Integrative Medicine: Underlying Principles
Descartes argued that complex things can be understood by reducing them to their component parts and that a complex system is nothing more than the sum of its parts. His line of reasoning created the substructure for the “find-it-and-fix-it” approach to medicine that we use today, an approach that has proven to be incapable of handling the complex chronic diseases that represent the majority of medical visits in our era.
Research and the Future of Integrative Medicine by Gregg Hake
One of the greatest challenges our industry will face in the days to come is to find ways to deliver meaningful research on the efficacy of CAM modalities. Most of the current research methodologies have their roots in Cartesian thinking, where complex systems are understood by reducing them to their component parts. As a result, today’s research methods are narrowly focused on subsystems rather than on whole systems.
Tapeworms, the Economy and Medical Reform by Gregory Hake
Warren Buffett (AP)In an interview on CNBC on Monday, the world’s second richest man, Warren Buffett, compared rising health care costs to “a tapeworm eating our economic body” that is “untenable over time.” Buffett went on to note that U.S. health care costs are 17% of the Gross Domestic Product, whereas in most other countries health care [...]