Adam Johnson, MD
The Linné Institute of Medicine, Medical Director, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
As an emergency medicine for over 15 years, I am poignantly aware of the limitations of both understanding and therapeutics within the classical medical toolbox. At the same time, I have watched in perplexed dismay at how poorly we (and I include myself in this) have blundered through patient care, even though most of us are well-intending.
One evening on a busy shift in the emergency department, this realization struck me between the eyes with as much force as if I had walked into a door in the dark of night on my way to the toilet. You know the experience—the door is opened so that passes long-ways and unnoticed between your reaching arms, and then… wham, what the HELL! That's how I felt. Here is the story:
A 66-year-old man was evacuated from a remote elk hunting camp by search and rescue volunteers and brought to me (the closest hospital) because he was too weak to stand. Otherwise, he had no other symptoms. He said he had fainted over 6 time in as many hours. Quick assessment: normal vitals. EKG on arrival: U waves and mild ST depressions. Within seconds I knew this man had critically low potassium. Blood tests confirmed my suspensions, and appropriate interventions were made. His potassium was so low that his syncopal events were certainly the result of near-fatal dysrhythmias.
The question was why? In this case, he was on a high dose diuretic—literally pissing his potassium away. Why was he on a high dose diuretic? Because since he started getting testosterone injections, his blood pressure was inadequately treated with his other antihypertensive. Why was he getting testosterone injections? Because the beta-blocker that he as taking for his hypertension was giving him erectile dysfunction and low libido. Why was he on a beta-blocker? According to the patient, he had always been a "hot-tempered" man with a "short-fuse" and was always high strung. He said that as long as he could remember he was "high stress" and he figured that was why he had high blood pressure. Ya think?
Wouldn't it be clever to be able to understand the physiology behind anger, high stress, and the downstream effect on blood pressure? Wouldn't it be clever to fix that issue so that this patient never would need a beta-blocker to give him erectile dysfunction, so that he didn't feel like he needed testosterone injections which only exacerbated his hypertension and gave him testosterone levels higher than most 18-year-olds? Wouldn't it have been nice if this man could have stayed in at hunting camp and harvested a nice bull elk—an experience he had paid tens of thousands of dollars to do?
Endobiogenic medicine is the quintessence of holistic medicine and clinical physiology. It allows the physician to not only answer the deeper questions, but also to address the answers in a way that honors our fundamental humanity. It is a medical discipline that combines modern advances in human physiology with mathematical modeling and the rational application of medicinal plants and other natural therapies. Endobiogeny offers a both powerful theoretical framework as well as practical guide for understanding and supporting health, sickness, and Life on the deepest, most complex, and most awe-inspiring levels. Endobiogeny has forever charged my medical worldview. Prior to studying endobiogeny, I had been playing in the kiddy pool. With Endobiogeny, I'm now swimming in the ocean.