My journey into the exploration of holistic medicine began in part due to my becoming aware of my own energy system through spiritual study and meditation. Although I had meditated on occasion for many years, I began an intense meditation program in 1989 along with a shift to a vegetarian diet. These intensive spiritual practices facilitated a shift in my awareness during a five-month period where I meditated 5-7 hours a day. As my consciousness expanded, I became aware of centers of energies in my body, which often felt like they were spinning. These centers opened, bringing in information and awareness that I had never experienced. With increased awareness of the state of these centers, illness could be avoided by concentration on the centers in meditation. Before I had this awareness, I would “suddenly” become ill with little warning. Along with the opening of these energy centers, I experienced a shift in consciousness in that I was able to receive information, often through multiple senses, including clairaudience, visions, and sometimes a “knowing”.
I had left a very busy plastic surgery practice in South Atlanta where I had been working over 100 hours a week. A clairvoyant had visited the office and given me Barbara Brennan’s book Hands of Light. She told me that I was a healer. I asked in meditation what I should do and I heard “quit your job”. In late December of 1989, I left my practice and did not return to work until May of 1990 when seven patients called in one week and asked to schedule surgery.
The practice that I returned to was different, as I had shifted consciousness. I was still working 80 to 100 hours a week, but I incorporated intuitive diagnosis and energy medicine on a daily basis. “Laying on of hands” helped my patients’ pain, swelling, resolution of infections, nerve regeneration and wound healing. Wounds healed approximately twice as fast with the additional energy, and highly contaminated wounds such as dog and human bites did not become infected as often with the use of energy medicine.
The intuitive diagnosis was fun. My beeper would go off and I would “see” the injury happen or the mangled hand of the patient waiting for me in the emergency room. While laying hands on, I would “see” the unresolved conflict behind the infection or the issues that led to the injury. As a hand surgeon, I saw a pattern of fingertip injuries, with the thumb having to do with “will”, the index finger having to do with “faith”, the middle finger having to do with “self-love or self-image”, the ring finger having to do with “money or material security”, and the little finger having to do with “sex and relationship issues”. If I could help the patients explore and resolve these spiritual issues, then the injuries would often heal quickly with less- chance of re-injury.
My own experience with spiritual “will” issues was demonstrated one day in surgery. I was switching the tip on the electrocautery unit when it short-circuited and burned a hole in my thumb. The cord was damaged, and I was grateful that it had burned me rather than the patient, but just as the injury occurred, my mind flashed onto a scene in the grocery store where the day before I had decided to buy several packages of cookies and candy, despite my inner guidance to avoid sweets during this time. My personal “will” resulted in a thumb burn, as a reminder to obey my higher spiritual will. As I became aware of energy centers in my body and the bodies of my patients, I began to understand holistic medicine. You could see and feel how dietary changes affected your energy, how emotional states modulated your energy, and how spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer and fasting could raise your energy. I could even understand how a single “thought” could shift my energy dramatically and even cause physical symptoms. Recalling a difficult surgical case can cause pain in my neck and shoulders as my body relives the mental, emotional and physical strain of taking on the responsibility of carrying a patient through a difficult or hazardous surgery.
I can experience firsthand how stress flows through the mind into the body, but fortunately I also have the tools mentally to relax these same muscles and bring energy into these areas that are stressed from surgery. Many plastic surgeons by age 40 have undergone cervical diskectomies due to the strain of arduous and long hours of microsurgery and use of the headlight. Proper strengthening, massage, and chiropractic adjustments can do much to keep the surgeon from going under the knife.
We each have “weak” areas in our bodies that can become symptomatic when we are stressed. Teaching the patient to recognize the early symptoms of such stress and counter with a variety of holistic modalities to strengthen the system is the basis of holistic medicine. The particular modality is less important than the timing of the intervention. Waiting too long allows collapse of the system so that a more prolonged recovery is necessary. Modalities including homeopathic remedies, nutritional supplements, herbal medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture or acupressure, energy medicine, massage, chiropractic and various other physical modalities such as hydrotherapy. All have one feature in common; they help strengthen the human energy system in some manner. It is this “field” effect that characterizes holistic medicine from traditional medicine. Whereas traditional medicine uses specific intervention, either medical or surgical, to deal with specific “causes” of disease, holistic medicine fights disease by strengthening the body’s natural defenses. The offending problem then disappears as the system returns to homeostasis. This method has the advantage of avoiding the side effects that may accompany traditional medical treatment.
The use of medical intuitive techniques allows one not only to evaluate the patient’s energy system but also to ascertain the specific problems that lead to the loss of energy in the area. By placing my left hand over the body’s chakras, or energy systems, I receive information about the human energy system that is useful in both diagnosis and treatment. Rebalancing the energy through techniques of energy medicine allows patients to recover more quickly not only from surgery but also from injury and illness. I also receive information on the patient’s willingness to release the energy, for no healing can occur without the patient’s participation. We have seen or heard of patients “willing” themselves to death in some instances, despite the fact there was little clinically wrong with them.
In 1996, I had the opportunity to study another clinical problem that was affecting thousands of women. These women became ill with a progressive disease that affected the immune system and the neurological system and improved after the proper removal of the leaking or ruptured silicone gel implants. I became aware that my own silicone implants were leaking in 1995, ten years after placement, which correlates with engineering data, which shows leakage usually between eight and 15 years. My symptoms, which included local chest wall symptoms, neurological symptoms and weakening of the immune system, paralleled those that I was seeing in hundreds of women coming to see me for explantation. In fact, in 1996 with the deadline for removal of ruptured implants, I was too busy to have my own implants removed until early ’97. When I underwent surgery in January of 1997, both implants were leaking and postoperatively I experienced an acute exacerbation of the silicone symptoms as the leaking silicone was released into my body. My surgeons had not removed the capsules as was recommended, so for several months I fought a progressive metabolic, neuromuscular and immunological collapse, with my weight going down to 15 pounds below my normal body weight. I sought holistic modalities to stimulate the immune system and detoxify the body from the silicone load released during surgery. Within eight months, my immune system gradually improved, with the sinusitis I had developed during the last three years resolving and the periodontal inflammation noted by my dentist resolving years after explantation. I still have some neurological symptoms but they are less now. I have used this personal experience and the combined experience of over 1,000 patients with this illness to develop a holistic protocol, which used in combination with surgery to remove the gross silicone from the body, has been successful in many women suffering from this illness. The more recalcitrant cases have usually been in women who have had leaking or ruptured implants for over ten years.
Why has traditional medicine been unable to comprehend this illness? I believe it is the same reason that traditional medicine cannot comprehend other energetic disorders such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. These are diseases of the energy system. Many of these illnesses result from accumulated toxins that the body cannot effectively eliminate. Detoxification and enhancement of the immune systems and endocrine systems are much more successful than are standard muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory agents prescribed by traditional medicine. Through nutritional support, endocrine and immune system support, proper exercise, proper stress reduction techniques and detoxification programs, we see these conditions improve.
I believe that intuitive diagnosis and energy medicine are the future of medicine. We will not only gain insight into the cause of injury and disease but will also more effectively treat the disturbance in the energy system using more energy-based techniques than specific medications. Preventative medicine will teach patients to become aware of their bodies and deal with stress before it settles into the physical body.
As Plato said: “The cure of many diseases is unknown to physicians. They are ignorant of the whole, which ought to be studied also. For the part can never be well unless the whole is well. This is the great error of our day in the treatment of the human body, that the physician separates the soul from the body.”
Isn’t it time we took Plato’s words to heart and began to treat the whole patient?
Suggested Reading
The Naked Truth About Breast Implants: From Harm to Healing by Susan E. Kolb, M.D., F.A.C.S., A.B.I.H.M.
Visit our website to read about Dr. Kolb’s personal experiences and extensive knowledge of the potential dangers associated with silicone and saline breast implants.
Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change by Stephanie Marohn
Visit our website to read about the anthology of over 40 women leaders in diverse fields of human endeavor where Dr. Kolb is a contributing author.
Optimism! Cultivating the Magic Quality that Can Extend Your Lifespan, Boost Your Energy, and Make You Happy Now by Stephanie Marohn. Visit our website to read about world-famous leaders from every sphere of human endeavor revealing the secrets that kept them going during the tough times where Dr. Kolb is a contributing author.
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