms into 4 groups
1. Common symptoms, such as runny nose or diarrhea
2. Particular symptoms originating from specific areas of the body, such as stomach pain or joint pain
3. General symptoms emanate from the entire body such as "I feel cold" or "I am tired"
4. Peculiar symptoms are strange and rare. These can be bizarre and unbelievable but are never-the-less real to the patient. For example, pain in the heart when urinating.
In addition to symptoms described by the patient, the doctor makes observations which enhance the information needed to make an accurate diagnosis. These symptoms may include coloring of the face, unsteady walking and odors.
After the doctor has enough information to make the diagnosis, the remedy is then determined by the data collected and the patterns that emerge to form a full picture. The Homeopath's remedies are derived from nature and are prescribed in potency and frequency according to particular patient's conditions. There are hundreds of natural substances that can be used to treat disease, in particular herbs, minerals and animal byproducts. The options are vast and can include commonly known substances: arsenic, digitalis, phosphorus, sulphur and belladonna. However, the combination of the curative substances is the essence of the treatment's effectiveness. A Homeopathic practitioner is well educated in these treatment options, which have been tried and tested for millennium.