How to Integrate Integrative Medicine

In this health video you will learn how to integrate integrative medicine.

Raena Morgan: Hello, I'm Raena Morgan with iHealthTube, visiting with Dr. Aaron Katz, the author of Prostate Health. You first came into holistic medicine where you were first exposed to it at the Atkins Center. Dr. Aaron Katz: Yes. Raena Morgan: The famous Dr. Atkins? Dr. Aaron Katz: Yes, yes, that's correct. Raena Morgan: Could you describe that? How that affected you? And what you learnt? Dr. Aaron Katz: Well, it's incredible how sometimes a phone call can change your career. Raena Morgan: Okay. Dr. Aaron Katz: We got a phone call at our university. They needed a urologist to go down to the Atkins Center and evaluate prostate patients and I started doing that when I first came to Columbia in 1993. And it was an eye-opening experience really for me to the number of patients that were being cared for there with herbal and nutritional therapies, therapies that I never knew existed and didn't realize would have such great benefit. It was amazing that, if I would go there on a Tuesday and treat men at that center with herbs and diet and prevent them from undergoing surgery, and yet when I went back to the medical center on a Thursday, we would be seeing the same type of patient, yet offering them surgical therapy, because that's how we were trained at the medical center. Raena Morgan: What a contrast. Dr. Aaron Katz: There was an amazing contrast and it was, again, an eye-opening experience for me into this whole health care area of complimentary and alternative medicine or what I'd like to refer to more as integrative medicine; as trying to evaluate these patients, make sure that we do a proper diagnosis, use our skills that we learned in allopathic medical schools, and then open our eyes and listen to our patients and allow them to receive some of the best of the alternative medicine, as well as the allopathic medicine, to give them really the best healthcare that they can receive. Many times, especially for patients with early stage prostate cancer that undergo treatments, traditional treatments, like surgery or radiation, they come to me, because they say, "You know, Dr. Katz, I'm a high-risk patient, I've been treated conventionally, but I have a high risk of this cancer coming back. What can I do? What can I change in my life? What can I add to my diet? What can I do to reduce my stress to prevent this cancer from returning?" Raena Morgan: And a traditional doctor would not really have those answers, would he? Or would she? Dr. Aaron Katz: Well, I think that the traditional doctor, again, hasn't been educated and wasn't trained in this area and I think one of the goals and the missions of our center at Columbia, is really to try and educate ourselves, our patients and other physicians through evidence-based research and clinical trials and studies that we're doing, so that we can learn about these other approaches. Raena Morgan: So a patient who has received surgery, might also be using herbs and more holistic approaches to healing, right? Dr. Aaron Katz: Oh, very commonly. In fact, if we were to do a survey of men in this country that have prostate cancer, that are concerned about their PSA returning, or their cancer returning, an overwhelming number of them, just on their own, without the advice of their physician or without seeking medical advice, are taking some of these things, nutrients and dietary modifications to prevent cancer recurrence. Raena Morgan: So they could see someone like yourself and have both approaches and that's integrative medicine? Dr. Aaron Katz: That's integrative medicine, exactly. Raena Morgan: Okay, well, thank you, Dr. Katz. Dr. Aaron Katz: Thank you.