HOLISTIC MEDICINE IS HERE!

MIND - BODY AND SPIRIT

by F.G. Lopriato y lopez Albuquerque, New Mexico

The genuinely interested in Health and The Healing hail UNM's bold escalation of the eternal war against illnesses under one official canopy, "The Center For Life," due to open in July. Leading the three pronged attack is the most qualified general medical community of New Mexico and beyond. Take it from those who know her, no one is more worthy of that trust. Efforts to integrate all different facets of medicine are not new, and heaven knows that the only reason we don't have it now is because of infighting within the profession it­self, and the all out frontal assaults by other special interest, groups. as well as opposing religious and cultural philosophies. It goes without saying, that the center will have enough opposition from people who will see it as a threat to their own financial security, those opposed to blood transfusions, vaccines, transplants, stem cell research etc., without having half informed and totally ignorant comments from would--be experts. Therefore, we will publish only what is presented by that center in the way it is presented, if and when we do comment on the center's activities, otherwise, we will write only about Holistic Medicine itself, and subjects which may and may not be related to the center's activities.

One of the most intriguing films I have ever seen was once shown at a seminar I was attending in Califomia, A group of doctors had filmed it in a foreign country, one of those doctors was the principle speaker at the seminar. He vouched for its authenticity. The movie showed a woman smiling as she underwent an operation. The open cavity dearly visible and the surgeon's hands, and Hawaiian shirt bloody from reaching into that cavity and showing the woman's viscera to the observing witnesses, The doc­tor who was speaking at our seminar and a half dozen or so of his colleges, all from Stanford Medical SCHOOL. The surgeon on the screen wiped his hands, closed the wound, then ran one hand over the closure and the woman got up and, still smiling, stood and allowed the wit­nesses to examine the closure, the camera zoomed in to show that there was not a sign of a scar. The doctor who was addressing our group tumed off the projector and called for the lights to be tuned on, ending his talk with this question; "Would you believe that what you have just seen was done without the benefit of anesthesia?" This happened in the late 1950's before it was generally known that a few dentists practiced hypnosis in some of their work. Before that, I met one of the Korean K. P.'s who worked in our compound in the village one day. He told me that he was going to the local doctor and I asked him if I could tag along. I had never seen a Korean doctor work. The K. P. was also seeing the GI doctor in the compound, but he did not think that American Medicine was doing him any good. That was the first time I saw acupuncture done in real life, somehow I knew that it existed, but for some reason I thought that it had to do with ancient medical practices but it was no longer used, like blood letting or the use of leeches or maggots. Back at work in the compound next day, the doctor asked how my day off had been, and I told him how l had met the KP on his way to the local doctor and how I had seen acupun­ture done. The interest that my boss, the doctor, had initially shown in my off duty activities vanished and was replaced by rage He pulled the KP's record jacket and ordered me to tell him that he no longer wanted to see him in the dispensary. Anyone involved in the care of patients for any length of quickly finds out that there are times when a patient is in trouble, a pinched or broken oxygen hose, or a malfunc­tion of indispensable equipment, any life threatening situation that accelerates the sur­vival instinct's panic button that makes an otherwise helpless patient perform seeming miracles to save his or her life. These are the type of tales that we will be writing for the next few months, or until the election for Lt. Governor of New Mexico heats up. The objective of these stories is to make the reader aware that dealing with the sick and the dying, takes more than just a knowledge of the illness itself, but also a profound respect of the patient's thinking, and the patient's own spiritual needs. A human being is like a tight-rope walker, that reaches the most dangerous part of his balancing act when survival or certain death are a real threat and the slightest upset of that balance can mean the end for him or her.