Lecture-1

Brig (R) Ali Nasre Alam

HEALTH & WELLNESS

PREVENTION PRACTICE: A HOLISTIC
PERSPECTIVE FOR PHYSICAL THERAPY
 Defining Health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental

and social well-being and not merely the absence
of disease or infirmity.
 The origin and philosophy of Holistic Medicine

Older than conventional or allopathic medicine.

As early as 5000 B.C.,

Chinese medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic medicine

recognized that human beings are comprised of

mind, body, and spirit.
Health dependent on the balance of all 3 factors.
Greek physician Hippocrates

 Included hygiene
 Calm and balanced mental state
 Proper diet
 Sound work and home environment
 Physical conditioning
 The primary role of healers and physicians in each of these
traditions was to teach others how to live harmoniously
with themselves and their environment

 And how to utilize the above categories effectively to

obtain true health.
 Holistic medicine is a model
that creates empowerment
by educating patients in the ways
to take personal responsibility for their health,
and to learn safely and effectively how to treat
physical, mental, and spiritual conditions
so they experience more energy and joy in being alive.
The origin and philosophy of Conventional Medicine
In 17th Century separation of the "mind" from the "body",

which ultimately led to various fields of specialization that

now comprise conventional medicine.

Each of which focuses on a particular branch of medicine

and the organ it treats, usually with little regard to how these
parts are intertwined and the dynamic relationship between
them.

In the mid-19th century, the discovery of disease causing

microbes added further "validity" to the conventional
medicine theory.
 At the time there were two opposing theories concerning
the cause of disease

 One that infecting microbes known as germs cause illness

 Other maintained that those microbes only caused illness

when the conditions inside the body were right for them
due to imbalances in the various body systems.
 The "germ theory", which was advocated by Louis Pasteur
(1822-1895), became dominant and heralded the birth of
conventional medicine with its emphasis on infectious
causes of disease rather than creation and maintenance of
physiological harmony and balance.

 This followed by rapid development of microscopy,

bacterial cultures, vaccines, x-rays, and antibacterial
drugs.
 The more the conventional medical system became
focused on treating specific ailments.

 It also led to organization of medical schools into

departments of specialty, such as cardiology, nephrology,
neurology, dermatology, orthopedics, and psychiatry.

 This led to disease classification by the organ it affected

(appendicitis, prostatitis, colitis, heart and gallbladder,
disease, etc) which diverted attention away from the
intrinsic relatedness of all parts of the body and the
dynamic of all these life forces.
 The guiding principles behind holistic medicine

Rooted in education, empowerment, and prevention through

natural means, taking into effect the dynamic of the entire
body and how the individual body parts work together to
create optimal health.

These specific guiding principles include: Embracing a

variety of safe and effective diagnostic and treatment
options, that includes education for lifestyle changes and self
care, and complementary diagnostic and treatment
approaches.
 Searching for underlying causes of disease are preferable
to treating symptoms alone.

 Establishing the kind of patient that has a disease, as much

as the kind of disease a patient has.

 Prevention is preferable to treatment and more cost

effective.

 Illness is viewed as a manifestation of the dysfunction of

the whole person, not an isolated event.
 In the healing process, the quality of the relationship
established between physician and patient is paramount, in
which the patient is encouraged to take responsibility of
their own health.

 The ideal relationship considers the needs, desires,

awareness, and insight of the patient, as well as the
physician.

 Physicians significantly influence patients

by their example.
 Illness, pain, and the dying process are learning
opportunities for both the patient and the physician.

 Encouraging patients to evoke the healing power of love,

hope, humour, and enthusiasm to release the toxic
consequences of hostility, shame, greed, depression, and
prolonged fear, anger, and grief.

 Optimal health is more than the absence of sickness. It's

the pursuit of the highest qualities of the physical,
environmental, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social
aspects of human experience.
 The strengths of this system is that it teaches patients to
take responsibility for their own health, and in doing so it
is more cost effective in treating acute and chronic illness.

 It is also therapeutic in preventing and treating chronic

disease and is essential in creating optimal health.

 The weaknesses of this system is that it is time intensive,

requires a commitment to the healing process, and is not a
quick fix.
 The guiding principles of conventional medicine

The guiding principles of conventional medicine are rooted

in ignorance (lack of education), enslavement, and reaction
through synthetic measures, through departmentalization of
various body parts.

Symptoms can be treated without recognition of the

interplay of the rest of the body for proper balance and
functionality.
 The specific guidelines include Embracing synthetic and
toxic measures as effective treatment options, in hopes that
the "poison" will kill the infectious disease, with collateral
damage to the rest of the body considered inconsequential.
Education is minimal to non-existent.

Lifestyle changes and self care are considered secondary

treatment options.
 Preference is to treat the symptoms through drugs and
surgery, rather than searching for underlying causes of
disease, in order to eliminate physical symptoms.

 Treatment with drugs and surgery is the preferred method

of action, with prevention through diet and lifestyle being
a secondary option.
 Illness is sequestered and pinpointed in certain areas of the
body in order to diagnose and prescribe treatments for a
specific organ or function.

 Patients are to be diagnosed and prescribed treatment, with

complete authority and decision making lying with the
physician.

 Care is considered successful primarily through the

absence of symptoms, rather than quality of life.
 The strengths of this system is that it is highly effective
in treating both acute and life threatening illnesses and
injuries.

The weakness of this system it is ineffective at preventing

and curing chronic disease, and is very expensive.
 The result of adopting conventional medicine over holistic
medicine

 Many people are not sick enough to lie down, but walk
around in an ill state of health that is not recognizable to
them or their peers due to the fact it is now
considered "normal" by society.

 These people derive limited benefit from tranquillizers,

antidepressants, analgesics, and anti-inflammatory drugs,
while the side effects they develop from the drugs just add
to their list of health challenges.
 Physicians are becoming aware that something is wrong
with their patients immune systems, but their typical
medical treatments seem unable to do anything about it.

 The patients become trapped in a cycle of dependency on

physicians to monitor and adjust their medications rather
than empowering them to change lifestyle factors that
might allow their body to regain its full potential.
As long as we continue to mask symptoms or control health
problems, and not get to the root cause of the issue and
address them through education and natural methods, we
will be forever sick, and our quality of life will be
permanently diminished.

The way to achieve a high quality of life is to adopt a more

holistic approach to our day to day habits.

Let conventional medicine be the "rescue medicine" it

excels at in order to save us from immediate life threatening
health situations.
Three Types of Prevention Practice
 Three Types of Prevention Practice

Going upstream: You are standing beside a river and see

someone drowning as he floats by.
You jump in and pull him ashore.

A moment later, another person floats past you going

downstream, and then another and another.

Soon you're so exhausted, you know you won't be able to

save even one more victim.

You decide to travel upstream to see what the problem is.

You find that people are falling into the river because they

are stepping through a hole in a bridge.

Once this is fixed, people stop falling into the water.
 When it comes to health, prevention means “going
upstream” and fixing a problem at the source instead of
saving victims one by one.
 In general, prevention includes a wide range of activities
— known as “interventions” — aimed at reducing risks or
threats to health.
 These are usually grouped into three categories.
 Primary prevention
 Here the goal is to protect healthy people from developing
a disease or experiencing an injury in the first place.
 education about good nutrition, the importance of regular
exercise, and the dangers of tobacco, alcohol and other
drugs
 education and legislation about proper seatbelt and helmet
use
 regular exams and screening tests to monitor risk factors
for illness
 immunization against infectious disease
 controlling potential hazards at home and in the workplace
 Secondary prevention
 These interventions happen after an illness or serious risk
factors have already been diagnosed. The goal is to halt or
slow the progress of disease (if possible) in its earliest
stages; in the case of injury, goals include limiting long-
term disability and preventing re-injury. For example:
 telling people to take daily, low-dose aspirin to prevent a
first or second heart attack or stroke
 recommending regular exams and screening tests in people
with known risk factors for illness
 providing suitably modified work for injured workers
 Tertiary prevention
 This focuses on helping people manage complicated, long-
term health problems such as diabetes, heart disease,
cancer and chronic musculoskeletal pain. The goals include
preventing further physical deterioration and maximizing
quality of life. For example:
 cardiac or stroke rehabilitation programs
 chronic pain management programs
 patient support groups
 What works best?
 For many health problems, a combination of primary,
secondary and tertiary interventions are needed to achieve
a meaningful degree of prevention and protection.
However, prevention experts say that the further upstream
one is from a negative health outcome, the likelier it is that
any intervention will be effective — think about fixing the
hole in the bridge so people stop falling through and
drowning downstream.
Thank You