You know you’re on the right track when people disagree with you. When they start getting angry, you really know you’re on track.
As an Associate Professor at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in the early 1990s, I presented my research results in cardiomyopathy (heart failure) patients. Meticulous research-grade measurements of immune and heart function over time, examining the role of a specific intervention on a group of very ill patients. Some patients with a fatal form of inflammation in the heart (viral myocarditis) had dramatically improved with the intervention. When I uncovered the slide to reveal that the intervention was acupuncture, the silence in the large auditorium was palpable. That day I sat alone in the cafeteria. Perhaps I should have discussed the choice of subject matter with my Chairman beforehand, I wondered?
Today, 20 years later, weekly emails from the Johns Hopkins Health Newsletter are filled with topics like “Fight Disease With Phytochemicals”, and “Holistic Approaches to Arthritis…. to Heart Disease…. to Autoimmune Disease”. Times have changed.
Today, an integrative approach towards heart and other chronic diseases is openly discussed in all our major medical centers, although the majority of attention is still on research and development of more advanced pharmaceutical approaches to treatment. How much longer can we afford to work and think in silos? When we can prevent 80 or more percent of heart disease with lifestyle change now; when the average coronary angioplasty in the US costs $48,000 per procedure at an annual cost of $60 billion. We should devote much greater resources to developing new online methods to increase patient education and empower patients towards a higher level of motivation and compliance.