Buddhism and integrative medicine

Author: Rogier Hoenders,
Psychiatrist, Founder of the center of integrative psychiatry of Lentis, Netherlands.

I would like to thank the organizers of this important gathering for making all of this I am happy to be here and I am grateful to be given the opportunity to speak about something that is close to my heart. Also I would like to thank Lama Gangchen Rinpoche for all help and support these last four years.

No Harm

The first thing we do as we become a medical doctor in the western world is to promise officially to: first, do not harm to own patients (in Latin - primum nil nocere). This important and it custom is called the Hippocratic Oath. Hippocrates (the father of modern medicine who in ancient Greece) must have foreseen that although we study to increase our ability to benefit patients, we also have a huge potential to harm them. This ritual is still practiced up to today, but its meaning, sadly, seems to have been rather lost. How is that?

Problems

Besides the enormous benefits of western medicine (WM) and despite impressive accomplishments in the last decades, we are facing negative side effects in an increasing rate. And there is evidence that sometimes information about the side-effects of medication is distorted or hidden in order to prevent sales rates from going down!

Some researchers even found that negative side effects of medicines and medical interventions have become one of the principal causes of death! How did this happen? Where did we go wrong? We seem to have violated the principle of Hippocrates. We seem to have created violent medicines. But this is not all.

Fights between WM and CAM

And at the same time patients are using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in an increasing rate. This is in part because the above mentioned side effects of WM. Also in part because of an experienced lack of attention, interest, time and empathy of their doctor. In our enthusiasm for scientific evidence we seem to have somehow lost contact with our patients. Managed care and protocols and didn't make it any better. And those patients that do turn to CAM are sometimes criticized by their Western doctors for doing so. And doctors who admit that they refer patients to CAM are being criticized or ridiculed too! Some of them get very angry and 'fight back'. It almost looks like religious battles, instead of rational debates. What can we do?

Spirituality as a Solution

I think that spirituality in general, and Buddhism in particular, can offer solutions for some of these problems we are facing. After all, as with medicine, Buddhism also has a principle related to not doing harm: ahimsa. Maybe we have to pay more attention to these old

Principles! Spirituality has to do with human values that transcend our individual needs and wishes. It is about growing up positive emotions and attitudes like empathy, trust and compassion. These values and attitudes are so needed in this time. Maybe these attitudes can help to overcome these battles and negativities between CAM and WM? Encountering negativities and opponent forces can be quite challenging. For instance, I find it difficult to remain peaceful and with compassion when people are very negative or even aggressive about our work with Integrative Medicine, when we are trying hard and giving the best of ourselves. Buddhist masters from the past must have foreseen this phallenge, as is written: we have to work for all other living beings "even if they rise up as our enemies". IM as a solution

Integrative Medicine (IM) is a worldwide movement integrating CAM with WM on the basis of scientific research. In this way it pacifies the battle between CAM and WM. It encourages doctors to explore and maintain their own health, to walk your talk and practice what you preach. It also includes a spiritual dimension in medical practice, fostering higher human values like compassion and tolerability. This could be very important in our task to make medicine non-violent again.

To conclude:

It looks like the first principle of medicine (first, do no harm) is similar to the principle of Buddhism: ahimsa. Maybe spirituality / Buddhism can help us to overcome some of the problems medicine is facing today, by regenerating these important principles.

As Lama Gangchen has explained: instead of violent medicines with negative side-effects, we need non-violent medicines, with positive side effects! That is the best medicine for our physical and mental health.

Integrative Medicine could have an important role in this, because it is a peace movement, pacifying the battle between WM and CAM and including spirituality in medical practice.

I hope that it is the medicine of the future!