brought the concept of wellness to national attention in 1979. I
decided to consult with Dr. Jonas Salk, the famous polio vaccine
pioneer. After reviewing my patients’ charts at the Salk Institute in
La Jolla, California, he looked up at me and said, “You are developing an entirely new type of vaccination! It will be a stress
inoculation—a painless immunization you should administer as
early as possible to patients because the younger they are, the
more effective it will be.”
P: You once said integrative medicine should be as
spiritual as it is scientific. What do you mean by this?
T: My co-authors, the Nobel Laureate, Dr. Ferid Murad, and David
Oliphant, and I introduced "Wellness Theology" in The Wellness
Solution (World Almanac Publishing, 2007). Dr. Murad shared
the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering nitric oxide as
the body's signaling molecule—it helps keep our cells, tissues
and organs healthy and balanced.
Essentially, everything we do that’s good for us—healthy
nutrition, exercise, altruism, yoga, massage, spa treatments, being
loving and forgiving—increases the amount of nitric oxide in our
bodies. Dr. Murad and I wrote: “If you believe God first breathed
life into your atoms, we suspect the divine breath, in molecular
form, would be nitric oxide.” We further introduced the idea of
Wellness Theology by writing: “Faith, hope, and prayer are also
essential cornerstones for building health and overall well-being.”
P: What are some of the hurdles that could make it
challenging for physicians and other mainstream medical
professionals to embrace integrative medicine?
T: According to official government resources, the nation’s
health-care tab in 2016 is expected to surpass US$10,000 per
person for the first time! Can you imagine the economic chaos
that would ensue if we were to all of a sudden adapt wellness
lifestyles? Unfortunately, the economics of modern medicine also
encourages physicians to be very poor listeners. Younger physicians and “super-specialists” seem to be the worst listeners
among doctors.
This troubling phenomenon can be explained in pure
economic terms: Insurance companies pay doctors for procedures
and tests, not for conversation. Unfortunately, this means the
qualities that make us quintessentially human—thoughts,
feelings, emotions, the expressions of our souls—tend to have
2 Core Principles of Dr. Taub’s
Integrative Medicine Practice
Health is primarily determined by personal
responsibility, self-value and reverence for life.
1.
2.
Health is too important to leave up to only science,
but also too important to take an unscientific point
of view and reject the real benefits of science.
very little place in the patient-physician interaction. Insurance
companies and increasing medical sub-specialization have
created a conceptual blind spot, namely, an inability to appreciate
the virtues of self-care and self-healing. We are standing on the
cusp of a golden age in integrative medicine as it evolves into the
field of Molecular Wellness (the unfolding dance of life in which
the energies of our body, mind and spirit are in balance with each
other), but the medical system, as it is currently structured, is
poorly qualified to carry this exciting field into the 21st century.
P: Which trends or innovations in the medical and
wellness space should spa leaders keep an eye on?
T: Spa leaders need to beware of the powerful trend to
“medicalize” our ills and worries—which is in no small way
driven by the economic incentives inherent in the medical model.
As influential medical institutions begin taking part in the spa and
wellness space, the tendency may start to lean toward generating
income over excellence. On the other hand, it’s heartening to
learn that the venerable Mayo Clinic has aligned with spa culture
since the ethics, integrity and motivation of this institution are
beyond question.
Thus, while creating a brand or reputation in the medical or
wellness space can have exciting PR and economic value, the
offering itself can and should be the real deal—helping guests
determine their own health destiny via spa culture, first and
foremost, rather than building or reinforcing reliance on the
medical model. n
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learn more about our featured expert.
October 2016
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