According to Benjamin Franklin, taxes and death are the only two certainties in life.  I believe we can add change as a third. It is inevitable, and whether it is voluntary or forced upon us, change is hard.

 

This statement is nowhere more accurate than in the Healthcare System. Ever Since 1847 when Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis recognized the need for doctors to disinfect their hands between patients, there has been strong resistance to new ideas that challenge the status quo. Years after Semmelweis died, Louis Pasteur validated Semmelweis’ ideas through research and they became accepted. In hindsight it seems tragic that it took so long; no one in healthcare today disputes the importance of good hand hygiene.

 

Louis Pasteur influenced the creation of the scientific method, which has become the gold standard.  However, in spite of claiming to follow the evidence, decades can pass before new research findings are implemented in clinical settings. Consider the state of healthcare in the U.S. today.  The focus is on medications, procedures, surgeries and profits. Healthcare providers have gotten too busy to stop and think beyond their training.  They want to take the best care of patients, but they barely have time to keep up with basic research; any approach or therapy that they perceive as falling outside the norm of their education is too overwhelming to consider.  There is fear of litigation if mistakes are made; memorized protocols and algorithms are considered best care.  It’s no wonder doctors, PAs and nurse practitioners are as unhappy as their patients are.

 

U.S. Healthcare since the 1970s

Physicians who started practicing in the 1970s and 80s will say that the healthcare system is unrecognizable today compared to when they started. One was heard to ask how we let the insurance and drug industries take us hostage.  A 2012 documentary Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare  http://www.escapefiremovie.com/ states clearly how detrimental the current healthcare climate is and lists the issues that have brought us to crisis:

• Too many medications/medication overuse

• Too many surgeries

• Too much control by insurance payors

• Too many people underinsured or uninsured

• We keep getting sicker in spite of exorbitant amounts of money spent

• Preventive care is not reimbursed by insurance

• Physicians are forced to see more patients, meaning less time spent with each and therefore an inability to treat the whole person

 

This film is already 11 years old, and still we wait for system-wide reform. It is true that our medical industry is among the best in acute care, surgery and procedures.  This type of care can save lives in the short term, but how many people do we lose by refusing to accept preventive approaches that can improve quality of life in the long run?

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The ONE trend to watch for:

The number of smart, curious, dedicated researchers who work tirelessly to bring about necessary change in healthcare is growing.  New terms are becoming more widely known; Integrative Medicine, Functional Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine are met with more respect than they received even 10 years ago. Each is devoted to seeing and treating the whole person, making sure all building blocks are in place to encourage the best quality of life for all.

 

Just as Ignaz Semmelweis’ theory on hand sanitation was proven by scientific study and became standard practice, the momentum is growing for the same to be said about nutrition and lifestyle choices. 

 

As nurses and health writers, we are poised to be able to support and promote a new way of seeing and treating illness. Nurses are often afforded more time with patients than other members of the team: at the bedside, in the clinic, on the phone. As a rule, nurses are compassionate and empathetic conduits between doctors, nurse practitioners and patients.  We can watch for opportunities to introduce a different perspective. Writers have at their disposal one of the most powerful tools ever known: the pen. It is my goal to use the tools I have been given to add my voice to a grander purpose. It is my hope that in the not-too-distant-future, the terms Integrative & Functional & Lifestyle will not be needed descriptors. The field will again just be called Medicine, led by the gentle care of healers.

 

Some of the Pioneers

– T. Colin Campbell, PhD biochemist 

Researched nutrition in the 1980s “The China Project”

https://nutritionstudies.org/the-china-study/

– Dean Ornish, MD

https://www.ornish.com/

Researched from the 1970s to the 1990s; in 1990 published findings in

https://www.amazon.com/Ornishs-Program-Reversing-Heart-Disease/dp/0804110387

Founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute https://pmri.org/

– Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr., MD

“The Esselstyn Heart Disease Program at Cleveland Clinic is based on the research of Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. MD and other physicians with a similar focus on plant-based nutrition. For the past ten years at Cleveland Clinic, over 1,000 patients have participated in Dr. Esselstyn’s program.” https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/wellness/integrative/esselstyn-program​

– Neil Barnard, MD

Founding President of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine https://pmri.org/  Founded in 1985

– Andrew Weil, MD

In 1994 established the Integrative Medicine Center 

https://awcim.arizona.edu/   to train physicians in Integrative Medicine

– Michael Greger, MD

Established NutritionFacts.org, devoted to interpreting research about food

https://nutritionfacts.org/

–  John Robbins and Ocean Robbins

Food Revolution Network   https://foodrevolution.org/