Dr Robert J Dronyk, D.C., N.D London West Health Center

1. Dr Robert J Dronyk, D.C., N.DLondon West Health Center • This is material presented by Dr Dronyk regarding his belief system re AM (Allopathic Medicine) vs CAM; I post it as corroborative support for his lecture in class on Feb 7/06; it is intended to supplement what he presented • rdronyk@allstream.net • (519) 471-1917

2. Dr Robert Dronyk Dr Robert J Dronyk, D.C., N.DLondon West Health Center

3. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic Medicine • Linear, reductionistic, mechanistic • Based on Newtonian principles • Emphasis on treating effects – signs & symptoms • Preservation of life – emergency med • A system whereby you become a customer involuntarily

4. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic Medicine • Average patient doesn’t believe s/he is responsible for own health • Something outside body is responsible for illness • MD / drugs / surgery / radiation • Kill it, suppress it, cut it out please • ‘One bug, one drug’ mentality

5. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic Medicine • Negative lab test – haven’t got it • No name – it isn’t real • Can’t be measured – it isn’t there • Can’t treat it – learn to live with it, all in your mind, patient is abandoned

6. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic Medicine • doctor-patient relationship based on Aesculapian authority • Source from patient, fear of death • Use of fear and science to control • 3 types of power confer certain rights on MD

7. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic Medicine • 1. Sapiential – expounding wisdom – right to give advice – knowledge & expertise • 2. Moral – control and direct patient based on the rightness and goodness of medical ethic • 3. Charismatic – right to control and direct patient by virtue of their “priestly role” as a healer of disease

8. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic Medicine • Primary function of MD’s power is to confer sick role on patient and - patient admits to being ill - submits to treatment - curtails/alters normal activities accordingly - patient relieved of responsibility for illness – marketing of meds • Medical authority ends with the termination of the illness – impaired, not recovered

9. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic MedicinePrestige Ratings of MDs • 1. active/passive – MD active, patient passive recipient of treatment – hiest social prestige • 2. guidance/co-operation – MD tells the patient what to do and the patient cooperates • 3. mutual cooperation – MD helps the patient help themselves • Physical medicine, preventive medicine and psychiatry lowest prestige

10. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic Medicine • 50%+ are specialists • Specialties a response to proliferation of knowledge • Patient needs only according to the service they can offer • World is enamoured of complexity • Who is coordinating their efforts

11. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic Medicine • Medicine, with its proliferation of specialties has been unable to produce a true and unified knowledge of humans and disease and views the patients as passive recipients of the curative technology which is largely aimed at correcting effects instead of causes

12. Integration Pros & ConsA. Allopathic Medicine • Leads to an increasingly frustrated & disappointed public • Medicine a business: ~ drug that cures ~ drug that treats signs & symptoms • Medicine has forgotten that it is an and that science is merely a tool of that art

13. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM • Non-linear, vitalistic • Mind/body/spirit • Whole person treated so holistic • simplistic

14. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM • Basic law of the universe is economy • Facts are accumulated by effort but truth reveals itself effortlessly • Everything fits and serves a purpose

15. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM • ND as a health coach • Support innate healing using therapies and substances • Authority from patient who pays us • Their cooperation, direction etc varies from patient to patient

16. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM • See ND for treatment • AM – emphasis on treating effects • CAM – emphasis on healing • Treatment geared to needs/wants of patient’s wishes and sometimes finances

17. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM • All life processes are in fact, non-linear • Everything is connected to everything else • Duality is an illusion • Subjective and objective are one and the same • Can’t separate mind-body-spirit

18. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM • The observable world is world of effects • Can only measure what is perceived by the senses • We and science are trying to make sense of life and its experience (organic and non-linear) by defining it in terms that are linear i.e. logical/rational • Not all causes are within the observable world

19. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM • Physiologically speaking, in our choice of attitude, thoughts, feelings, words and actions, we choose between anabolic endorphins or catabolic adrenaline • The mind thinks with the body itself

20. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM – stress as an example • AM – stress is the source of many human health disorders and illnesses • CAM – address source of stress - how you respond to stressor is what’s important, not what happens

21. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM • Many aspects, treatments, therapies of CAM are energetic but differ from AM that doesn’t recognize any energies other than mechanical, electrical or chemical

22. Integration Pros & Cons:B. CAM • Homeopathy • Acupuncture • Chiropractic • Ayurvedic • AK • TBM • HT • Prayer • Any hands on/off therapy

23. CAM/NHP use in Canada • Hiest in BC at 41% and lowest in Atlantic at 3-9% • 15% in Ontario and Quebec • 6% of Canadians use CAM exclusively

24. CAM/NHP use in Canada • 18 yrs and older – 15% in 94-95 to 19% in 98-99 • Use greater with high school and above education vs lower education • Use greater with household income above $50,000; lowest under $20,000 • Women 19% use • Men 14% use

25. Reasons for Increased Popularity of CAM/NHP • Increasing prevalence of chronic disease • Greater public access to a) global health info and b) increasing numbers of CAM practitioners • Reduced deference for decision-making role of MDs • Increased desire for hier quality of life • Disease prevention

26. Reasons for Increased Popularity of CAM/NHP • Reducing stress • Conservative treatment of disease • Symptomatic relief • Compatibility with one’s belief system • Desire to take control over their own health • Disillusionment / fear of conventional care

27. Reasons for Increased Popularity of CAM/NHP • Terminally ill • Medical failures • 42% CAM treatment used for existing illness • 58% CAM treatment used to prevent future illness/maintain health and vitality

28. Reasons for Increased Popularity of CAM/NHP • Canadians using NHPs in 99 – 70% and in 2001, 75% • In 98-99, 19% Cdns used CAM • Cdns spent 3.8 billion $ on CAM & NHP betw 96 and 97 • Cdns making significant use of HC approaches outside mainstream medicine

29. Other Thoughts • Health care system vs disease care system • CAM can be used mechanistically • AM can be used vitalistically • Much of AM today is after the fact medicine • Applies to CAM as well

30. Other Thoughts • WHO survey in 2000: The US spends more per person on health care than any other country, yet in overall quality, its care ranks 37th in the world

31. Other Thoughts • Our current patterns of disease would be unrecognizable to our great grandparents or, for that matter, most mammals. Put succinctly, we get different diseases and are likely to die in different ways from most of our ancestors ~ Robert M Sapolsky – Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, 1998

32. Other Thoughts • The diseases that plague us now are ones of slow accumulation of damage – heart disease, cancer, cerebro-vascular disorders • 8 of top 10 diseases are directly related to poor nutrition • What are they ?

33. 1 heart disease 36% 2 cancer 22.3% 3 Allopathic medicine, ADR, mistakes etc 7.1% 4 Accidents 4.6% 5 Pulmonary Diseases 3.6% Pneumonia, flu 3.3 % Diabetes 1.8% Suicide 1.5% Atherosclerosis 1.1% All other causes 3.4% They are…

34. Nutrition • Comprehensive review of vitamins concluded that people of normal health do not need to take a multi-vitamin and can meet all their nutritional needs thru diet ~ JAMA, early 1980s • Insufficient vitamin intake a major cause of chronic disease ~ JAMA, June 19, 2002

35. Nutrition • Given today’s diet, daily supplementation with multi vitamin is a prudent preventative measure against chronic disease • This conclusion based on some 38 years of scientific evidence

36. Nutrition • Are nutritional supplements safe ? • In 94, over 2.2 million patients experienced serious drug reactions • 106,000 died from “appropriate use of pharmaceuticals • Mortality from nutritional supps from 87-94 = 5 deaths (US Poison Control Center)

37. Nutrition • Death by medicine, mistakes and adverse reactions to appropriate drugs is # 3 killer of North Americans • Viagra linked to more than 500 deaths with 15,000 heart attacks, strokes and other vascular events; many had no previous medical problems

38. Integrated Health Care Involves • Use of AM/CAM/NHP together • Consumers have right and ability to make informed choices re HC options • Effective communication among all parties, patient, MD, ND, others & gov’t • Remove roadblocks of consumers to discussing CAM therapy with MDs • Access to NHPs; OTC restrictions; CAM scope of practice; no MD pre-approval

39. Terrain • 1. AM - germ theory - genes • 2. CAM – terrain - toxins

40. Terrain • Disease – a definite morbid process having a characteristic train of symptoms • Symptoms: they are associated with a given disease and are a manifestation of the body’s defense system activated against endogenous and/or exogenous toxins

41. Process of Disease All disease characterized by 3 process: • 1 excretion of toxins • 2 deposition of toxins • 3 degeneration by toxins

42. Process of Disease • 1. Life • 2. Functional Pathologies • Excretion • Deposition • 3. Lesional Pathologies • Degeneration • 4. Death

43. Toxin and Poison • Toxin: pertaining to, due to, or of the nature of, a poison • Poison: any substance which when ingested, inhaled or absorbed or when applied to, or injected into, or developed within the body, in action may cause disturbance of function or damage to structure

44. Toxic Accumulation • Results from • Auto-intoxication • Hetero-intoxication – poisoning by material introduced from outside the body • Toxins are taken out of the body by drainage through emunctories

45. Emunctories – Primary • Liver • Kidney • Skin • Intestines • Mucous membranes • Lymphatics

46. Emunctories – Secondary • Nose • Lungs • Stomach • Pancreas • Bladder • Genitals

47. Emunctories – Vehicles • Blood • Lymph • Synovial fluid • Cerebro-spinal fluid • Air • Water

48. Terrain • An ecosystem • Auto-regulatory • Accepts what’s nutritive • Rejects what’s intoxicating and threatening to its survival

49. Types of Treatment1. Mechanical • Fasting • Colonics • Manipulation • Physiotherapy • RMT

50. Types of Treatment2. Biochemical • Botanicals • Vitamins • Minerals • Enzymes • Chelation • Oligotherapy