WHAT IS INTEGRATED HEALTH? THE POWER OF THE PHYSIS

First let me put medicine in perspective. Of the 6 billion people inhabiting this earth, between 50 per cent and 70 per cent, or probably over 3 billion, will go through their entire lives without any direct contact with a physician qualified in either conventional or traditional medicine. They will, in the main, lead full and reasonably healthy lives, those dying of starvation, malnutrition or epidemics, thereby creating headlines, being by far the minority. Another minority, living traditional lifestyles in Africa and the Himalayas will enjoy very long lives, often exceeding 100 years.

How can this be without access to medical help? The answer is simple. As Hippocrates, the father of medicine, pointed out 2,500 years ago we all have within us an unbelievably powerful health maintenance capability, which he called the physis (the root of physiology and physiotherapy-1 pronounce it 'feesis'). This not only wards off or defeats disease but exercises control over every aspect of our health.

For example, from the moment of conception the physis of a mother looks after every stage of development of the foetus, normally without outside help, and masterminds the whole birth process, instigating muscular activity that may take place only once in a lifetime and yet is activated by most mothers (globally) with marvellous perfection, completely independently of any medical intervention. All doctors and nurses or midwives can do is supervise and make the mother comfortable, but in by far the majority of cases worldwide no doctors or qualified nurses are present. Even after the birth, the mother's physis retains an element of control by feeding the baby. By laying her hands on parts affected by colic, fever, anxiety, tantrums and so on, she reduces the baby's discomfort. This is a healing process recognised from time immemorial and actually taught to the medical students in the Institute in Moscow where I studied, but all too often scoffed at in the technology-driven world in which we live.

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