VITALISM
The Tradition of Vitalism in Natural Medicine
This is an edited transcript of an FXMed podcast in which the presenter Andrew Whitfield-Cook and herbal medicine practitioner and teacher Justin Sinclair discuss the place of vitalistic philosophy in natural medicine .
Andrew Whitfield-Cook . Vital force . To me it seems like an obvious term but then there ’ s a more powerful underlying tone there - if you like , the sparkle in the eye of that patient .
Justin Sinclair . The vitality of it . It ’ s an interesting one , isn ’ t it ? I think you can get ten different naturopaths or herbalists and ask them what that means and you ’ ll get ten different renditions of what that meaning might be , but I think vital force , the healing power of nature - or the Viz , as a lot of our American colleagues call it – and vitality are absolutely hand in hand with what we do , and we can ’ t separate what we do as a naturopath or a herbalist and leave those terms out of it . This is the big thing that we were talking about . We ’ re starting to get away from treating human beings . We ’ ve been focusing on disease and pathology , and scientific testing , so that we can examine right down to the nitty gritty , understanding how a particular disease might be presenting in a particular patient , but we ’ re forgetting that there ’ s a human being attached to that . And this is something that I think is probably going to let a lot of newer graduates down because the science
will fail them – it failed me numerous times – and if you don ’ t have that tradition to fall back on then we could be setting ourselves up for a couple of generations that are going to miss that connection back to our traditional roots and philosophy , and therefore actually not be as well rounded a practitioner as they could be .
Andrew . The thing that worries me is when you look at research papers , trying to find out if a nutrient will act in a druglike manner , you are bound to be sorely disappointed , with few exceptions – there are a few . But a few spring to mind and I ’ ll give you a couple just off the top of my head . I do remember a paper saying that St John ’ s wort could cause infertility because it did so in a hamster when injected it into the ovum . Now , that ’ s not the way we administer it . Two things there : 1 ) what a ludicrous mode of administration , and 2 ) why didn ’ t they do paracetamol as a comparator there ? I just don ’ t get this unfairness .
Justin . When we start looking at a lot of the criticism of traditional medicine I must admit I try to get away from the terms complementary and alternative medicine . I find that complementary to a degree suggests to me that we can ’ t stand on our own two feet , and alternative immediately makes you think of wearing some type of black leather and attending an alternative rock concert . I don ’ t think that either of these are what I believe . I talk about modern medicine . I talk about traditional medicine and that ’ s generally the way that I like to put it , because that ’ s actually the way that the Therapeutic Goods Administration talks about it as well . Traditional evidence and scientific evidence . The World Health Organization talks about it in this way as well . And I think that your reference to our venturing into an evidencebased realm , where we ’ re utilising all of the evidence from scientific method , everything from RCTs to systematic reviews , is fantastic because of course that ’ s going to raise our profile . We ’ re going to get easier communication with other healthcare professionals , including medicos . I think that ’ s one of the driving motivations for our doing that . That being said , I don ’ t think that all scientific studies are appropriate for herbal medicine and I do think that you miss the forest for the trees
208 | vol27 | no4 | JATMS