By Sebastien Bilodeau-Roy

Medicine is a fast evolving science. It’s important for it to do so in itself but also out of its comfortable

rules. The point of medicine is health and balance of the body and mind, and that’s where every effort, practice and medical knowledge should lead.

And that is why alternative medicine is actually an evolution of medicine as a whole. It is an evolution of how we think about health, how we can nourish it and keep it. The older way of thinking of medicine is still sometimes present in some medical doctors. Barely a couple of years ago I heard a doctor saying to a lung cancer patient that he didn’t need to stop smoking; it didn’t matter. But most people feel like they know better than that, so who could put his trust in someone like that? That is someone who doesn’t consider the way we live in regards to our illnesses and our healing.

Or the same way that doctors sometimes feel the need to bring down any “high blood pressure” they see, sometimes without considering why the blood pressure is high: it is to bring the blood where it needs to be, to nourish the body. And if there is a problem with the blood pressure, there are many solutions. The body doesn’t lack a drug; it is not the cause of high blood pressure, so to simply give a drug for the rest of one’s life isn’t exactly what is going to cure the problem or prevent the dreaded heart problems to stop from happening.

Medicine sometimes is stuck, like for a big surgery like putting in a stent, which is a tube put in an artery or vein. It can be helpful, but the problem and the cause for the weak artery isn’t usually the artery itself. So to try to deal with the artery only can be a big mistake.

Of course most doctors now know better. Because there was an evolution of the way we think health and medicine. We opened up to the complexity of what we are made of; of what is in us. Everything is connected. It’s been happening for a while in terms of how we see the connection between different parts of the body, in physiology for example but now it keeps opening up to more true and very real effect, such as the importance of emotions, of the mind in the healing process. The link between the body is such that the mind will greatly affect the body, and the body itself will create emotions or influence the personality. So medicine is starting to be more subtle and precise in the way it thinks and to see the more subtle way the body and the mind works, so that we can better go towards balance and health.

Alternative medicines, like Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Naturopathie, are also an answer to that. In Chinese Medicine and in Acupuncture we need to consider everything in the body so that we can see where the problem comes from. There will be many factors, sometimes many triggers. The fact that those medicines are more and more present is an answer to a need for a greater understanding of health and a more appropriate approach to health.

Medicine knows that health is balance, and that to keep this balance is a work in progress. It’s not something we reach and then get a trophy for it. It’s something to keep working on. Cells never stops working, the heart doesn’t stop beating, the system always digest, repairs and re balance. So why shouldn’t we?

It’s another relatively new idea that is important to consider. This is the reason for personal trainers; it’s the reason for learning relaxation exercises or meditation. More and more medicine teaches so that everybody knows a little bit more how to take care of themselves to last happy and strong for a long time.

We, as a being, must take care of our mind and our body. The mind and body, when left on their own, are full of stress, repetitions, reflexes.

In our culture we know more and more how to take care of the body. We know it needs some exercises, movements, sometimes stretching. It needs good food and rest. The mind we don’t know that much yet, but it often demands some relaxation and distance, control of thoughts and emotions. We want to understand this. It demands accepting reality as it is, it demands for us to perceive things and people as they are.

It’s all medicine. It’s all balance and health. And of course there’s much more to come as things are still being discovered. Minds are still opening up and thus we keep evolving, changing and transforming in a more positive and balanced way.

– Sebastien Bilodeau-Roy is a Doctor in Chinese Medicine. Learn more about Sebastien

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