By Dr. Irina Kossovski

Systemic Interactive Medicine considers a human being a complex functional system, aspiring for constancy of its internal environment – "homeostasis".

Conventional vs. holistic approach to health and disease

Powerful mechanisms of self-regulation of this highly sophisticated system, if functioning properly, can overcome almost any dysfunction. However, when these mechanisms fail and disease develops, it seems more natural to direct efforts towards restoration and support of natural healing rather than fighting the disease. In most cases, this approach leads to more complete and harmonic recovery.

Unfortunately, conventional medicine in its traditional form mostly ignores the work of the body’s natural healing systems and fights the disease instead of working together with the body. This approach inevitably leads to the use of powerful means of influence on disease, which, however, are not natural to the body (strong medicine, strong physiotherapy etc.). These influences interfere with the body’s self-recovery programs and often corrupt or block them. Our body accumulates the unfinished programs and with time, we develop body dysfunctions, allergies, and "a bouquet" of chronic diseases, that can even influence the next generations. People say, if you are over the age of 50, you wake up in the morning and nothing hurts, you must be dead.

That is why healthcare recently turned towards more "peaceful" approach in solving physical problems of human beings and puts more attention to the body’s own potential reserves and capacities. In this way, we work not in spite of the body but together with it, making the body active in a healing process and increasing our chances to overcome disease. Effectiveness can be achieved by small means, where the danger of complications and side effects is minimal.

This is the approach shared by most of complementary/alternative healthcare practices, which are recently becoming progressively popular.

 

Core Principles of SI Medicine

Systemic Interactive Medicine’s three main principles, completely shares the holistic approach towards health and disease.

PRINCIPLE 1 - As long as a human being is alive, it is capable of healing any malady.

PRINCIPLE 2 - In the healing process, the human body should not be interfered with.

PRINCIPLE 3 - In order to speed up the healing process, we must help support the body.

In other words, let us help the human being help itself – it knows better what is wrong, it knows better what to do, it just needs some assistance.

 

View on health in SI Medicine

Conventional medicine generally sees health as "the absence of disease" or major physical dysfunction. However, the definition of the World Health Organization states, that "Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

According to Dr. Andrew Weil, "optimum health is a state of balance in which the innate healing system of a human organism is operating at the best possible efficiency… an inner resilience that allows you to meet the demands of living without being overwhelmed". This balance is dynamic and necessarily involves the entire human being, as a unity of body, mind and spirit. "Optimum health should also bring with it a sense of strength and joy, so that you experience it as more than just the absence of disease." 4 Indeed, ‘health’ is more ‘presence’ than ‘absence’.

In SI Medicine not only is health is a state of dynamic balance of physical, mental and spiritual well-being it is a lifetime journey, an intentional and proactive orientation to life that values personal growth and development. In this way, a central figure in the healing process becomes the individual himself, taking primary responsibility for maintaining of his own health.

As Dr. Marc Micozzi points out, "Health is not something you grant someone. A doctor cannot grant a patient health. Health is something that must be pursued. It’s a path that people have to choose to get on. They can’t be given health with a pill or an operation. It goes even beyond lifestyle. It’s an issue of philosophy, and every person really has to be responsible to stay healthy, and get well when they are sick, and has to focus on their ability to care for themselves… That’s the only solution, in the end. No one can give you health."

The active role of the individual in the process of evoking and keeping health is in the very core of SI Medicine. It is mainly client-oriented, as distinguished from physician-oriented as in conventional medicine. Even the word "patient" is not in its vocabulary as no longer conforming to the essence of the issue.

The concept of health as a state of dynamic balance in human well being also implies that the human organism has a healing system, which naturally keeps this balance. Accordingly, the main objective of medicine would be to keep this system in optimum working condition, in top shape, and let it do its job of keeping us healthy.

Medicine thus acquires a largely preventive aspect. But even if disease occurs and treatment is required, efforts are concentrated not on fighting disease but on supporting the activity of the healing system. And an optimum treatment is the one that tunes up and strengthens the healing system with minimal impact on the physical body. This approach is not aggressive, and such an influence on the body can hardly be called "intervention". The way of medicine should not be the way of war.

 

View on disease in SI Medicine

Following the famous expression "Love your disease, it’s keeping you healthy", SI Medicine sees the pathologic process in a human body as an inadequate adaptive reaction rather than an enemy that should be killed.

Any living system responds (adapts) to the outside changes striving to keep the constancy of its internal environment – homeostasis, in the ever-changing world. In a well-tuned healthy system adaptive reactions happen instantly and unnoticeably. However, if adaptive reactions, due to a disorder in self-regulation, do not have an adequate measure of reaction, we experience dis-ease.

Inadequacy of adaptive reactions (too strong a response) is caused in most cases by improper work of the body programs. If there is a delay in the transmission of information within the body, the adaptive (i.e. natural healing) reaction will be difficult and, therefore, slow. Each step of the program will require a lot of efforts and a lot of energy, thus becoming quite perceivable. We call it "symptoms". As a rule, the slower is the adaptive reaction, the stronger the symptoms are. Sometimes, if natural healing programs are corrupted or blocked too much, the adaptive reaction cannot be completed at all. The body is stuck somewhere on a healing cycle at the ‘dead point’, which the body cannot pass, no matter how often and how hard it tries (the chronic disease and its relapses).

 

How to regain health

Conventional approach towards any health problem is as follows: we label the disease according to the symptoms and, as per diagnosis, start fighting it to relieve unpleasant sensations. But what is that we are actually fighting? Just the body’s natural healing reaction, thus falling into danger of leaving the system in disharmony with the outside world.

Simple logic tells that it would be more natural to help the body complete healing by speeding up the adaptive reactions. In other words, we have to develop the dynamics of disease.

SI Medicine technologies accelerate the speed of informational processes in the body, optimizing the activity of self-regulative mechanisms and adaptive reactions. A SI Medicine therapist assists a client through the entire circle of his dis-ease, trying to make this way faster and easier – however, the natural healing program should not be interfered with. Disease has to live its life through.

 

Client rules

The idea of helping the living system heal itself in the way it was designed to is shared by all holistic medical practices. It is in the core of the ancient medical systems, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurvedic, and Indigenous Medicine etc. It is also undergoing its revival now, on a new turn of the evolutionary spiral, on a new quality level. This turn requires radical reconsidering the accepted role distribution between a practitioner and a client, returning to the client the decision making power in a treatment process.

We still think that it should be health care professionals, who decide what is best for their clients; that with the help of hi-tech diagnostic equipment they will always know better what is wrong with the unimaginably complex systems they are called upon to treat. However, the level of complexity of the functional system of a human organism far exceeds the diagnostic capabilities of any piece of equipment known to-date. Therefore, relying on diagnosis always carries the probability of a mistake with unpredictable consequences.

The only way to avoid such a mistake is to trust the human being in its ability to heal and let it lead the process of therapy, supporting in any way possible. The system itself is the only entity, which really knows what is going on, and the only one, which has a comprehensive way of dealing with a problem. Eliminating the diagnostic stage and letting the client’s own body lead treatments simplifies the entire process of therapy and makes it much more efficient and safe.

 

Body talks

The only problem, how to establish communication with the body in order to assist it in healing? So far this communication was only possible through the censorship of consciousness, which is gradually losing the ability to receive, interpret, and transfer information from the body because of continuing alienation from it.

Cry of our bodies for help remains unheard and incomprehensive, unless the way is found to directly communicate with the body.

That is where high technologies enter the scene. At the end of the 20th century they brought a solution –

Using the body’s own language of chemistry and electricity, these devices work on energetic and informational levels and supply the body with a feedback and extra resources of energy, necessary to complete the healing process. They also give the body a chance to establish direct interactive communication with other systems capable of supporting the body in its healing efforts.

 

Helping hands

When a living system cannot cope with a problem on its own, it looks for help from outside. It receives help in interaction with other systems, which readily supply the system in need with extra resources of substance, energy and information. This simple principle underpins the concept of Systemic Interactive Medicine, a new integrative approach to health and healing, which explores the ways of helping a human being enhance its natural healing capacity through interaction with other systems.

SI Medicine works for us as spiritual and intellectual beings, when we discuss our problems with a friend, or a psychologist, or a priest and gain a greater understanding of ourselves. In the same way it works on physical level, when interactive medical devices establish a line of communication between our out-of-tune bodies and surrounding supporting systems, whether it is another human being, an animal, or our own phantom image. Interactive device can be a supporting system itself, like the SCENAR, when it connects to the body at the place of small asymmetry, feeding it with information and energy.

In the world of systems you are never alone. Eternal beauty of the living Universe is a reflection of its intrinsic harmony, and the Universe keeps this harmony taking care of each of its parts, you included. Your health contributes to the health of the Universe, so its resources are open for you. There are helping hands everywhere, all you need to do is ask – and you shall receive.