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A Case for Integrated Medicine

Posted on: Tuesday, 8 November 2005, 00:00 CST

By DR MOHAMED ISHAK SYED AHMAD

THE comments on medical practitioners being guilty of quackery (NST, Oct

31) have upset many practitioners.

Complementary forms of treatment in combination with allopathic

treatments have in the past 10 years been gaining success in most

developed countries.

Medical doctors use these forms of treatment as "integrated medicine"

when allopathic medicine and surgery do not produce the desired results.

According to one scientific study, 60 per cent of patients in developed

countries are given complementary forms of treatment for their ailments

by their doctors. In Germany, Ginkgo Biloba has been prescribed since

1940 for brain-related problems.

The Malaysian Society of Complementary Therapists has 35 chapters, of

which medical practitioners practising complementary forms of treatment

is just one. It was approved by the Ministry of Health in 2002. At that

time, then Health Ministry deputy director-general Datuk Dr Ismail

Merican declared that "integrated medicine is a reality of the future" at

Intracom 2003.

Our doctors feel diet and nutrition are very important, especially in

preventive medicine. The herbs, supplements and vitamins that we

prescribe to the patients are those that have gone through the process of

approvals from the pharmaceutical Department of the Ministry of Health

and numerous clinical tests in many countries.

Dr Linus Pauling, two- time Nobel Laureate (1954 and 1962) was the

champion of Vitamin C and its curative powers. More information on his

research can be viewed at www.linuspauling.com.

We read in the newspapers that beauticians and beauty therapists are

doing surgery (double eyelid) giving all types of injections and using

all types of equipment in the name of surgical beauty treatment. Is it

not safer that such medical procedures be handled by registered medical

practitioners rather than by untrained people?

Chelation therapy is a method of removing heavy metals in the body.

There are thousands of doctors in developed countries who practise this

therapy to detoxify the body.

The list of practitioners can be obtained at www.ACAM.com and

www.IBCMT.COM.

Our practitioners go for training in the United States and sit for an

examination conducted by the American College of Advancement in Medicine.

It takes two to three years to be qualified to treat heavy metal

toxicity.

Dr Ismail said that "one patient died because he did not undergo bypass

surgery" but opted for Chelation therapy.

Would this patient have been saved by a bypass? Even if this were the

case, does this make chelation therapy bad? Bypass surgery has cost many

lives, definitely more than just one single life.

I am sure drugs are not free from side-effects. In a recent case, The

Journal of the American Medical Association found that COX 2 inhibitors

(Vioxx and Celebrax) used widely for arthritic pain caused many deaths

each year and on Sept 30 last year they were withdrawn from the market.

In the late 1970s, I underwent two major surgeries for a gastric ulcer.

It did not solve my problem and I developed all sorts of digestive

problems.

The specialists put me on strong doses of antacids and a few suggested

further surgery to remove more of my stomach.

Then I went to Seattle and met an endocrinologist (Dr Jonathan Wright)

practising integrated medicine. He started me on acid tablets (betaine

HCL) and some enzymes prepared from rice. Amazingly, all my digestive

problems were solved.

This made me look at complementary forms of treatment. Now my patients

can stay at my 10-hectare farm to learn organic farming, diet and learn

exercises like yoga, tai chi, etc.

Diet and lifestyle changes alone can heal many ailments

The late Datin Seri Endon Mahmood told our society last year that we

should explore ways to prevent cancers while seeking cures for cancer

because it is not enough to only find ways to detect and treat cancer.

Patients deserve the right to the choice of having medical

practitioners use less expensive, less painful, more effective methods to

treat them.

DR MOHAMED ISHAK SYED AHMAD

President

Malaysian Society for Complementary Therapists

Source: New Straits Times

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