There is a common adage that says: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Perhaps, there is no more stark application of this saying than in one’s personal health. In this brief article of two parts, I would like to touch on the preventive medicine we practice here at PMC. In forthcoming posts and newsletter articles, I will elaborate on the different aspects of preventive and integrative medicine and the services we offer here.
There are two commonly known components that factor into preventing disease: exercise and diet. At PMC, we are considering the different exercise plans “out there” that abound in order to help our patients. We will probably not attempt to reinvent the wheel on approaches to physical fitness. For now, however, find a routine that works for you, and stick to it while occasionally mixing it up with different exercises or plans. No matter where you are at now in terms of your own physical fitness, keep this rule of thumb in mind: Do a little more than you are doing right now. This especially applies to those who do not have any exercise routine. If that’s the case, start scheduling brisk walks into your schedule. Sign up for an aerobics, kickboxing or a swimming class. Find something you think you could enjoy. Exercise does not have to be all pain.
The other component that aids in preventing disease is diet. This is the time of the year when people think most about dieting. I will write later on the notion of being “on diets” and diet as a lifestyle. If you go “on a diet”, it should be calculated on your ideal body weight and blood type. We offer suggestions at PMC on how to go about that. Most people do not know that even allergies to foods you normally eat contribute to weight gain, fatigue and pain of all sorts. I can help you assess what are the best foods to complement your exercise. Like exercise, dieting should not have to be all drudgery.
January 24, 2008
Ounces of Prevention, Part 1
January 18, 2008
My Journey into Integrative Medicine
It all started with my decision to go to medical school: my desire to be involved in the healing process of the sick and to maintain the physiology and/or reverse pathophysiological processes.
During my years of study, I discovered physiology and biochemistry most fascinating and challenging. To be able to maintain that was a gift and a great skill. However, pharmacology came into the curriculum and I noticed an even bigger challenge on how to keep these three parameters balanced without the “non-nocere” aspect of the career for which I had so diligently prepared. How could I put so many different toxic substances in an already overburdened body? This question became even more of a challenge when I began my residency in Family Practice. At that time, the prescription pad became my most powerful tool and the drug companies became my most regular visitors. Sometimes, I felt the presence of pharmaceutical reps more than the patients, many times in the form of them hosting lectures with their selected speakers at in-house luncheons or dinners at fine eateries.
Soon enough, I realized that I had become a pawn in the medical industrial complex, where every doctor is a walking million dollars to a hospital, pharmaceutical company or an insurance company. I became very disillusioned and felt I had lost my uniqueness as an individual. I felt violated.
Meanwhile, my health also suffered, and in time, I developed a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis. Through a challenging process and with the encouragement and help of my wife, I decided to treat my rheumatoid arthritis without the drugs by changing my poor dietary habits that got me there in the first place. I began taking supplements and educating myself on each of them. My health and vitality returned and my biological age reversed itself 8-10 years younger. As a result, I started to attend seminar after seminar on Complementary Alternative Medicine topics, implementing all of these newly acquired skills in my practice. Many of my patients, who decided to work with me, began to feel better as I coached them through their health challenges. I experienced that it was possible to restore the physiology and biochemistry of these patients as they followed my program for them. Pathophysiology changed into euphysiology (balanced body function), and I knew I was onto something----something that should have been originally incorporated in my quest to heal people. The rest is history, because all of my focus is on restoring the individual’s terrain and using nutrition and homeopathic care to bring my patients back to health.
Augusto N. Pareja, MD
During my years of study, I discovered physiology and biochemistry most fascinating and challenging. To be able to maintain that was a gift and a great skill. However, pharmacology came into the curriculum and I noticed an even bigger challenge on how to keep these three parameters balanced without the “non-nocere” aspect of the career for which I had so diligently prepared. How could I put so many different toxic substances in an already overburdened body? This question became even more of a challenge when I began my residency in Family Practice. At that time, the prescription pad became my most powerful tool and the drug companies became my most regular visitors. Sometimes, I felt the presence of pharmaceutical reps more than the patients, many times in the form of them hosting lectures with their selected speakers at in-house luncheons or dinners at fine eateries.
Soon enough, I realized that I had become a pawn in the medical industrial complex, where every doctor is a walking million dollars to a hospital, pharmaceutical company or an insurance company. I became very disillusioned and felt I had lost my uniqueness as an individual. I felt violated.
Meanwhile, my health also suffered, and in time, I developed a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis. Through a challenging process and with the encouragement and help of my wife, I decided to treat my rheumatoid arthritis without the drugs by changing my poor dietary habits that got me there in the first place. I began taking supplements and educating myself on each of them. My health and vitality returned and my biological age reversed itself 8-10 years younger. As a result, I started to attend seminar after seminar on Complementary Alternative Medicine topics, implementing all of these newly acquired skills in my practice. Many of my patients, who decided to work with me, began to feel better as I coached them through their health challenges. I experienced that it was possible to restore the physiology and biochemistry of these patients as they followed my program for them. Pathophysiology changed into euphysiology (balanced body function), and I knew I was onto something----something that should have been originally incorporated in my quest to heal people. The rest is history, because all of my focus is on restoring the individual’s terrain and using nutrition and homeopathic care to bring my patients back to health.
Augusto N. Pareja, MD
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