Dr. Holden's Story
A twin, born in a small Louisiana town to unconditionally loving parents with three sisters and four brothers, I graduated from medical school and an Internal Medicine residency, became board certified in Internal Medicine, and began the practice of allopathic medicine. Coming from a background of healthcare practioners with two of my sisters and my mother being nurses, and my oldest brother, an uncle, and many cousins being doctors, I was inspired by my family to follow a medical career path. Also, my intuition led me to become a practitioner of the art of medicine because I knew I wanted to help others heal, and in that process, heal myself.
Over the past 15 years, I have practiced traditional Internal Medicine (adult primary care), but over the past 5 years, I began to explore complementary and alternative methods of healing. Having once been a hard core skeptic of non-traditional healthcare, I decided to see for myself if any of the alternative medicine I was hearing about really worked or not. I was always fascinated with the "laying on of hands" by Christian healers, and couldn't fathom how it could possibly work. So I started by exploring Reiki, an ancient Japanese form of "laying on of hands," a type of energy medicine powered by a prayerful intention.
I sought out every non-traditional type of healer I could find to experience their work, and to my amazement, found that it helped alleviate many ailments I had, from painful conditions to gastrointestinal symptoms, to anxiety. Was it just the power of the suggestion? Did I just get better because I started to believe in it? It doesn't really matter because it worked. Those healers, on some level, facilitated some type of healing in myself. Some healers seemed to be more "tapped in" as I call it, and whose work seemed to be more effective. I had to find out why this is so because in knowing that, I could myself become a better practitioner.
I began to read every good book I could get my hands on about complementary and alternative medicine ranging from ancient Shamanism, Healing Touch, Integrative Manual Therapy, Resonance Repatterning, The Reconnection, Matrix Energetics,Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, European Biological Medicine, homeopathy, herbology, digestive enzymes, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, microcurrent therapy, cranial electrotherapy stimulation, sound therapy, healing with crystal bowls and Tibeten bowls, light therapy, chanting, toning, neurofeedback, biofeedback, guided imagery, holistic nutrition, and Functional Medicine. This list goes on. After I would read about each specific therapy, I would seek out a practitioner, and either correspond with them or get treated by them. I was amazed! It all works to some degree. What is the common denominator?
I found that the common denominator is first and foremost the power of intention. Of course. How could I believe in the power of prayer, and then arrogantly disregard the power of intention in any healing modality? I couldn't. The power of intention manifests at all planes of existence - body, mind, and spiritual. The mind is the link between our physical bodies and the spiritual plane. It turns out that our minds have the potential to hurt or heal us. Just look at the placebo effect and nocebo effect.
The placebo and nocebo effect in clinical trials of medications is when an inert or inactive substance such as a sugar pill causes a physical response in the body just through a belief that it is a pharmacologically active substance. Placebo effects are positive and nocebo effects are negative. Current research through functional brain imaging such as functional MRI and SPECT scanning shows that the placebo effect causes an actual physiologic change in the brain and the body's functions. This fact drives the makers of antidepressants crazy because to be FDA approved, they must beat the placebo effect. In many antidepressant studies, they are unable to beat the placebo effect, and most of those studies are not published. The "latest and greatest" antidepressant on the market shows a placebo effect approaching 40%! And in most clinical trials of new medications, the placebo effect averages around 30%.
I am not saying the placebo effect is the power in complementary and alternative medicine, but what I am saying that the body has its own inner physician that can be nudged to work effectively by just about any method with the right intention, belief and action. As a traditionally trained physician, I do not disregard the effectiveness of traditional allopathic medicine, but I do feel that not enough consideration is given to holistic wellness and prevention in that field, especially in regards to nutrition. The "best of" medical therapies combine the power in both traditional and non-traditional healthcare, and recognizes the importance of individual spiritual beliefs.
I also recognize the reproducible effectiveness of interventions at the metabolic level, such as found with vitamins for treating elevated homocysteine levels with B6, folic acid, and B12 to help reduce cardiovascular risk, and the effectiveness of probiotics for conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Those are just a few of the effective therapies found in the new and burgeoning field of Functional Medicine. Functional Medicine practitioners use special lab tests to assess for metabolic imbalances and toxicities to know where to intervene with therapies.
Most new concepts in medicine, especially if they are esoteric in nature, are dragged through the mud by traditional healthcare providers, and doctors are some of the worse skeptics. I should know because I used to be the biggest skeptic. We are trained in medical school to only use "proven" therapeutic modalities. The truth is that all therapies must start out as non-proven before they can be proven. And even then, the mind and body are too complex for us to scientifically know how it all works anyway. If we could ask the doctors who first figured out that there were microorganisms causing infection, and demanded that physicians wash their hands between patients, they would describe the ridicule they experienced. All pioneers in medicine were ridiculed at first until the truth came to light. Thanks to all of you pioneers who came before me. You are a true inspiration.
So in honor of the pioneering spirit of change and transformation, I created a new type of medical practice that has at its core, a respect for the Divine in all of us. That Divinity, which when properly supported, can heal body, mind and spirit.
