When a physician claims a holistic/ integrative approach to medical care, she usually faces either admiration or incredulity and disgust. I can attest to that from personal experience and my additional training by the integrative/holistic board.

The polarizing response is understandable. On one hand we have science deniers who look at all the life saving advances of evidence based/scientific medicine with suspicion, and use buzz words such as “holistic” as a way of discounting sound science. At the other extreme are the hard core positivists who regard any integration of various approaches to healing as nonscientific and nonsensical.

My approach attempts to encompass the best of gains from validated medical trials and a sound scientific understanding of the basics of anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology with a wider understanding of health and healing. Hence I have found that modalities as mindfulness, nutritional idiosyncrasies, stress management, resolution of psychological conflicts, and body awareness meditation have direct influence on my patients' general state of well being and chronic diseases.

Let’s keep a healthy dose of skepticism for poorly trained and bogus practitioners of dubious therapies while not discounting complementary methods of health and healing.