Wholistic Health & Healing
Whenever we treat a person with cancer, or any disease for that matter, we must first approach the root- base or source. Every stream on earth has a source, and every plant has a root, and every person has a ‘vital force.’ - “If we water a root, it will grow and branches will sprout; these are the laws of nature. The experienced physician, therefore, will always consider the source.”
The African Naturopathic Medecine is an integrative and wholistic approach to significantly improving patient quality-of-life and lifespan. The African Naturopathic Medecine model serves as a highly innovative practitioner’s guide for developing personalized, patient centered treatment regimens for those with chronic illness and cancer.
The innovation of the African Naturopathic Medecine is based on a series of discoveries most of them a result of hard clinical work, scientific data, and deep introspection. The emergence of this model culminates from over twenty years of clinical practice, which I consider to be my healing quest.
Throughout this pilgrimage, I have learned the importance of embracing the mystery in healing as much as applying scientific evidence-based medicine. This is the underlying truth of the African Naturopathic Medecine. Thus there is no sharp distinction made between the mystical or philosophical contributions and the applicable discoveries of modern medicine, which are seamlessly united in the wholism of the African Naturopathic Medecine.
In looking at the whole person, we come to understand that cancer is part of self, rather than seeing the cancer as an isolated entity. Cancer invariably involves a cascade of highly complex contributing factors that are, in part, hereditary genetic weaknesses.
However, these factors vary widely from person to person. For instance, there are hundreds of different types of breast cancer, which are constantly undergoing change and mutation, and still underneath each type is a unique individual. It is our commitment to understand and positively affect what is endogenous, while at the same time understand what is exogenous and can be positively changed.
The African Naturopathic Medecine integrates principles essential to the treatment of cancer from both traditional and modern medical systems and employs herbal medicine as its primary treatment modality. This immensely rich herbal foundation stems from the African Traditional and herbal cultures with the incorporation with knowledge in natural medicine and from all over the world, with direct collaboration with extensive medical system and modern technology.
The methodology behind the African Naturopathic Medecine is a complex interweaving of modern science with the constitutional energetics and spiritual philosophies of these traditional medical systems. The theoretical basis of these systems provides a framework for developing novel therapeutic strategies while incorporating the best of wholistic and conventional medicine supported by modern science.
The African Naturopathic Medecine is comprised of different interwoven branches :
One of the first branch examines the personal energetic processes and core constitution of the individual (spirit, mind, body) evaluated from an individualized perspective, taking into account aspects such as the efficiency of the secreting endocrine organs and detoxification systems, dietary habits, and lifestyle factors such as sleep patterns, stress, and the inner spirit.
When assessing the constitutional energetics and physiology of the human being in this particular branch, the African Naturopathic Medecine draws from traditional medical systems while adapting them to contemporary conditions.
Thus the African Naturopathic Medecine approach is always based upon the two essential and universal opposing but interpenetrating energetic forces - the inward/anabolic and the outward/catabolic.
The fundamental physical and psychic substances or dimensions of the individual we term LOUVOH - Vital Force, Essence and Spirit, which in turn emanate through the organ network systems, (which, much like their counterparts other medicinal approch in the world do not correspond directly to their biomedical or anatomic namesakes).
The LOUVOH - Vital Energetic Influences ‘Treasures’ also represent different states on a continuum from the physical to the most subtle and non-material. The Vital Force relates to metabolism, cellular energy transfer, mitochondrial efficiency, and the use of proteins, fats, sugars, and oxygen. It involves the digestive system and lungs, immune system, blood, and bone marrow and emanates primarily through the Digestive-Spleen Organ Network.
The Vital Essence relates to the neuroendocrine (or psychoneuroendocrine) system and emanates through the kidney organ network. It involves the hypothalamic-pituitary endocrine systems and their hormones that contribute to adaptation, growth, reproduction, circadian rhythym and development whilst underlying many aspects of mind and emotion.
The Vital Spirit relates to the spiritual everlasting energy, God Almighty, living and dwelling within. It emanates primarily through the heart organ network. Vital Essence and Vital Force thus both contribute to Vital Spirit, but in clinical practice, each component of this Vital triad must always be assessed in terms of their relative contribution to the state of the individual.
The second Branch examines the human relationship with the external environment, which can be positive, negative or indifferent. This includes factors such as the space a person occupies and with which they interact; and their perceptions and influences including cultural, social, psychic and physical levels on the inhibition or promotion of disease.
The second Branch investigates how environmental factors (stressors), including chemicals, drugs, and diet, geographical location, emotion and socioeconomic relationships affect gene expression. These exogenous stressors impact directly and indirectly on the intricate network of molecular interactions that are associated with the genesis, development and progression of cancer.
By systematically identifying these exogenous factors we can both reduce exposure to damaging influences while simultaneously implementing a treatment plan (dietary, nutritional and botanical) that provides specific and nonspecific protection and prevention (or chemoprevention) of cancer tumorigenesis and also epigenetically modify the cancer genome itself in individuals with a cancer diagnosis.
Exogenous factors, such as being with and relating to Nature, eating a meal of super medicinal food, listening to healing music, getting modest sun exposure, can contribute to healthy gene expression in a positive way.
The Third Branch examines the intracellular and extracellular terrain(field), involving the energetic, physiological and molecular biology and genetics of cancer. Since cancer both responds to yet at the same time alters the molecular, metabolic and genomic terrain of the host, the third Branch investigates not only the molecular and genetic profile of the tumor itself but its interaction with the individual host factors (those that comprise the first Branch and might have been induced from aspects within the second Branch).
Thus in the African Naturopathic Medecine, a thorough oncological investigation involves not only a complete molecular characterization of the tumor, but also a detailed interpretation of the blood chemistry and laboratory values and parameters of the patient not typically included in conventional medical assessments.
In this post-genomic era, modern medicine has begun to recognize the importance of identifying the molecular and genetic characteristics of cancer cells in each individual patient.
Understanding these individual characteristics has opened many possibilities, including earlier detection of and more effective screening for cancer, as well as identifying the the aggressiveness and metastatic potential of a diagnosed tumor, thereby improving prognostic assessment and appropriate treatment selection in terms of type and duration, and even enabling prediction of response to treatment.
The emerging concept and practice of "targeted therapy" flows from the fact that many tumor mutations and polymorphisms provide specific targets for a new generation of drugs that are genetically engineered to uniquely attack, antagonize or inhibit such factors. However, the promise of targeted therapy has yet to be realized: the modern targeted drugs are few, prohibitively expensive, offering minimal benefits in survival, and have many, often serious, adverse effects.
For the African Naturopathic Medicine practitioner however, the value of comprehensive tumor profiling and good laboratory testing in the third Branch provides important clues that that enable the preparation and selection of herbal medicines in ways that extend, refine and deepen the original herbal and dietary approaches to cancer treatment that evolved within traditional medical systems.
In the last decade, enormous research interest and effort is creating an expanding knowledgebase of scientific data about the interaction of botanical and natural compounds with cancer biology at cellular, molecular and biochemical levels.
When these insights are integrated with the third Branch assessments of the intracellular and extracellular terrain, individualized botanical /nutritional protocols can be designed to address the molecular targets and pathways revealed by the tumor profiling that have unprecedented therapeutic specificity and effectiveness as well as freedom from side effects.
African Naturopathic Medicine - Classifications of Botanical Medicine
- Adaptogens (Primary, Secondary, and Companion)
- Tonics to enhance and harmonize the Vital Essence, Vital Force, and/or Vital Spirit; the Five Organ Networks, Liver, Blood, Inward and Outward Energy, and Anabolic / Catabolic metabolism.
- Neuroendocrine/Immune system Activators /Modulators, and/or other pathway regulators
- Organ system Enhancers / Protectors /Detoxifiers
- Alteratives to improve cellular nutrition and lymphatic drainage
- Cytotoxics (anti-metabolites, apoptotic inducers)
- Specifics based on presenting symptoms and/or constitutional evaluation
Thus the African Naturopathic Medicine practitioners necessarily stay abreast of the most up-to-date scientific research, not only in oncology, but in botanical medicine and the molecular biology of natural compounds. This includes both the science at molecular, cellular, and genomic levels, as well as the wholistic view of the human being as the higher order generated through the unified functioning of the integrated human organ systems.
The African Naturopathic Medicine practitioner recognizes the innate intelligence of the human system and its ability to adapt and respond accordingly through allostasis in the face of challenges and disturbances, and to use all available means to regulate itself by appropriately adaptive biological, cellular, immunological and hormonal responses.
This adaptive capability is compromised in people with chronic illness and cancer, and is the constant platform from which the African Naturopathic Medicine practitioner seeks to build upon by offering foundational support through the use of botanical medicine in the form of tonics such as adaptogens, nutritives, and organ system enhancers, as well as nutritional and dietary therapeutics.
The goal of the African Naturopathic Medicine practitioner is to apply these therapies to enhance the health of the internal terrain and improve the ability to resist disease. To enhance response rather than dictate functionality is a fundamental core concept of the African Naturopathic Medicine.
The African Naturopathic Medicine emphasizes the practice of ‘healthy medicine’, which is aimed at the root source of ill-health, with the primary focus being to bring about harmony and balance throughout the body, together with target-specific, non-toxic, or low-toxicity cancer-suppressing agents. This is achieved through the application of synergistic multi-targeting herbal and nutritional formulations, dietary therapeutics, and specific cancer-targeting therapies as indicated.
While targeted chemotherapy may also be needed, low doses and metronomic administration are often more effective than “standard of care” guidelines. When approaching a disease such as cancer, it is important to formulate a balanced protocol that addresses both the characteristics of the disease (tumor) as well as the energetic weaknesses of the individual (host).
It is when the energy of cancer overrides the internal healing ability of the person that it impacts on their health and causes serious damage. These two dynamic aspects, namely the ‘cancer energy’, and the internal healing energy of the individual, should be addressed with an understanding of the relationship, dynamics, and interplay that co-exist between them.
The African Naturopathic Medicine provides a framework for mapping out a strategic plan that is adaptable to each individual and their unique circumstances. This plan acknowledges the multitude of disease- contributing factors, both internal and external environmental influences, as well as the internal environmental factors that have been altered by cancer.
It addresses the molecular and cell- biological characteristics, as well as important energetic factors, while simultaneously encouraging the innate human capacity to heal – a concept foundational to african traditional herbal medical models but largely ignored by conventional medicine.
African Naturopathic Medicine - Categories of Intervention /Treatment Modalities:
- Botanical Medicine
- Nutritional Medicine
- Dietary Medicine
- Conventional Medicine
- Traditional Medical Techniques and Practices
- Lifestyle Counsel
- Spiritual and Psychological Guidance
For example, specific agents, natural and/or pharmaceutical may conduct targeted activity against tumor angiogenesis and metastatic progression while African Naturopathic Medicine therapies also work to build resistance and protect the person’s vital energy and immune system from the damaging effects of conventional cytotoxic treatments.
The fundamental objective of the African Naturopathic Medicine is to support the strength or vitality of the person, thereby providing the energy necessary to maintain the essential processes of cellular reproduction that enable the subject to thrive, while gaining control over the ‘cancer energy’, so that it becomes weak to the point that it can no longer invade and manipulate the internal environment for its own survival.
The African Naturopathic Medicine cancer protocols are designed to work synergistically with standard conventional treatment plans but often may involve making changes to the “standard of care” treatments generally prescribed by oncologists.
Again, within the African Naturopathic Medicine model, the practitioner aims to employ the most appropriate treatment for the individual, as opposed to the generally accepted treatments based solely on statistical analyses (clinical trials) of heterogenous patient groups bearing the same diagnosis.
At times, herbal and nutritional therapies alone can effectively target multiple disease pathways and are preferred when there is greater risk than benefit in using strong drug therapies, surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. The coordinated team effort of patient, African Naturopathic Medicine practitioner and oncologist is essential to ensure that the options, timing, and type of treatment are all taken into account at each stage to optimize outcomes.
My hope is that the African Naturopathic Medicine will become the future of medicine, that which removes ego and fear, replacing it with compassion, humility, love, and wisdom. The African Naturopathic Medicine is a unique synthesis of the spiritual and physical perspectives, being uncompromising in its quest for truth in both realms.
My personal practice of the African Naturopathic Medicine, like the improvisations of a jazz musician, is infused by a spiritual force that harmonizes rhythm, melody, and the artful expression of human science into the whole it was meant to be.
Through analysis of the objective experience recorded by millions of doctors and billions of patients over the last five millennia, combined with the modern scientific facts, theories, and statistical findings used as the basis of our modern biomedical system, the African Naturopathic Medicine represents the culmination of the human potential for achieving a truly integrated medical system.
I firmly believe that applying this model in a specific, patient-centered format provides the best means to significantly improve patients’ quality- of-life and greatly contributes to increased longevity.
Conclusions
Thus the African Naturopathic Medicine is truly integrative in its wholism - it acknowledges that all levels and dimensions are of necessity involved in all aspects of the system.
Approaching African Naturopathic Medicine requires that there be a freeing of the mind from acquired perceptions, and all other natural limitations due to differences of mentality and culture, as well as fear and ego, all of which cloud the truth and pursuit of healing.
The African Naturopathic Medicine practitioner and the physician , for example with the (oncologist), must be willing to respectfully forge ahead remaining loyal to each others respective viewpoints, and dogmas, in order to succeed in getting to know each other, creating undoubtedly a way towards unity, and ultimately limitless success. The African Naturopathic Medicine is a longing for the desire and applications of such a union, creating a sea of essence and endless potential.
Physiology, pathology and treatment are inseparable from consciousness, mind and spirit which penetrate all levels from molecular to the mystical. Within the African Naturopathic Medicine the knowing (the application of knowledge) modern scientific contributions to the challenges of cancer and other diseases, join in union with the traditional energetic medical contributions, which are both scientific and knowing, but are also unknowing (the application of wisdom).
You cannot explain every aspect of herbal medicine in the way you can the action of a single drug. Not only do these two approaches work side-by-side within the African Naturopathic Medicine, but they support and complete each other.
Within the interior of African Naturopathic Medicine is a reflection of the ultimate union, which is between heaven and earth, all the way to the vital end – union with the divine. In order to see, believe and benefit from such a system - the individual- both medically speaking, and generally speaking, must undergo a change and be transformed at the level of human nature itself.
This change is not only spiritual but also bodily – and hence is cosmic, as above so below. It is a medicine that the interior of inner prayer is applying in the quietude while the synergism of the African Naturopathic Medicine model is applied outwardly. The African Naturopathic Medicine is a healing medical model that the interior of inner prayer is applied in the quietude while the synergism of the integrative treatment plan is applied outwardly.
The African Naturopathic Medicine as been influenced by a diversity of ethic and cultural medical traditions and factors, as well as the specific herbal medicines, that of been used from around the world for healing.
Modern nutrition, such as orthomolecular nutrition, and modern conventional medicine also contribute to this model. These various system are not separate or practiced in their traditional way but rather homogenous secured by a common quest of the utmost benefit we can give those in need of healing, with the embodiment of Love and Compassion.
The evolutionary development of the African Naturopathic Medicine has been revealed as resulting from six contributing thematic elements or components -
· Traditional-Classical Element,
· Modern-Scientific Element,
· Analytical element,
· Intellectual Element,
· The Intuitive-Musical Element
· Contemplative-Spiritual Element
These elements must not be merely seen as superimposed layers, but dynamic streams rising one after another; they diverge, cross one another, meet, continue with each other, and ultimately harmonize and support each other.