What is Holistic Medicine?

Holistic medicine is the art and science of healing that addresses the whole person – body, mind, and spirit.  The practice of holistic medicine integrates conventional and alternative therapies to prevent and treat disease, and most importantly, to promote optimal health.  This condition of holistic health is defined as the unlimited and unimpeded free flow of life force energy through body, mind, and spirit.

Holistic medicine encompasses all safe and appropriate modalities of diagnosis and treatment. It includes analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, spiritual and lifestyle elements.  Holistic medicine focuses upon patient education and participation in the healing process.

The Principles of Holistic Medical Practice

Holistic physicians embrace a variety of safe, effective options in the diagnosis and treatment, including:

1. Education for lifestyle changes and self-care.
2. Complementary alternatives; and
3. Conventional drugs and surgery.

• Searching for the underlying causes of disease is preferable to treating symptoms alone.

• Holistic physicians expend as much effort in establishing what kind of patient has a disease as they do in establishing what kind of disease a patient has.

• Prevention is preferable to treatment and is usually more cost-effective. The most cost-effective approach evokes the patient’s own innate healing capabilities.

• Illness is viewed as a manifestation of a dysfunction of the whole person, not as an isolated event.

• A major determinant of healing outcomes is the quality of the relationship established between physician and patient, in which patient autonomy is encouraged.

• The ideal physician-patient relationship considers the needs, desires, awareness and insight of the patient as well as those of the physician.

• Physicians significantly influence patients by their example.

• Illness, pain, and the dying process can be learning opportunities for patients and physicians.

• Holistic physicians encourage patients to evoke the healing power of love, hope, humor and enthusiasm, and to release the toxic consequences of hostility, shame, greed, depression, and prolonged fear, anger, and grief.

• Unconditional love is life’s most powerful medicine. Physicians strive to adopt an attitude of unconditional love for patients, themselves, and other practitioners.

• Optimal health is much more than the absence of sickness. It is the conscious pursuit of the highest qualities of the physical, environmental, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social aspects of the human experience.

This is from the American Holistic Health Association (AHHA).

This e-mail was sent to myself and five other top juice manufactures, Genesis Today and Dynamic Health being two of them.

Scroll to the bottom to read the wonderful testimonial Sam sent me.

Dear Sirs,

My concern as a lay person and customer of dietary supplements and Juices, I find that every supplier makes claims of purity and so on. The Internet allows anyone to make what ever claims that they want to about what is in their product and/or the amounts. I would be ready to jump on the band wagon to help keep dietary supplements and juices available and only buy from suppliers that their product carry the USP label on it, at least we would have the assurances that a third party such as the USP Verification Program has tested the product to verify what the supplier says is in it. My question is to any supplier, why don’t we see the USP Label on your products?

I had wrote the “USP Verification Program” and ask why we don’t see their USP label on more products.

Below you will find their reply to us.

I would like to hear your reply as to why you don’t have the USP label on your product?

Thank You

Sam Carpenter

Dear Mr. Carpenter,

For all the hoopla you are making over this I thought I would do some research of my own. What I found was that there are only 5 companies participating in the verification program. Not one of them is a company I would carry in my 18 year old holistic medicine practice (Q-gel sounds good though). I personally wouldn’t take most of the supplements from these companies either.

Standard Process, Metagenics, Thorne, Nutra-West, Simply Natural, Source Naturals, etc. Not one of the companies, I have carried for eighteen years, is part of this program. Why is that? These are the primary supplement companies found in most doctors offices throughout this country. Are these doctors having the wool pulled over their eyes by the companies because they don’t submit to USP? I think not. Are the above companies trying to get away with something, No way! If you knew of either Jeffery Bland Ph.D. (Metagenics) or Dr. Royal Lee (Standard Process) you would understand where I am coming from and reverse your opinion about the supreme importance you are giving to USP.

There must be a reason why 99% of the companies out there don’t get involved in this program. My reason is that I don’t want a government like agency having free reign over my products, files, facility, formula recipes, my vendors names, etc.

I don’t know if you have an agenda or if you legitimately feel USP is the answer to the world’s health supplement problems. The only problem I know of is that the FDA, backed by “Big Pharma”, is trying to get rid of us so that they can drug every last American and make trillions doing it).
I am glad you sent out the question, I like to rant sometimes.

Sincerely,

Marcus Ettinger DC, BSc.

Companies Participating in the USP Verified Program for Dietary Supplements (my comments in blue)

The manufacturers listed below have chosen to participate in USP’s verification program for dietary supplements and submit selected products for verification. Brands submitted for verification are listed under the manufacturers’ names.

Inverness Medical Innovations
Selected store and private-label brand supplements (They Make Stress Tabs) and a few other generic, basic products.
Leiner Health Products
Your Life® brand supplements
Selected store and private-label brand supplements (They also make a few basic products sold in markets and Rite-Aid)
Pharmavite LLC
Nature Made® brand supplements
Nature’s Resource® brand herbal supplements
Selected store and private-label brand supplements (Nature Made Vitamins. Again generic, basic supplements)
Tishcon Corporation
Q-Gel® brand supplements Q-Gel®, the 100% HYDROSOLUBLE CoQ10. (Just this one product)
Schiff Nutrition
Schiff® brand supplements
Selected store and private-label brand supplements (A pretty thorough product line but still just your basic A, B, and C’s)

Dear Sirs,

I want to thank those of you that took the time to reply to my question and concern that is shown below.
My only agenda as a consumer and lay person is to be as sure as I can be that I’m buying the best quality
available. It is difficult if not impossible to check out most makers of supplements for quality etc when the only means is to go by what they say about their own product, and ask them questions and then use your gut feeling whether to try and/or use their product. I am a business man myself and I do not get offended if anyone wants to question our service and/or the quality of our product. If I have offended anyone by my question and concern, I apologize. I’ve been in business sense 1974 and If anyone goes to our web site www.%%%%.com they would see how easy it is to check us out and/or contact references, we are also members of the local Better Business Bureau.

Again Thank You to those who replied.

Sam Carpenter

Sam,

I was definitely not offended and I understand where you are coming from. We are also members of the BBB and have a great reputation in the supplement community.

If you would like more information, check out my blog at http://caoh.com/liquid-vitamin-blog/

Sincerely,

Marcus Ettinger DC, BSc.

Dr E,