Larry Trivieri, Jr. Interview
Author of
The American Holistic Medical Association
GUIDE TO HOLISTIC HEALTHLarry Trivieri has been exploring healing methods for nearly 30 years, and writing about them for the last decade. After having served as senior editor of the landmark encyclopedic reference text Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide (Future Medicine Publishing, 1994), Trivieri has devoted himself to writing full-time about the many benefits of holistic approaches to health. In 1999, he co-wrote (along with Drs. Robert Ivker and Robert Anderson) The Complete Self-Care Guide to Holistic Medicine (Tarcher/Putnam). His most recent work, and first completely solo effort is The American Holistic Medical Association Guide to Holistic Health (John Wiley & Sons, May 2001). Trivieri also serves as contributing editor to Alternative Medicine magazine, and has written articles for a variety of publications, including Natural Health, Yoga Journal, and Whole Life Times. I spoke with him about his latest book and the latest developments in the holistic health arena.
Q: You are recognized as one of the leading lay experts in the areas of holistic healing and personal transformation. How did that come about?
A: A lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time. (laughs) Actually, I've been interested in healing and personal growth since I was a child, although I didn't really become conscious of this until I was in my late teens. By then I had pretty much outgrown my religious upbringing to recognize that there was more to life and spirituality than I'd been taught. Around that time, I also had what might be described as an identity crisis, in that I started to be haunted by the feeling that I didn't really know who I was.
Like many people, I started to ask myself questions like, Who am I? What am I doing here? What is my purpose. As a result, I started looking for answers, beginning with raiding my local library for books on philosophy and spiritual teachings. Along the way, I became aware of meditation and started to meditate. Eventually I had a number of inner experiences that started to answer the questions I had, and also crystallized what I wanted to do with my life. From the time that I was 4 or 5 years old, I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't really realize that my writing would be involved with issues of healing and growth until I myself started to go through that process.
Q: How did you become involved in holistic healing methods?
A: I got sick. (laughs) I think I had just turned 30 and I was living in Manhattan at the time, freelancing as a combination proofreader, copy editor and technical writer for various financial and legal firms while I continued to hone my craft, as it were. One day I became aware of a pain on the left side of my mid-lower back. I neglected it for a day or so, then suddenly found myself writing on my kitchen floor. The pain was excruciating, and I wound up in the hospital. Turns out I had passed a kidney stone.
Prior to that time, I had pretty much taken my health for granted and didn't really pay attention to how I ate. X-rays showed that the stone had passed from my kidney but hadn't completely left my body. The hospital staff wanted me to stay overnight for monitoring, but I refused and went home. Six weeks later, I had another flare up, with the same painful symptoms, despite by now eating healthier and drinking a lot more water. I knew I didn't want to go back to a regular doctor based on my experience in the hospital, so I started scanning the health ads in the Village Voice. I spotted a small ad placed by a homeopath in Brooklyn and somehow my intuition just clicked. Without really knowing what I was doing, I called him up and made an appointment to see him the next day.
Long story short, he prescribed an homeopathic remedy for me after asking me all sorts of questions about my life in general that to me had no bearing on my health. Stuff about my dreams, my emotions, the times of day I had the most energy, how I reacted to cold and heat, etc. About the only thing I was happy with when I left him was that he was inexpensive and the remedy he prescribed cost all of 4 bucks.
He told me to take 3 tablets every five minutes for the first hour, then to repeat the dosage every hour for the rest of the day, until I went to bed. The next day, he assured me, I would pass what remained of my stone and be fine. I figured he was crazy, but did as he said. When I awoke the next morning, I didn't feel any differently, but later on, just as he predicted, the stone passed painlessly while I was urinating. Naturally, I was intrigued, and my curiosity led me to start reading about homeopathy and other healing methods.
The next year, I contracted a case of chronic bronchitis. By then, the homeopath, who was from the Caribbean, had returned to his homeland, so I decided to explore another therapy. A friend of mine suggested I see an acupuncturist her friends had told her about, so I did. She was an older woman who was living with her daughter. In China, she had practiced traditional Chinese medicine, but here in the U.S. she was prevented from doing so openly. Still, she refused to cease her healing work, and practiced discreetly. Anyway, I went to see her. She didn't speak a word of English, so her daughter translated everything.
The first thing the woman did was take by pulse at my left and right wrists. Once she was done, she said something to her daughter, who then proceeded to give me a very accurate medical history of my life since I was a child. I was amazed and asked how the woman could possibly have known that. Her translated reply was, "The pulse tells everything," and the look that accompanied it implied I was a dummy for not knowing that. Then she had be lay down and started applying her needles. She only used about a dozen and once they were inserted, she left the room. I lay there for 15 minutes, during which time I experienced a pleasurable sensation of heat passing through what I now know are acupuncture meridians, or energetic pathways through which vital energy or Qi ("chee") circulates. Then the woman re-entered the room, took my pulse once more, and had her daughter tell me that was all I needed.
Within an hour of visiting her, I started to expectorate large volumes of phlegm, and continued to do so on and off for the rest of the day. I went to bed feeling extremely tired, but when I awoke the next morning, I felt better than I had in months, and knew that I was over my bronchitis. From that point on, I started to explore a variety of health methods, such as chiropractic, bodywork, botanical medicine, not because I was sick, but because I wanted to know firsthand if they worked and, if so, how.
Q: When did you start writing about such methods?
A: I started covering the field in 1991, shortly after moving to Los Angeles. Initially, I contributed articles and interviews to Whole Life Times, a regional publication. Then I met Burton Goldberg, who hired me to help him produce what was then referred to as his "holistic book project." Originally, I was hired as Burton's research editor, but he had faith in my abilities, and soon put me, along with Jim Strohecker, in charge of the entire project. As a result, over the next two years, I found myself interviewing and interacting with literally hundreds of the world's finest holistic physicians and researchers, all of whom freely gave of their time and expertise in appreciation of Burton's mission--to get the word out to the American people that "you don't have to be sick," and educating them about the many viable alternative forms of health care that exist in addition to conventional, allopathic medicine.
It was during this time that my real education about such healing methods really began. On a daily basis, I was dealing with leading practitioners in over 50 healing modalities and being shown conclusively how and why their therapies worked. In addition, I had the privilege of meeting or speaking with a number of their patients, many of whom were told they would have to live with their condition or had to face up to the fact that they were soon going to die by their former, conventional doctors. Refusing to accept such prognoses, they started exploring alternative approaches, and by the time I met them were completely free of their diseases.
Before long, I realized I had a great responsibility for getting their story out, so that the many millions of other chronically ill people in this country could have the information they required to start turning their own health around. And the rest, as they say, is history. Our "book project" evolved into Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, which was published in 1994, and has gone on to become recognized as "the bible of alternative medicine," and in the process put the world of nonconventional medicine on the map.
Q: As well as being a bestseller.
A: That's correct, and I have to say I knew well before the book was published that it would sell very well, because of the quality and value of the information we were compiling, and it has indeed become a very influential work, both among the public at large, and within the publishing industry, which has subsequently followed suit with entire divisions devoted to covering the same topics. And I'd like to mention that a lot of the credit for that belongs to Burton himself. He took a huge financial risk in order to create the book, and he also recognized my abilities even before I did, which is why he shares the dedication in my newest book. He was and is my mentor, and he really opened the door for me.
Q: Tell us about your new book. What do you mean by the title phrase "Holistic Health?"
A: Holistic health is a concept that has been recognized and valued by healing cultures worldwide for thousands of year. What it means is experiencing life from a thriving state of abundant energy and well-being, not only physically, but within one's work and home environment, emotionally and mentally, and socially (our relationships) and spiritually (our connection to Spirit or the Divine lifeforce). In other words, being healthy in body, mind, and spirit, which is a completely different state than merely being free of disease symptoms. A person might not be experiencing any symptoms of illness, for example, yet still be under a lot of stress, lacking satisfying relationships, and basically feeling cut off from having a deep connection to Life itself. Yet in our society, if you were to ask such a person if he or she was healthy, chances are high that the response would be "yes."
Q: Simply because he or she wasn't experiencing any health symptoms at the time.
A: Precisely. But from the perspective of holistic health, such a condition isn't healthy at all; it's a state of "just getting by," and sooner or later that person's chronic stress and lack of fulfillment will catch up to him or her. So in the first part of my book, I explore what being holistically healthy looks like and provide self-care guidelines that anyone can use to start to achieve higher levels of wellness in their body, their environment, their mind and emotions, socially, and spiritually. In addition, I also contrast the differences between holistic and conventional medicine, so that readers have a clear idea about each approaches strengths and weaknesses. From there, I offer in-depth overviews about each of the most common therapies employed or recommended by holistic physicians, explaining their history and underlying philosophy, how and why they work, and case histories which further showcase their value. I also offer guidelines that readers can use to wisely select a practitioner in each discipline, as well as what they can expect during their first session. And resource organizations and recommended reading lists are also provided for anyone who wishes to pursue the subject further.
Q: How did the American Holistic Medical Association come to be involved in the book?
A: I invited them to participate soon after my editor came to me with the offer to write the book. I first became aware of the AHMA while working for Burton, since many of their members were contributors to the Guide, and since we both share the same mission--changing the face of primary health care in this country, I thought it would make perfect sense to have them involved with me. Happily, their Board agreed with me.
For your readers who are unaware of the AHMA, I should point out that it was founded in 1978 by Dr. C. Norman Shealy, one of the finest and most knowledgeable physicians in practice today. Since that time, it has grown to include over 800 of the country's leading holistic M.D.'s and osteopathic physicians, all of whom have dedicated themselves to providing their patients with, and educating their fellow physicians about, the type of care my book is about. Its membership is truly a who's who of the field, and includes Drs. Bernie Siegel, Andrew Weil, Christiane Northrup, Robert Ivker, and Robert Anderson.
Q: What role did the AHMA have in the book's creation?
A: They supplied their imprimatur, which is the first time they have officially done so for any book. That in and of itself is significant and something I'm very grateful for. With the exception of Rob Ivker's very nice Forward, however, I wrote the book on my own, and did my own research, etc.
Q: Are all of the experts you feature in the book members of the AHMA?
A: Some are, some aren't, for the simple fact that the AHMA's primary membership consists of M.D.s and D.O.s (osteopathic physicians) only, since those are the two types of health care providers in this country able by law to prescribe drugs and perform surgeries when they are warranted. But I also wanted to share with my readers the views of other leading healers in the fields of acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, chiropractic, environmental medicine, and so forth. This way I was sure to expose my readers to the most credible explanations of each therapy, straight from the experts themselves.
Q: Your mention of AHMA being able to prescribe drugs and perform surgery raises another question, namely what do you mean by "holistic medicine" and how is it different from "alternative medicine?"
A: That's a very good question. The answer has to do, in part, with my definition of "holistic health," which is what holistic physicians seek to help their patients achieve. In other words, they aren't concerned only with treating symptoms; they are actively engaged in teaching their patients how to most fully live their lives from a place of abundant energy and mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
Right now there are a number of terms being used to contrast healing approaches with conventional medicine, such as "alternative," "complementary," and "integrative" medicine. But of all the terms being used, I feel that "holistic medicine" is the most inclusive, and the only one that by its very definition addresses the whole person--body, mind, and spirit.
But there's more to the answer, as well. For instance, a number of people in the "alternative medicine" camp are strongly opposed to the use of drugs to treat illness. Given the monolithic stranglehold that the pharmaceutical industry seems to hold over health care in this country at this time, I can sympathize with such a viewpoint, but I also feel it's misguided. The fact of the matter is that, in certain instances both drugs and surgery can be absolutely essential when dealing with disease, and to deny that is both nonsensical and irresponsible. The AHMA recognizes this fact, and from its inception has always included the judicious us of conventional medical procedures (drugs, surgery, diagnostic techniques, etc) as part of its definition of Holistic Medicine. At the same time, however, AHMA members clearly distinguish between when such measures are appropriate and when more natural, noninvasive methods are advised. Andrew Weil has pointed out that approximately 80% of all illness in this country are chronic, in the sense that people suffer from ongoing symptoms. Examples of such illnesses are arthritis, sinusitis, diabetes, and so forth, all of which conventional medicine has a poor record of treating. But in the area of acute, life-threatening emergencies, the state-of-the-art interventions conventional medicine has to offer are unequaled.
But let's get back to the other terms--"complementary" and "integrative" medicine. Both of these imply the use of noninvasive healing methods in conjunction with conventional care, which is great as far as it goes. The question is, does it go far enough, and all too often the answer is no, since the emphasis still fails to address the whole person, remaining focused only on dealing with symptoms.
Let me give you an example. Suppose somebody who comes down with the flu goes to a physician who places him on echinacea and advises him to increase his intake of vitamin C and zinc instead of writing out a prescription. Obviously this is a wiser approach, since the medical literature clearly shows that prescription drugs have little to no effect on flu viruses, whereas echinacea, vitamin C, and zinc can boost immunity. But it is still a very incomplete approach, and in point of fact still allopathic (symptom-care only) in nature. In contrast, in addition to possibly recommending the same herb and nutrients, a holistic physician would most likely also inquire as to the person's diet, to ensure he was getting adequate levels of nutrition from the foods he eats; ask about his stress levels and sleeping patterns, both of which can comprise immunity and make one susceptible to viral and other infections; and explore a wide range of other lifestyle issues, all with the aim of guiding the person to take greater control over his health, both short- and long-term. There is no question that such an approach, while potentially more expensive in terms of the initial consultation, over the long run will prove to be far more cost-effective and result with the person requiring far fewer visits to his doctor than he might otherwise need. And this is the sort of comprehensive, whole person health care that the AHMA advocates.
Q: Although your latest book focuses primarily on the professional care treatments that comprise the field of holistic medicine, a central theme of the book is patient self-responsibility.
A: Absolutely. In the book, Dr. Gary Oberg, and leading physician in the field of environmental medicine, makes the point that the word "doctor" comes from the Latin root docere, which means "to teach." Educating patients about what they can do on their own to optimize their health is central to the underlying philosophy of holistic medicine. Moreover, nearly all of the therapies I cover in the book have a self-care component which, when utilized, can make a tremendous difference in our health. The field of mind/body medicine, for instance, provides scores of self-care techniques that can easily be employed to minimize the effects of harmful stress in our lives, while both traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine from India offer self-care approaches to a wide range of health issues. The same is true of environmental medicine, naturopathic medicine, and botanical medicine, and of course in the areas of diet and nutrition and physical exercise. But none of these measures will work unless we take the necessary responsibility for implementing them. This, to me, is one of the most neglected issues in the health care debates now raging nationwide, and to my mind is the most important issue that each of us has a direct personal say in. We don't have to wait for Congress to pass new health care legislation, or for our insurance companies to provide additional coverage for these measures. They are freely available now. But we have to use them.
Q: What are some areas in which self-responsibility can be applied in terms of our health?
A: Well, to me the most obvious ones are diet and physical exercise, and lifestyle choices having to do with cigarettes and alcohol intake. Let's start with diet and exercise. There has been a dramatic shift in the emphasis given to the importance of proper nutrition by the conventional medical establishment in the past few decades, after years of ignoring nutrition altogether. For millennia, holistic physicians have stressed the role that diet can play in achieving optimal health, starting, in the West, 2,500 years ago with Hippocrates' famous dictum, "Let food by thy medicine, and medicine thy food." So, today we have in America physicians and health organizations in both camps -- allopathic and holistic -- telling us that we need to pay attention to the foods we eat. Now, I'll grant you that there still remains a lot of confusing recommendations out there, in light of all the various diet books with their conflicting theories that are published each year, but certain basic tenets are indisputable. Namely, junk and fast foods aren't good for us, while, ignoring the issue of potential food allergies for the moment, whole, unprocessed foods are. This is information that has been out there for a long time, yet America remains a fast food/junk food nation, and as far as I'm concerned, there's no excuse for that. Nobody is forcing us to wolf down a fast food burger and fries and wash it down with soda, but that is exactly what many of us have for lunch and/dinner on a regular basis. Is it any wonder then, that our annual health care costs in the U.S. are swiftly approaching 2 trillion dollars?
Then there is exercise, which a large percentage of the population fails to do on a regular and consistent basis. It's no problem to fit in 2-4 hours or more of television every night, but to commit to as little as 60 minutes of exercise per week? Sorry, we don't have the time. And so we have become a nation where 55 percent of all Americans are overweight or obese, which is a predisposing factor in a wide range of serious illnesses. Compound these trends with poor lifestyle choices, such as continuing to smoke and drinking immoderately, and you can see some of the reasons why chronic illness remains such a significant problem in this country. So I think it's both wrong and irresponsible to simply blame the medical establishment and the insurance companies for the situation they are in. Certainly they have played a role in helping to create it, but the American public is culpable too. But for those who are now waking up to the fact that there is a lot they can do directly to improve their health, and I'm happy to say their number is growing, my books are a good place to for them to find the information they need to do so. And bear in mind, these are not my recommendations. These are the recommendations of leading medical experts who know from firsthand clinical experience with their patients that they work.
Q: What were some of the things you learned while researching your latest book?
A: Aside from the additional studies I became aware of which validate the effectiveness of the therapies I wrote about, the biggest discovery I made was uncovering the historical precedents upon which they rest. I knew before I began the project that the basic tenets of holistic medicine are not new, but I was still amazed to discover how fully articulated they were, especially in the East, where the Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese traditions clearly recognized and stressed the importance of treating the whole person. In both cultures, this information started to be shaped and taught approximately 5,000 years ago. What, to me, is so fascinating about this is the fact that, as far as I know, there was little commerce or exchange of ideas between these two cultures, yet the parallels within their respective health teachings are uncannily similar.
Then, moving West, 2,500 years ago, you find Hippocrates teaching essentially the same things. In a very real sense, I discovered that the tenets of holistic medicine are akin to a perennial philosophy that has infused healing traditions worldwide throughout history, which is something I don't think many people in this country understand. By contrast, allopathic medicine is quite young -- only a few hundred years old -- and, despite all of its life-saving innovations, I more than ever find myself questioning some of its basic assumptions, particularly its trend throughout the last 50 years or so of increasing specialization, which has resulted in legions of cardiologists, oncologists, gastroenterologists, etc., all of whom can tell you everything you need to know about the organ system or disease process they deal with, yet often lack an adequate knowledge of how all the body' are interrelated and designed to work with each other to maintain psychophysiological harmony and balance.
One exception to this, of course, are the family practitioners, who harken back to the family doctors of earlier times who made house calls and handled a wide variety of health conditions without having to so often refer their patients out to other specialists. Most of the holistic physicians I know also treat a wide variety of health conditions in their practice, and make it a point to consider the impact their treatment approaches have on all body systems.
Q: Given the research you've done, what do you see happening in the health care arena in the years ahead?
A: Well, I'm not really certain, since there are so many variables in play right now. But I don't foresee our current health care system being able to function adequately much longer. Some would make the argument that it isn't functioning adequately right now, and I think the problems it is facing are only apt, in the short-term, to get worse. Managed care, or "mangled care," as Norm Shealy likes to call it, simply isn't designed to meet the needs of the American public as they stand today, with studies showing that over 100 million Americans are chronically ill.
The temptation will be to try the fix the problem with more legislation and increased funds, but I don't believe that will work either. At least not until a cohesive vision that addresses the needs of the patient populace is achieved. That, in my view, needs to be high on the list of priorities, but there are a lot of vested interests in the health care industries which have a financial stake in the current status quo, and I don't foresee them giving that up without a lot of prodding from the American people themselves.
On the other hand, I firmly believe that holistic and alternative medical approaches will continue to grow in popularity, as more and more people become fed up with current system's inability to deal with their illnesses properly. We are already seeing growing numbers of Americans who are willing to pay for such approaches out of their own pockets, and I expect that trend will continue.
I also believe, at least I hope, that before long the insurance companies will begin to much more seriously explore insuring holistic medicine once they truly recognize how cost-effective it is. To some degree, this is already happening, but so far the move in this direction has been minor. Once the insurance companies put their full weight behind such a shift, it will be interesting to see how the pharmaceutical companies respond. I expect they will create a lot of resistance, again, because of the money involved and who will wind up receiving it.
Ultimately, though, I think the answers to your question reside with we the American people. Will we demand better approaches, or will we continue to accept things as they are, even though they are without question getting worse? I'm hopeful about this, but still very much uncertain.
Q: What do you recommend that people do?
A: First and foremost, as I mentioned earlier, take responsibility for their own health. This requires effort and discipline, as well as time for finding the answers that best suit each of us. The healthier we can become on our own, the less reliance we will need to have on any form of health care system, regardless of whether or not it is working.
Secondly, I would like to see a groundswell of public support for far greater government funding into the various holistic therapies I cover in my book. Recent polls show that about 67 percent of the American public is using or has used some form of holistic medicine, with the majority of them paying for it out of pocket, yet year in and year out government research funding is allocated almost exclusively to studies involving conventional care therapies, or so-called "magic bullet" approaches that keep promising to rid us of our most serious diseases, yet so far have not done so.
The last I heard, the NIH's Office of Complementary and Alternative Medicine had an annual budget of $150 million; it may be more than that now, but it's still a drop in the bucket compared to the billions and billions of dollars which are spent annually in this country funding what I call status quo research. Given the fact that the United States was formed in direct opposition to taxation without representation, I think it's interesting that we as a nation allow such a skewed breakdown in health funding to occur. Imagine if at least 10 percent of all government funding went to research specific to holistic medicine. Now imagine if the number were 20, 30, 40, or 50 percent.
Of course, for such studies to be worthwhile, they would also have to be designed by researchers familiar with how and why these therapies are known to work in clinical settings. That's another issue altogether-- the fact that many studies now occuring in this field are being headed by people who have little or no understanding of the therapies themselves, which, to me, explains why so many end results are deemed inconclusive or show that the therapy doesn't work, when in actuality the studies themselves may have been inherently flawed to begin with.
But back to the public outcry for additional funding in this area, I'm convinced that if enough citizens petitioned their government representatives about this, they would start to see results. The numbers don't have to be that considerable, either. I've read reports stating that only 2 to 3 percent of the colonists supported the American Revolution, while the vast majority preferred not to challenge the status quo. But look what that dedicated minority achieved -- the greatest nation in recorded history. I'd like to see that same spirit of independence and self-regulation reawakened here and now in the 21st century, and strongly believe that all we need for radical, positive change is a critical mass of one million people or more committed to the same goal.
Chet's Comments
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