Heart MD Institute: East meets west

October 30, 9:17 AMEducation Collaboration ExaminerKathleen Tehrani

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There is a brand new online institute to help you understand and maintain your ‘wellness’. Note: It is not to maintain your ‘disease’ but your ‘wellness’. Metabolic cardiologist, author and educator, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, has brought excellent alternative, integrative, collaborative information directly into the hands of citizens via the internet at his fee free website: www.HeartMDInstitute.com. Here is what the mission statement of the website says:  

With the understanding that knowledge empowers, our mission at Heart MD Institute is to educate patients and medical professionals alike about integrative medicine, with a special focus on metabolic cardiology. Additionally, Heart MD Institute aims to inspire a restructuring of the doctor/patient relationship where together, both actively participate in the patient’s healing process. The pervading philosophy at Heart MD Institute is prevention is easier than cure.At Heart MD Institute, we believe that our nation’s traditional “crisis and disease medicine” model which focuses upon fixing injured or diseased bodies is no longer sufficient in consideration of both increased costs and human suffering. Why is total healthcare spending in the U.S. continually on the rise yet we are becoming progressively unhealthier as a nation? Diabetes and obesity, risk factors for heart disease and many cancers, have become epidemics, even among children. Properly prescribed and administered drugs, which compromise health through nutritional deficiencies and other negative side effects, rank between the fourth and sixth leading causes of death in the U.S. Clearly, the traditional medicinal model, which treats symptoms rather than underlying causes of diseases, is failing to sustain our collective health. Current consumer health trends demonstrate the need for an integrative medicinal model. Despite lack of insurance coverage, people are spending their own dollars on alternative health care practices and products. Integrative medicine combines the best of traditional acute and life-saving interventions with alternative measures designed to strengthen and support the body – ideally before it succumbs to illness. Prevention of cyclic illness entails making proactive lifestyle changes such as eating a healthy diet, supplementing with nutraceuticals, reducing stress through various mind-body techniques, engaging in regular exercise and other detoxification mechanisms, and doing just about whatever it takes to cultivate emotional health. Additionally, health-enhancement involves understanding and using energy, or vibrational, medicine, as well as employing various Eastern medicinal techniques. Ultimately the practice of “smart medicine” will be different with each patient depending on his or her needs. For all of us, the first step will be to understand the interconnectedness of our thoughts, emotions, lifestyle, and physicality. Accounting for these elements, we can reshape our perceptions about, and take responsibility for, our own health and well being.

Speaking from personal experience, alternative, integrative and energy medicine consistently help to support and maintain optimal health and, just as importantly (if not more so), a sense of well being. In Ayurvedic thinking, “All disease originates as an energy blockage. It begins in the mind”. Energy medicine can prevent and/or treat energy blocks before they become physical symptoms. Dr. Sinatra has an excellent grasp of the mind/body connection as evidenced in the page  Mind/Body Connection on his website. Dr. Sinatra was one of the distinguished presenters at this year’s American College of Nutrition 50th Anniversary Event.