 I'm going to go through here. I'm going to do a quick introduction of myself and why I talk about integrative medicine and what qualifies me basically to do so. And then we're going to workshop some questions about integrative medicine. We're going to go through the five W's. What is integrative medicine? Because that actually means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. We'll talk about that. And then we're going to talk about why we want to do an integrative approach to health. We're going to talk about who should do it and why. So in the title of this, if I could go back in time, I would change it to say, for yourself, your patients and clients. Because in actuality, practicing integrative medicine is important for yourself. And we're going to get to that in a second. And then when do you use which medicine, OK? So that is who I am. So a little bit of background on me. My background is in systems engineering. I graduated West Point, the United States Military Academy in 2002, and then served five years on active duty as an Army officer. My background is actually in science, to a degree that many people aren't. Because I actually conducted science experiments as my undergraduate. So I did the ANOVA test and the T2 test. I designed them. I got approval for them. And we presented to the American Psychological Association. So I know science. And that is my whole undergraduate. But things kind of took a shift. So I was planning to go to what would be called conventional medical school. And then while I was in the Army that first year, my father got diagnosed with stage four liver colon cancer. And at the time, I didn't really know how to respond, except for to say, well, I love you. And I hope that things work out. And good luck and all these things. But I didn't know anything about medicine. So I continued on doing what I was doing, which was active duty. And then phone calls would come in, oh, your dad's doing well, or he's doing chemotherapy, or he's having the surgery. And eventually, trickled through the family pipeline, that my dad was doing what was then integrative medicine. But we didn't call it that yet. So he had surgery to ablate the tumors in his liver and large intestine. He went through one round of chemotherapy. Three were recommended. And then he decided that, darn it, if the cancer didn't kill him, the chemotherapy would. And so he told his doctors, listen, you can't actually see the tumors anymore. You remove them. I've done one round of chemotherapy. I want to do a different approach. So he approached an Ayurvedic doctor. He began getting reiki treatments. And this is when my red flag went up. So I have this science background. I'm a scientist, right? And here's my dad, who's a very normal guy, telling me that he feels this energy from this woman when she gives him reiki treatments. But it's okay because she's a nun and he's Catholic. And so it's not weird. And so I was like, all right. I don't know what my father stumbled into, but it sounds like a cult. And so I need to investigate it. So I did. Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, when I went to the class and I received a reiki treatment expecting, I don't know what, but intending to protect my father, who I thought being taken advantage of, I realized that I felt something too. And there was something to it. So I ended up working with this woman a little bit more and talking to her more. I became reiki one and two certified and then eventually reiki master. And one of the things she said to me was, Erica, you should go to Oriental Medicine School and learn about acupuncture because of your scientific mind, which is really funny, right? Because in our culture, we think of acupuncture as woo-woo and strange. But here she was telling me your scientific mind needs to go to acupuncture. And at this point, I had a really strong respect for this woman. So I thought, okay. So I went to school at NCNM, which is now a UNM. And I started out dual degree in naturopathic medicine and Oriental Medicine because I didn't want to just be an acupuncturist. I wanted to be a doctor and I couldn't let go of that. So I started both degrees and then after the first year of the naturopathic medicine, I ended up dropping that and focusing just on Oriental Medicine because I realized there was so much there and our society has barely scratched at it, okay? So I am a board certified licensed acupuncturist. I advocate integrative medicine, you'll see why. And I am a public relations chair for the AAC, which is the Acupuncture Association of Colorado, okay? That is a little bit about me. We're gonna talk a little bit more because it's important. And what I'm gonna tell you is a story. So my father's story with cancer, that was motivating enough, you might think, but everything is more powerful when it's personal. So I became pregnant my last year of the four year degree and I gave birth, I think it was three days after graduation. So unfortunately, I realized while I was pregnant, I started having extreme back pain that doctors couldn't really explain. And I realized something was wrong from my own knowledge in education. Turns out that my daughter had, or has what is called diamond black fan anemia, which is a very, very rare blood disorder. And she doesn't make enough red blood cells to survive. So every month, starting at six weeks old, we, you know, when we didn't realize what was wrong, but she was just a very weak and fragile infant, she receives a blood transfusion from an anonymous blood donor and that literally gets her through another month until those cells die and then she gets another red blood cell transfusion. And so she is literally powered by the gift of someone's blood. Unfortunately, there are complications with that. And one of the complications is that you are getting an influx of iron every month, okay? And your body, there's really interesting timing because there's a presentation over there about iron. Your body does not have a good way to get rid of iron, okay? We're evolutionary program to hang on to it. So what happens is that in these children and it's extremely rare, there's I think approximately 1,000 in the world. The iron begins to build up in the organs because the body just stores it. And so when she was about three years old, they did a study of her heart and her liver and they realized that she had an emergent level of iron in her heart to the point where they were very concerned about it. They were calling specialists out in other states and in New York and California and consulting. And they said, okay, well, we're gonna increase her chelation medicine to try to pull the iron out. We aren't really sure that's gonna work. So what we're gonna do is repeat the imaging in about six months. And so we were obviously very upset about that. And I thought, what do I have in my toolkit? What can I do to help the chelation? Because they were thinking it might get better, it'll probably stay the same and it could even get worse, all right? So for her case, and in this instance, I ended up combining a Japanese moxibustion or shonishin technique. And I'll show you the graph here if it's the next slide. Oh, there she is, we'll go back to that. And so this is interesting. So this is again, just an overview because we're gonna talk about these things more in relation to you. But so on this slide, this is kind of an inverse graph. You want the numbers for the cardiac milliseconds to be high, that's a normal heart. A heart full of iron doesn't beat as well, okay? So in March 2015, it was a 4.9 to 15.7 millisecond reading. That's very, very, very bad. They were concerned very much about heart failure. But six months later, it was at 277. 20 is considered normal. They were blown away. The doctor, her hematologist said, okay, don't be too excited about these results because they're unbelievable. And we have no explanation for them, so we're gonna run the numbers again. But they were real. And then the next time we brought her in, a year or a half later-ish, her numbers were at 5,000 and then recently we just did them again and they were just again off the charts, totally normal heart, completely normal, no evidence of iron, despite the fact that she is still getting blood transfusions, okay? On the opposite side, you see her hepatic iron and that's supposed to go down, all right? And it did, okay? So with her, you know, I could show you other things, but this isn't really a talk about that. Her growth chart, when I started doing a ketogenic diet for her, she started to thrive. We were taking antiviral, so this is a very interesting condition and I'd love to talk about it, but we're just briefly, sometimes the children go into remission and start making their own blood when they're treated intravenous, high-dose antivirals. Even though technically there's no real viral thing that they can find and sometimes there is a herpes virus found in the bone marrow, but at any rate, so we've been doing, she's been testing positive for antivirals, herbally, and so we were doing those, but she wasn't really making any progress until we added in the ketogenic diet and so we're gonna talk about why that was true too and if you think about it from an ancestral health perspective, it makes sense. These herbs that we use, if you're trying to treat things herbally, they are very powerful and they've been used for centuries. However, centuries ago, not even century ago, we were not consuming sugar like we are now. So here we are, typically, trying to fight viruses and bacteria and overgrowth of flora with, you know, Qingdai indigo or oregano oil or neem or all these things from all these different traditions, but simultaneously we're feeding them. So with my military background, it's like you're trying to bomb the enemy while you're constantly resupplying them. Why would you do that, right? And so after she had tested positive for over a year for needing these antivirals, eating these antivirals, we just kept giving them and I was like, you know what, I'm done. We're gonna starve the buggers out and it worked. Within three months, not only did she no longer test positive for needing those herbals, but she had also increased from the 50th percentile in weight for height to the 85th. So that means, and it wasn't that she was obese, it was that she had muscle mass again. She was digesting her food, her gut had healed, okay? We also did supplements for her. So quick story, going kind of backwards then. So this is a little picture then of her getting her MRI when she was three and playing with the little face mask. And it's interesting her coloring. It's kind of hard to see here, but it is yellow and that's important from an East Asian perspective and we'll kind of talk about that too, how we weave these perspectives together. And then she looks much more kind of typical colored, little rosier, not quite so shallow, right? She looks yellow when she needs a blood transfusion. That's important, okay? You would think maybe perhaps that she would look pale. But in Chinese medicine, the yellow complexion corresponds to digestion and the earth element, all right? So at this time also, again just briefly, I want to go over what I did with me. So we found out that I was also struggling postpartum. I went to kidney failure. At one point, surgeons decided that my right kidney was no longer contributing, they performed a nuclear functional medicine test of the kidneys. And they said that they were gonna go ahead and remove that right kidney. I asked for three months. I did a series of electro acupuncture on certain points, even though there was really no research for it. Three months later, they repeated the test for my kidney and they said, oh goodness, actually, your right kidney is functioning again. We no longer need to remove it. Okay, simultaneously at one point, I went in because the nephrologist told me, well, you know, you're taking these herbs because from your perspectives, your kidneys need them to support you. However, I think that those herbs and supplements are what is causing your kidney failure. This is what the nephrologist said. So being a good scientist and having no one else to experiment on, I took myself off the herbs. I took myself off the supplements. And when I was retested, I was told that I was in full blown renal failure and I needed to come in and talk about dialysis. So immediately, of course, I had taken the supplements again, so I had taken the herbs again and I was back out of renal failure. The next time they tested me two weeks later and they said, oh, we don't know what happened. I do, right? Okay, so this is why I practice integrative medicine. It's very important. Now I'm not here to preach one medicine over the other, okay? Because if you hear my story and my daughter's story, and I didn't tell you that, I did also end up needing a surgery for my kidneys. I had six of them in three years, okay? So I would not have both my kidneys. I would not be in remission, autoimmune. If it, from autoimmunity, if it were not for both the surgeons and the doctors and what I know from the other perspectives, my daughter's the same way. She is a super healthy child for one who is poisoned by toxins every month and gets a blood transfusion. There is nothing sickly about her. So we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna get to what the meat of this is, all right? Which is how do you use integrative medicine? Why should you use integrative medicine? What are your thoughts on it? And what can you do to bring it more richly into your life and to help yourself and your people, okay? So my first question is, and I'll go ahead and write it up for you. And you can just think about it or you can talk to your neighbor. We'll just give it a minute. What to you is integrative medicine? What does that mean? Okay, so just think about that for a second. Or you could think about it as what is an integrative approach to health? How does one do that? What does that, what does that mean? Does anybody wanna share what that means to them? Yes, okay, great. So you kind of look at it as, it's obviously individualistic, right? It's individualized medicine. And it's simultaneously it sounds like a global medicine. And you're also describing it as multiple therapies. Oopsie. I'll have blue fingers before this is done. You're describing multiple therapies and hopefully you can read this. Multiple therapies from one provider. Or can it be more? Depending on your skill set. Right, okay, great. Anybody else, any thoughts? Yeah. Just using multiple tools. So multiple tools. And again, we're talking one provider here. But like I said earlier, you can also do the model. So there's a couple different models. There's the multiple therapies with one provider, which is primarily what I do, okay? Then there's multiple therapies. And this might be applicable if you don't have a very broad understanding of different types of therapies or you're just starting out. There's multiple therapies with multiple providers. And here's a caveat to this one. You must have a director. And we'll talk about why that's important here. So one of the things that's interesting is that there is a step to doing healing work. There is a step to getting rid of things like pathogens. And if you begin tonifying the system too strongly, with certain herbs, you actually, like I said, feed the pathogens. So for example, ginseng. Many forms of ginseng actually feed bad bugs. And because perhaps they're smaller or lower on us than the evolutionary scale, they benefit from that stimulus that adaptogen before we do. Okay, so giving someone ginseng, that's one of the ways to tell if they have what in Chinese medicine, ancient Chinese medicine was called gu. If they get worse when you give them ashwagandha and rhodiola and ginseng, if they feel horrible, they have what's called gu. And you're tonifying their bad bugs so you have to get rid of the pathogens first. The problem with doing multiple providers, and this is why a lot of times you have like those cancer clinics down south or in Mexico, where there's very intensive healing clinics, but they're all on board on the same page. So if you wanna work with other providers, that's great, but you all have to agree that somebody or something is your director. Otherwise you're gonna go at odds to each other, all right? There's another definition, anybody else wanna go at it? So there's a girl in my town who she is just a chiropractor only. She doesn't do any herbs or any supplements, but she calls herself integrative because she treats mind, body, and spirit. So she's looking at, she practices integrative medicine because she does the mind, body, spirit aspect. So that's kind of another definition of it, right? Let's see if I had other definitions. Nondogmatic. Right, right, perfect, perfect. So one of the things, and I do love this, one of the things that I really love about the integrative perspective, it is truly patient first, or I like to try to call it, even though it's very hard because we're all human, egoless medicine, okay? So if I'm treating someone and I'm treating, this is true case, gastroparesis, which is normally typically very hard to treat, okay? And I was treating her with acupuncture, we were getting great results, we were doing herbs, we were getting great results, but then even from the beginning, and notice that her spine was not in alignment, and I would only be able to take her so far, and so I referred her to a chiropractor, okay? So it's egoless medicine. It's patient first, and it's that idea that there is no kind of dogmatic principle that you're trying to force everybody into a box because it's an expansive medicine, okay? Yes? And priority based, what do you mean by that? Right, great. So there is a flow to that, and we'll talk about that too. So there is kind of a priority, you could call it almost a triage, you could call it, and I do have a slide for this at the end, is the idea that you, part of how you select the medicine is based on how emergent the situation is, okay? So, and how dangerous the therapy is, right? So our society is kind of funny because we have all these super dangerous therapies, very experimental drugs, and biological drugs, and we have dangerous surgeries, and we often promote those before the rather gentle therapies that don't have as much danger to them, right? So we kind of have it backwards, and we'll talk about how that can maybe get reversed. So moving along, does everyone kind of happy with what we talked about here? No, go ahead, yeah. Right, whose goal too? Yeah, patient's goal, right? Perfect, right, and that's really key too because certain people are gonna be a good fit for certain things, and other people aren't, you know, certain people just want the pill for every ill. It's not how I practice. So what are your beliefs or concerns about integrative medicine, or what are your hopes? Hopes, beliefs, or concerns? Anybody got something they wanna share as far as working on it for your practice? For example, one of the things I get from a lot of doctors that I've even helped is they're concerned about integrative medicine because they're worried that it's not safe because there hasn't been enough science behind it, right? Anybody else have any concerns or things about integrative medicine or beliefs? The safety is the biggest one, truly. Right, okay, so this is concerns and beliefs. So we've got scope of practice, and that kind of goes under safety really, keeping people safe, staying in your scope of practice, your scope of knowledge, your scope of education, right? Other also efficacy, right? And this is kind of a trap. So one of the things I like to think about, and we'll go into a slide for this at the end too, is that, but I wanna make sure we get to it so I'll talk about it now, is that I think of it as a ratio. The more there is a potential for harm, the more evidence there should be that something is necessary, okay? The more there's a potential for harm. So for example, with Reiki treatments for my dad. I mean, if Reiki was a cult, then that would be harm. But really, if anyone knows anything about it, there's very little harm from an energy therapy session. I mean, they're barely touching you. It's not a harmful medicine. So sure, go get yourself some Reiki. It's only gonna help, right? So the more dangerous something is, so we know which herbs are toxic. Before you use a toxic herb, getting true either evidence for it, and that kind of is the other trick. So what do we mean by evidence? And I am, like I said, a scientist. I did randomized control trials. I understand their value. However, I also understand their limitations. So traditionally and ancestrally, we used herbs in a very different way than we do now. Okay, especially on the Chinese medicine side, we used herbs in a formula. And we've only just begun testing formulas, typically what we do in the West because our vision is reductionistic, is we study one herb. But that's not how they're used. We use them in formulas. And we use them that way because it's balanced, ancestrally. Okay, so in Yale, just a few years ago, they actually did a study on a popular Chinese formula for something that is a common ailment. And they took, it was such a beautiful study. They took one herb out at a time. And they did a study with people. And then they added that herb back in, took out a different herb. And they did this throughout all, I think there were five or seven herbs in that formula. And then in the end, their conclusion was, wow, actually all combined, this formula. There's a method to this madness. And it's because we're doing these things combined. All right, so I am apparently talking a lot. Okay, so the last thing I wanna talk about really quick in our workshop, I wanna make sure we cover, is this idea of who's in charge when it comes to integrative medicine? Or as I like to say, if the body is a ship, who is the patient and who is the provider? It's important when you practice integrative medicine that you remember that the patient is the captain of their ship, okay? They are in charge, all right? They also can be viewed as the investment person. You know, they're invested in the ship. You are actually, you know, it's so easy to get involved. But truth is, they are the one who's invested in their ship and they are the captain of their ship. Who are we? We are their advisors. So in Chinese medicine, we would look at the person as the emperor, as being in charge of their own body. The heart is the emperor of the body in Chinese medicine. And we would say that the patient or the person who you are working on, it's their body, they are the heart of their organization. You are their advisors. So you wanna think of yourself as an advisor to the people you're working with, okay? They are actually in charge and your whole job is to give them as much information and as much support as you possibly can, okay? So we are running out of time, so let me see here what we can do as far as slides. So I wanna share with you a couple of things that you can do as a takeaway. I have so much more here, but I'm not sure how to advance these slides. I'm sorry. Okay, I just kinda wanted to scroll through. Oh, there we go. So I wanted to do a whole bunch of stuff on integrated perspectives of the immune system, but I obviously need to have a talk at another time. So one of the things that I want to have as a take home here is this idea of therapeutic order. So the greater the danger of this therapy, the greater the evidence that is needed. Oftentimes what I do is there's a way to prepare or a nature-based type of way, a softer way to prepare people for their radiation or their biological drugs, and then you again use these natural therapies to detox them, okay? When you have multiple confirmations of your view, so let's say you're looking at something from a scientific perspective, you're looking at something from an ancestral perspective, you're looking something from an East Asian perspective or an Arrovedic perspective, and all of them are saying the same thing or an energetic perspective, there's a greater weight on that for your decisions. When multiple things confirm what you're trying to do, then that should be given greater weight. Okay, let's see here. So some of the important things with integrated medicine, so there isn't a lot of science, not a lot of scientific research behind it, and that is the trick to it, right? So it requires a bit of courage and it requires curiosity. It certainly also requires flexibility, and one of the things that I have up there is that knowledge is power, but wisdom is timing. So a big part of the idea with integrated medicine is doing things in the right order, and these are some steps, okay? So number one, you have to remove the pathogens. The body is an integrated system. I like to look at it also as a miniature earth, okay? You have to remove the pathogens that are not serving the sense of self in order for the self to gain strength. Some key principles that we understand is that the body is not actually broken and that the body is the healer, okay? In integrated medicine, we understand the system turns towards health and the system wants to restore towards health in that it is going to communicate through its different levels. So what we secretly, or we should secretly, what we ultimately want to do is we have to restore the body's integrity, the body's flow, and the body's service, okay? So that the body is no longer serving the pathogens. The pathogens are no longer inside someone's mind, forcing them to crave more sugar. The pathogens are gone and they're now able to eat a normalized diet. The pathogens are no longer driving their hormonal process and their chemical process. The body and the self is serving the true self, okay? And that's what we are ultimately seeking to do is to restore the flow and the integrity of the system. And one of the things we understand is that in Chinese medicine, and we know this from a naturalist perspective, that everything has to flow, right? So a stagnant pond is a dead pond. And that's why I'm gonna be followed here by another speaker who's gonna do some posture work for you and it's really great because she focuses also on this idea of flow, okay? So we have to have everything communicating, we have to have everything, the blood, the circulation, all those things flowing. If something's not moving in a person, they're gonna develop a problem. Okay, so I would love to meet you maybe over there or you can after this or maybe after the next talk and I can answer your questions or we can talk more. Thank you so much.