Our Guiding Principles

These are the principles we follow when treating patients.  Please take the time to read them to gain an understanding of the thought process we use in assessing and treating illness.

1. All true healing is ultimately self-healing.  Any improvements in health that come from being treated at NIM (Natural Integrated Medicine) are due to the patient’s own self-healing response being triggered.  At NIM we do not focus on treating the disease, but on doing whatever is needed to awaken the natural self-healing mechanism inside the patient.

2. The body is designed to always move towards health…if given the appropriate stimulation and kept free from disease causing factors.

3. Barring some rare exceptions, this self-healing response can be achieved using natural, drug-free methods that have been available to mankind for thousands of years.

4. We believe that the body is intelligent by design. While this principle is not new, it is not agreed upon by many in the healthcare field.  Many people believe that the body is not intelligent by design, and is thus not capable of proper functioning without pharmaceutical intervention.

5. We believe that everything has its proper place, including pharmaceutical drugs when they are needed. However, it seems that a dependence on pharmaceuticals is slowly being conditioned into our belief system as a society. Even more disturbing isthe movement to push these medications onto our children. Yes, some of these medications are necessary, but a vast majority are not, and many of these cases can be remedied using natural means.

   1. Have you been told that your condition is INCURABLE and that you need to “learn to live with it”?  We strongly believe that as long as there is still breath within the body, the opportunity to fully and completely recover your health is ALWAYS there.

The manifestations of disease are infinite, but the causes are extremely few.  Treat the cause of the disease and the manifestation will dissolve.

We at Natural Integrated Medicine believe there are 3 main causes of disease in the body:

The First Cause:  Toxins

Stuff that's there, but shouldn't be

This refers to things substances such as heavy metals (mercury, lead, cadmium, etc.), carcinogenic chemicals (petroleum solvents, pesticides, plastics, etc.), allergic substances, endogenous cellular waste that comes from your own body and isn’t being eliminated properly, and others.

It is becoming harder and harder to find clean water, food, and air and this has taken a progressively more severe toll on our health as a society.  Industrial pollution and toxicity has been taken to such a global level that there is now no place on Earth that has not felt their effects.  Even samples of air from the Himalayas have been shown to contain traces of mercury.

A true healing program is not complete if it does not address the issue of detoxification and cleansing of the body’s tissues.

The Second Cause:  Nutrient Deficiencies

Stuff that should be there, but isn't

This refers to the vital nutrients that your body needs for optimal functioning such as: essential fats, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and so on. The food that we eat today is not the same food that our ancestors ate 100 years ago before the advent of commercial farming and genetically modified crops. Due to mineral depletion of the soil, rampant pesticide use, growth hormone and antibiotic injections for livestock, the use of preservatives that prolong shelf-life at the expense of enzyme content, etc., it has become extremely difficult to eat a diet that has all the nutrients your body needs.  A recent study by Rutgers University revealed that in order to get the same nutritional value from one ear of corn in grown in 1949 would require that you eat 19 ears of corn from today’s supermarket.

What about malabsorption?  Many people take a lot of vitamins, supplements, eat a balanced and healthy diet, yet they still suffer from malnutrition. A big reason for this is that their bodies are not efficient at assimilating the vital nutrients from the food that they eat, with much of the unassimilated food being turned into waste (sometimes toxic waste).

Another problem is that many of today’s vitamin supplements are ineffective at restoring true health.  The main reason for this is that most supplements are made from synthetic chemical extracts and not from whole foods.  Your body was designed to extract essential nutrients from FOOD, not chemical extracts. All of the nutritional and herbal supplements that we use are derived from natural, whole foods, in a form that the body can recognize and use.

To this end, an effective program that corrects nutrient deficiencies must be:

1. Capable of addressing digestion and malabsorbtion.

2. Focused on delivering nutrients in a natural, whole food (or herb) base that is non-toxic and recognizable by the body.

3. Individualized and tailored to the patients’ unique health status.  This means no mindless “cookbook” recommendations like taking vitamin D for osteoporosis or selenium for prostate health.

The Third Cause:  Breakdown of the body's communication pathways

The body can't communicate with itself to get things done the way they should

Healing cannot happen if the cells are not communicating with each other in an organized and accurate fashion. Your body has several major communication pathways.  The nervous system communicates electrical impulses, the circulatory system transports blood and nutrients, etc.  Acupuncture places great emphasis on looking at the nervous system as the “master” communication system that dictates the functioning of the other systems.  This is how restoring the function of peripheral nerves on the surface of the skin (where the acupuncture points are) can have an effect on the hormonal, immune, and circulatory health of the patient. We use digital samples of body tissue, reflex testing, and acupuncture to measure and improve the functionality of these communication signals.

Our experience has shown us that the 14 major acupuncture meridians of the body represent a larger functional view of the body’s communication pathways that can be used for the assessment and treatment of illness. Each meridian represents a function that is composed of many different bodily processes that each have to coordinate into one functional unit. The meridians represent a larger view of cellular communication because in order for a specific meridian to flow correctly at the right level of strength/amplitude, a number of biochemical processes related to that meridian must all be in correct order, function, and communication.  This is opposite to the more cumbersome and frustrating approach of trying to micro-manage the different chemical components of the body.

In our clinic, we use a unique method of acupuncture meridian assessment to determine and measure the functionality of the various communication pathways of the body and track patient progress as they move from sickness towards health.  We use this method of assessment to figure out what nutrients they are deficient in, what toxins need to be cleaned out, and how to perform the best acupuncture treatment for that individual.

So in a nutshell, our treatment philosophy is to restore homeostasis and the capacity for self-healing to the body.  We do this by "taking out the bad stuff, putting in the good stuff, and the getting the body to communicate with itself."

Questions and Answers:

So are you saying that almost any disease or chronic illness can be corrected using the above model?

Yes.

What about severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression?

Good question, those disorders are NOT appropriate for care at NIM.  Severe psychiatric disorders such as the above require care under a professional psychologist/psychiatrist.  In cases such as these the patient should ask their psychologist/psychiatrist if care at NIM would be appropriate for them, and even then we will only treat them as a supportive therapy for the treatment that they receive from a professional mental health counselor.

What about mild to moderate psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety?

At NIM we have helped many patients with depression, anxiety, and panic disorder.  We have found that healing the mind and spirit is a similar process to the healing the physical body, as they are intertwined, so one will influence the other. When you restore harmony to the body, the mind will often follow. Another thing to remember is that the acupuncture meridians represent not only physycalcommunication, but psychological communication as well.  In our experience, correcting energy flows within the patient has allowed them to self-heal from many debilitating psychological states.

What about injuries and chronic pain?

Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something is off and needs to be addressed.  Often in chronic pain there is a dysfunction in the nerve pathways associated with the area of pain.  This is where acupuncture shines as a treatment modality and has proven to be extremely effective at correcting abnormal nerve impulses.  Chronic pain can also be related to a general decline in overall health, which our model of treatment is well suited for.

What about infectious diseases such as Lyme disease?

The last words of Louis Pasteur were: "Le microbe n'est rien, le terrain est tout." (The microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything). While most people may not recognize the name “Louis Pasteur”, many people are familiar with the term “pasteurization”, which is credited to the 19th century French scientist. The idea behind pasteurization is that “germs are bad” and that they are the cause of disease and ill health.  Following that assumption it makes sense that “killing germs” would be the solution to both treating and preventing states of disease. This is the basic concept upon which Western medicine, based on Pasteur’s idea that germs (virus, bacteria, fungus, parasite, etc.) are the cause of illness. The irony is that towards the end of his life, Pasteur renounced the germ theory and admitted that his rival, Antoine Bechamp, was right all along. Bechamp believed that if the person had strong immune function and good tissue quality, they would not be affected by the germs Pasteur had feared. At Natural Integrated Medicine, we treat patients diagnosed with infectious illness using the guidelines set forth by Antoine Bechamp:  “Treat the patient, not the infection."  By treating the underlying dysfunction of the host's immunity, the infection will leave on its own as the health of the patient's body is restored.

Disclaimer:  Regarding the controversial topic of vaccinations and antibiotics…we at NIM take a completely neutral stance on the topic.  We neither advocate nor discourage their use and leave that up to the patient to decide.  We do this mainly due to legal reasons being that it is against the law for us to advocate one position vs. another.  We only ask that you become as educated on this topic as possible and make your own informed decision.  We will respect your decision either way.