Medicine of the future will treat thoughts, not body
It is quite uncommon for speakers at a medical conference to be so unanimous in their views and the medical part of the conference, Sociopolis In Ukraine: Technologies of Practical Construction, was an exception to the rule. Despite a certain diversity of their presentations that ranged from somewhat philosophical reports on spiritual obstetrics to the creation of healthy cities and revolutionary medical technologies, the participants came to the common conclusion that too much pharmacology and the wrong direction of development are at present the two largest brakes on medical science.
“To treat the illness alone by splitting the body into a head, heart, kidneys, and soul is to reject the existence of a hierarchy in a human being. A person is indivisible, and this should be taken into account when subjecting him to treatment.” This idea, in the speakers’ opinions, underlies the concept of medical science of the future. Conference participants, however, agreed that such a concept was not created in the twentieth or twenty-first centuries, extending back to the times of the Ancient Greek philosophers and the father of medicine, Hippocrates. Unfortunately, the [Marxist] concept of the materialization of existence disagreed with the idea of positive thinking which can affect one’s physical condition.
According to Chair of Normal Physiology at the Kharkiv State Medical Academy Valery Samokhvalov, MD and Professor, the reason why medicine has found itself in a dead-end and why there are so many new unknown diseases lies in the continued existence of the old system and ideas. “A man must not only see what is immediately available, he must reject stereotypes,” he believes. Despite the frequently repeated maxim of a sound spirit in a sound body, no accent was placed on the true nature of the interdependence between mental and physical health, mistakenly believing that a healthy spirit was contingent of a healthy body.
Consequently, the thesis that one’s thoughts, or rather their direction, influences one’s health finds its confirmation. Incidentally, this idea has long established itself among Western medical scientists. Still, the existing conservatism has prevented the idea from becoming an axiom that would lead to a revolution in science. In 1986 the World Health Organization submitted a project called Healthy Cities, which set quality standards for such cities that included, along with recommended ceilings for medical treatment and environmental condition, the character of relationships among city inhabitants and the amount of say residents have in decision-making. Presently, about 375 big and small cities in Europe are involved in this project. Publications stressing the existence of a physical health equivalent corresponding to every psychological pattern can be useful here. For instance, cancer generates a feeling of guilt and mental uneasiness, while bronchitis promotes uncertainty in oneself.
According to conference participants, in order to revolutionize medical science, we need to transform the environment that molds our views and approaches. In addition, there are many books on sale whose inferior advice soon disappoints the readers. Written by self-proclaimed doctors, such books make people flout any progressive concepts offered to them. Moreover, the host of quacks and fake healers cashing in on social turmoil during major upheavals in society further fuel the situation. According to Valery Samokhvalov, it is not difficult to tell a real doctor from a quack, “A doctor must radiate good will, strength, and power, and be able to help a patient by his looks and mood.”
However, it seems that Ukrainian doctors have a long way to go, for according to standard procedure a physician in an outpatient hospital is supposed to examine thirty patients every day, which leaves him just five minutes to radiate such good will. The participants were aware that they were speaking about an ideal that will not emerge from out of nowhere tomorrow, saying that the officials who run medicine in Ukraine predominantly come from the old system and will never rise to challenge it. The psychological climate in families will also be unlikely to change because Ukrainians are in a state of continuous stress. “To change one’s way of thinking, the environment has to be changed first,” the scientists believe. After growing up and developing in a favorable psychological environment, the child will itself generate positive thoughts that will affect his or her health in a beneficial way. The sociopolis has quite a role here, as it will unite individuals who, being aware of the crisis, can find, even if only theoretically, a way out of it.
