by Dr. Connie Hernandez, ND
Relax! We have no intention of launching into a tirade about the deficiencies of conventional medicine.
Still, in these thoughts and in several articles to follow, we will share the lessons from our four and a half decades of successes with naturopathic methods and principles.
Any thoughtful person will be familiar with the value of following a medical path that draws upon the unique strengths of both approaches. There are, we believe, countless situations where conventional medicine and adjunctive alternative care can complement each other for the benefit of the patient.
This doesn’t mean that Dr. Marcel and I aren’t keenly aware of the failings of corporate medicine, which include an increasing depersonalization of the patient/doctor relationship.
In our naturopathic medical practice, we daily experience the striking contrasts between conventional medicine and the traditional, adjunctive, complementary medical model we’ve chosen to follow.
Years ago, when we were young and pondering which path we would pursue, we realized that medical school would commit us to serving as lifelong employees of medical corporations, and that we would be bound by corporate priorities that would include rigid practice standards, short office visits, and an eagle eye on the financial bottom line.
We realized that the naturopathic route would free us to take advantage of the latest scientifically validated research findings, without having to wait years for them to be accepted into the canon of corporate medical practice.
Also, we could spend as much time with our patients as they needed, and we could make therapeutic decisions based on a clear recognition of the highly individual needs of each one.
There seemed to be few trade-offs in choosing naturopathy – the training would take the same long years of study and practice, and the cost would be similar.
We considered any sacrifices well worth making for the satisfactions of serving our patients in the most effective way – including the ability to refer them for traditional care when their needs demanded it.
We are confident that the two medical systems will eventually recognize each other’s merits and function cooperatively in serving the best interests of the patient.
This is why the term “integrative medicine” means so much to us. For now, however, we relish our freedom to help our patients understand their therapeutic needs, so that they can make their own informed decisions about their care. Not an easy assignment! But one that has deeply fulfilled us.
I confess to harboring a great deal of nostalgia for the long-ago time when everyone had their own family physician.
When I was a child, my sister and my three brothers and I were deeply familiar with our family doctor.
The family doctors knew us as friends, and it was clear that he cared for us in a spirit of genuine concern and personal responsibility.
We remember his frequent, unhurried visits to our home, and how he served us a friend and guide, and how he was thoroughly up to date with the medicine of the time, but recognized the value of many home remedies, and was ready to keep us updated on the best way to care for ourselves.
Did you know that the word “doctor” comes from the Latin noun doctor, meaning “teacher” or “instructor”? That was an important role that our family physician was happy to fill. His care wasn’t just physical; it was mental and emotional, and even spiritual.
Referrals to specialists were uncommon – they meant that something was seriously wrong, or that we required more advanced diagnosis.
As students at Bastyr University in the mid-1980s we were privileged to learn from the founder, John Bastyr, and to meet many of his long-term patients. When they spoke about John, they invariably mentioned not only his deep knowledge of conventional and naturopathic medicine, but his extraordinarily personal presence.
Many reported that when they stepped into Dr. Bastyr’s exam room, his magnetism of care was so powerful that they would feel bathed in his love – to the extent that they might actually forget why they were there.
As freshly graduated young naturopaths, 45 years ago in the early 1990s, we weren’t able to offer home visits, but we did deliberately create a homelike atmosphere in in our office.
We opened our first practice in a beautiful vintage New England house. The centerpiece of the waiting room was a beautiful fireplace – Vermont gets amazingly cold in winter, and our patients were delighted to be able to thaw-out and relax while warming hands and turning around in front of the blazing logs.
The people who delivered the mail and packages would come in from the slushy, muddy street, removing their boots, and sharing tea with the patients and receptionist.
In the dark, gloomy Vermont winters, the waiting room was lit with cheery full-spectrum lamps. We loved that our homey headquarters included a tub and shower for water cures.
Local herbalists were delighted to supply us with otherwise hard-to-find fresh-roasted dandelion root for detox tea. Like old-time family docs, we ended up treating entire families with nature cure remedies, as the news of their effectiveness spread.
Of course, nothing is as inevitable as change. Over the years, our patients’ concerns evolved, the number of remedies expanded, governmental regulations proliferated, and the demographic of our patients changed.
From treating salty New Englanders with common physical concerns, at our new practice in California, our patients more often wanted our help with insomnia, anxiety, depression, and complex autoimmune, gastrointestinal, endocrine, and cardiological concerns.
The one thing we were most eager to preserve in our practice was the holistic approach of naturopathic medicine. Still, we recognized that what our patients prized most, regardless of their physical complaints, was to be respected for who they were – to be seen and heard.
Now, 35 years later, family doctors and general practitioners have become rare. The entry point into the corporate medical system is generally the internist. Patients are first seen and processed by medical assistants, then allowed 15 minutes with the doctor, with final diagnosis and treatment usually farmed-out to specialists.
A doctor’s time is now largely filled with charting, reporting, justifying medical decisions to insurance providers, and studying and conforming to the regulations of the corporations that own the system.
Medical options still abound; but they are increasingly available only to those who can afford them, since the medicinal corporations have a near-exclusive stranglehold on insurance reimbursements.
Whole-person medical options also tend to be affordable only for the few nowadays – including preventive medicine, lifestyle medicine, functional medicine, Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, homeopathy, and naturopathic medicine.
Endless regulations imposed by a heavy government bureaucracy add an endless stream of new requirements, stealing time from patient care.
In the face of these obstacles, we have opted to keep our prices the same as they’ve been for many years –much lower than many newer docs are charging.
We’ve chosen to see fewer patients, so that we can balance our personal lives and avoid the complexities of running a large, elaborate practice, so that we can spend more time collaborating with our patients on their care. Our lovely new office feels as if we’ve come full circle from our first cozy, homelike quarters in Vermont.
When we enter our new space, we feel peaceful, and we expect you will, too. We see many patients who’ve been with us for years, plus referrals from our patients who love to spread the news about our informal holistic style of practice.
We continue to encourage our patients to have a primary care physician within a large medical practice, both for routine reimbursable expenses, and for essential emergency or specialist care.
Drs. Connie and Marcel Hernandez
DrConnie@DrsHernandez.com
DrMarcel@DrsHernandez.com