When we enter the doctor’s office, we expect to get answers, feel seen and heard with what we are going through, and leave with confidence that we are being guided with the best solutions towards healing. It has become all too often that these expectations have slipped through the cracks of our medical care system. These cracks reveal themselves through overgeneralizing diagnoses, operating through a one-size-fits-all style of treatment, and masking symptoms with prescriptions.
We spend trillions of dollars on healthcare in the United States, and yet, we are in the midst of a health crisis epidemic with an influx of chronic disease and sickness. How do we place trust in a system that has led countless people frustrated, exhausted, disappointed, and even sicker after seeking help?
Questions such as this have led numerous conventionally trained doctors and practitioners to transition to functional or integrative medicine as a way of getting to the root cause of their patient's symptoms and diseases. In following this trend, there needs to be an updated medical care model that focuses on the prevention of diseases for longevity and not just the treatment of symptoms.
“It is Always About Everything”
Needless to say, most doctors begin practicing because they want to help people in some way. Most of the time it is not the integrity of the doctor or provider that leads people to be mislabeled or incorrectly diagnosed, it is the pressures of the healthcare system. Today’s healthcare revolves around evidence; it focuses on labeling the disease (diagnosis), and specialty care (treatment), and incorporating the latest research and technology to aid in both.
Dr. Michael Bauerschmidt, one of the founders and medical director at Deeper Healing Medical Wellness Center, describes the problems with healthcare by evaluating the curriculum used to train medical doctors. He explains how we are not suffering in the same way we were when the medical curriculum was established over 100 years ago. He says in an introductory video, “The problem is, the way we were trained was to create a diagnosis for you and then write a prescription to help you with the symptoms. It is important to give a name so people can understand how we are sick, but what we need to know is why we’re sick.”
There is no simple solution to healing given the complexities of the body and the way our environment impacts our health. Solely relying on a diagnosis and a label with a corresponding treatment for healing fails to acknowledge the root cause of dysfunctions, sickness, and disease. “We (Deeper Healing) have 2 rules: the diagnosis is not the disease, and it is always about everything.” Finding the root cause is the first step to healing and not addressing it leads to recurrent symptoms or long-term medication use.
Dr. Emily Roedersheimer, founder of Balanced Living Functional Medicine, is another example of a conventionally-trained provider choosing to further their degree to begin practicing functional medicine. She was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 10 and told she would be on medication for the rest of her life.
While practicing family medicine, she had an “ah-ha” moment after reading an article written by a functional medicine doctor linking food with chronic disease. She said, “It was astonishing to me that despite my years of medical training, I had not been taught about this hidden magic available by using food as medicine. Why hadn’t I learned this? Why didn’t everyone know about this?”
One-Size-Fits-All Treatment
The “one-size-fits-all”-style of treatment often leads to over-generalizing and labeling patients despite differences in genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors. This can lead to a misdiagnosis–resulting in patients enduring unnecessary treatment and undergoing physical and emotional distress.
Improving Diagnosis in Healthcare textbook classifies and defines diagnosis as a “pre-existing set of categories agreed upon by the medical profession to designate a specific condition.” These sets of categories ignore the full scope of a patient’s health experience; it is like trying to fix one part of a picture when it is your responsibility to edit the whole frame.
Elana, a patient at Deeper Healing, was suffering from extreme health issues and was routinely misdiagnosed by multiple conventional doctors who advised her to be on multiple medications. After meeting with approximately 15 doctors, Elana found her way to functional medicine and began treatment with Dr. Bauerschmidt. He dove into the root causes of her symptoms and history more than she has ever received and together they were able to give her the answers she was searching so tirelessly for and she has had great results. To read Elana’s full testimonial, click here.
Elana is not alone in her healing journey using alternative forms of medicine. Elizabeth, a patient at Hope 4 Cancer (an integrative and alternative cancer center) was frustrated after conventional doctors presented a few treatments for her breast cancer by following a “wait-and-see” approach. At 31 years old and a mom of four, Elizabeth and her husband wanted to be proactive: they began diving into alternative cancer treatments and they traveled to Hope 4 Cancer Center to follow an integrative medical approach to her healing.
Elizabeth compares her experience at a conventional cancer care center to an integrative one by finally feeling like she was treated as a whole person. Being cared for at an integrative medical facility meant she was assessed not only for her physical well-being, but they focused on her nutrition, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and how it all played a role in her healing. Elizabeth says, “You’re a whole person. There is so much more to you than just treating your symptoms and your disease.” To read and listen to Elizabeth’s full testimonial, click here.
Hope for the Future of Medicine
The proof of patients and providers both questioning the current medical model and wanting to shift to holistic practices of treatment creates hope for the future of medicine. The patient and provider balance and trust strengthens when both individuals are advocating for overall health and not categorizing symptoms as labels. Focusing on finding the root cause of a patient’s condition lessens the risk and prolongation of a misdiagnosis and its harmful effects. The goal of our medical system should not be to manage how we live but to focus on how long we live and the quality of those years.
Sources:
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hope4cancer.com/patient-testimonials/elizabeth-breast-can cer-patient-journey/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1738543283533033&usg=AOvVaw3qMKfu23H xDOz-O4hgFKRe
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://deeperhealing.com/patient-testimonials/&sa=D&source=d ocs&ust=1738543295864288&usg=AOvVaw1s8UAEh8FJGuVh0O2r-zCk
https://milho.net/misdiagnosis-causes-consequences-and-solutions/#:~:text=Misdiagnosis%20ca n%20result%20in%20physical,such%20as%20anxiety%20and%20depression.
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