In 2003, I collapsed and nearly died. The first 6 doctors I saw delivered the same news: there isn’t a surgery or a pill that can fix the problem so I can’t help you.
14 months into this journey, I finally found a doctor who said: I know how to help.
She took the time to see me — really see me — the person, not just the patient or a number. There was no assembly line healing.
Quite simply, she saved my life. I’m so grateful to doctors like her and you that believe in true healing.
Throughout my career I have tried to adhere to this quote.
“It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has."
— Sir William Osler
He was a Canadian physician who is often described as the "Father of Modern Medicine" and was one of the four founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
This particular quote reflects Osler's philosophy that medicine should be patient-centred rather than disease-centred.He emphasised understanding the individual patient's circumstances, personality, and overall health rather than focusing narrowly on diagnosing and treating a specific disease. This perspective was somewhat revolutionary for his time (1849-1919) and appears to have been forgotten as a foundational principle in modern medical practice and medical education.
Osler's emphasis on treating the whole patient rather than just the disease has influenced generations of physicians and remains relevant in today's discussions about personalised medicine and holistic care approaches.
Thank you for this! It illuminates the disconnect I feel when I see my doctor, who doesn’t want to hear me when I state my values. He is focused on longevity, which I have repeatedly said I am not concerned about. He gives me statistics about the chances of dying of this, that, or the other thing. It feels like a scare tactic- to try to keep me buying more tests until I find something wrong so that he can prescribe more drugs.
I am old enough (74) to fondly remember having doctors who had their own practices and who got to know me and had time to treat me as a whole person and not manage me by data. I miss those days.
I worked for a health services research company during my last 18 years of working and we helped our state develop electronic medical records. It seemed at the time to be a wonderful idea but now it seem that my doctors are wed to them entering data, data, data, ordering tests to cough up data, data, data, to manage my health and bring my “numbers” into line. I’m only now reading that some allowances should be made for the elder population to not have to hit those numbers. Finally! I’ve wondered how, in seeing and experiencing the slow down of my body and the slow breakdown of my spine despite what I consider healthy practices, why I’m expected to fit the one size fits all data points that “say” I am healthy. I’m not adverse to taking medication that is necessary and helpful to prolonging my health and life or to screening tests like a colonoscopy and occasional mammogram although I’m approaching the age where because I’ve had clean tests thus far, I have the choice to no longer do those.
I listen to my body. I try to do all the healthy things although I allow myself more desserts now that I’m getting up there in age. I’m not into denying myself pleasures the way I did when I was younger. I adapt to my spinal issues. Walking is not as easy as it used to be. I can no longer hike but I bought a wonderful Swedish all terrain rollator (Trionic Veloped) that I use to walk my dog each morning on the paved trails in the community where I live and I’ve taken it up on our mountain trails too. That’s what it was designed for: to be able to continue to walk in nature under almost any condition. I have a small indoor rollator with a tray for indoors so that I can ferry heavy things around the house and now that I can no longer do Iyengar yoga, I do chair yoga though the Yoga Vista website for a nominal fee to have hundreds of chair yoga and chair dance yoga programs 24/7 at my disposal. Adaptation is a wonderful thing when you age.
I recently subscribed to you healing circle posts Dr. Marbas. I want to thank you for filling the gap for what I feel is missing in medicine today. I don’t even know how I found your posts, probably because I follow a few other doctors on Substack. But I’m glad to have found you.
Thank you Nanci! You embody a beautiful spirit. Staying active however you can is so important not only physically but mentally as well. Nature is an incredible healing element and appears you have been writing that prescription for yourself for many years. ❤️
Yes. True true true, And so much more. I am not a fan of the industrial society. Especially when it comes to allopathic medicine. It was a few months ago that I had a breakdown in a medical waiting room . White coat syndrome is on my chart. I was roughly told " This is a business" as if that made malpractice sacred. Thank goodness for the medicine people like you . 🦋🦼❤️👍🌎🫂
Thank you Laurie. There are excellent medical professionals in many fields. From your writings I know you as an excellent psychologist. Having experienced extreme trauma since birth from cruel from cruel or wrongly educated MDs suffice it to say that my ongoing healing is progressing nicely, though my injuries would curl your short hairs into a knot, so I won't go there on a public media platform. I have in my later years experienced excellent care from a nurse practitioner who has since relocated out of state. Keep up the good work , Laurie.👍❤️
Maybe you are not a " Psychologist", but you have an excellent and integrative understanding of the relationship between body, mind and spirit and a compassionate approach to healing , unfortunately rare today. And as a person who loves to facilitate healing in my own right as a Comanche mother and grandmother, I deeply appreciate that.
Thank you. I am not a psychologist, although I have been fascinated with psychology and human behavior since college. I am a family medicine physician just sharing my own stories, perspectives, and learnings, in hopes that it helps someone along the way. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my posts.
Love yourself deeply,Dr. Marbas ♥️. Not only do you deserve infinite Love, but this energy is required to continue sharing the sacred healing space! You are a blessing🙏🏽. Let Joy be🎵🎶
Magnificent! The Marbas Manifesto on Medicine and Healing. I've studied manifestos as long as you've practiced medicine. The challenge always has been how to move hearts and minds to make this their manifesto. My bias--I think every human needs to create their own manifesto and cover all seven areas of life. Health is one of those areas.
Famous manifestos: 1517 Ninety-Five Theses by Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. 1776 The Declaration of Independence. 1999 The Cluetrain Manifesto, which starts out "People of earth..."
You know how to reach me directly by phone, text and email. I'm a great resource for The Marbas Manifesto on Medicine and Healing. I'm willing to put in the time to understand where your writing and commmunity building strategies work with your medical practice because that's a specific and rare combination of three tracks.
Here's something that's not on my website: I started my professional career as a technical writer for the National Institutes of Health, researching and ghostwriting articles for national publications for famous doctors who were so far beyond genius they stumped their professors in medical school. Before I was 22, I knew how to spell abetalipoproteinemia and could tell you what it meant.... and not to be confused with familial dysbetalipoproteinemia. Since then, I've worked 50 years with more than 600 different professions and helped them tell their story and write their manifestos.
This not a criticism of people replying here but there is a real danger that some people, who have had experiences like these lose trust in their doctor / the system. They then turn to the snake oil peddlers, part of whose pitch is the “sympathy” angle, which was missed by the Doctor. When these attitudes are reinforced by those with the greatest media clout then Society, Science and Medicine lose!
Thank you - I need to be stirred up now and then. Treebeard rules🤗
Back again 😊 Been turning this “frustratingly multidimensional truth” idea over in my head.
Please help me here 🤔 does this mean that something that is true, might not be? I don’t mean verifiable facts themselves but if I have come to a conclusion (based on those facts) then that may not be true😳
You can probably tell I am science trained. I was a Secondary School Biology teacher for 35 years, so I’m used to the notion of things not being what you expected 😊
Sorry if it came across as disrespectful of placebo. That was not intended. It was meant to be more of a kick back against anti-vax and examples of proven BAD science being peddled.
I fully accept that there are natural remedies that work. Manuka treatment of antibiotic resistant infections, Sour cherries for gout ( that from personal experience 😊) for example. Not sure if I’ve put that clearly enough 🤔🤞🏻
What you said was truth, but truth is frustratingly multidimensional. I'm grateful for your post. It prompted my old neurons to light up a bit more in that moment.
yes so true, and not just in the US. In UK and Europe, Australia and beyond. We have to take more responsbility for our own health & wellbeing and the connection between body and mind.
Not drugs but deep understanding of our bodies and how everything is connected.
Thankyou for articulating this. I have spent the last two years learning to navigate this broken system. It hasn't been easy but it has been immensely empowering.
Yesterday, I met with a PA at my local clinic in a semi-rural area. I have been experiencing difficulty with my breathing - struggling with getting a deep breath. I had no other symptoms or related conditions and I had already researched anxiety as a possible cause.
I have been exceptionally anxious January. I am 66 and have done a lot of work on my self and I know that my chaotic and dysfunctionall childhood motivated me to create an adulthood based on feeling safe and secure. That now feels threatened by the current adminstration. I also have assumed control over my health, eating right, exercising, managing stress, incorporating herbs for remedies. Part of my weekly journaling includes a body and mind check-in.
I made the appt to rule out any other possible causes.
The PA, about 30 years younger than me, listened with a blank, non-responsive presence but she was practicing the "I am listening" professional demeanor. There was no empathy and at one point, when I expressed the fear and panic that I and most everyone I knew was experiencing, she interrupted me to say, "Trust me, not everyone is panicking."
That lack of empathy and arrogance reminded me of why I seldom go to my only clinic. She asked no questions, didn't bother to listen to my lungs, and recommended that I meet with a counselor so I could get "tools" to use. She never asked me what I was doing, if anything, to help with my anxiety. When I explained that I was doing she again recommended talk therapy.
This only confirmed, again, that I am just another insurance billing and that I can't turn to my only clinic for anything beyond lab work.
Perhaps the PA was too depleted to enter the sacred healing space. Consider taking the mental health referral and maybe you might meet a person with the necessary energy to assist in healing. If not, seek another. Our "healthcare" system demands us to be assertive, even at times when we struggle to be so. 🫂🙏🏽☮️♥️
I do understand that healthcare professionals are also victims of a system that is based on the profits of disease. It's one of the reasons why I invested years in learning anatomy and physiology and more importantly, how to critically examine medical research so that I can work in colloboration with my doctors. My experience with traditional systems has been mostly negative. Last year, I went in for an annual Medicare "wellness" exam and I brought a list of five questions and my doctor told me she could only deal with three because of time.
I have also tried talk therapy with few positive results. The last counselor I saw met with me for three one hour sessions, writing on her pad while I talked and offered nothing. $375 cash later, the only thing I learned is that I would not go back. to be honest, the mental health system is riddled with a focus on profit and disease.
I live in a rural area with limited access to other healthcare professionials. We had two functional doctors open practices and they filled within several weeks, no longer taking patients and have a two year wait list.
I understand and feel the frustration in my life, too. Any telehealth possibilities in your area? I know telehealth lacks the hands on and up close vibes, but it might be a doorway to other opportunities. Sounds like your area is limited. I live rural too. It's a three hour drive to see a specialist here, but then there's telemed for follow ups. I completely recognize that you deserve so much more than you got🫂, but, in our system, healing care requires a search for the holy grail. It's a trek!
I am so sorry Sue to hear this. It irritates me to think we (the medical profession) can brush off patients, not do a proper examination, etc. I could go on and on but know I hope you find someone to fully evaluate your situation and minimally give you some peace of mind.
In 2003, I collapsed and nearly died. The first 6 doctors I saw delivered the same news: there isn’t a surgery or a pill that can fix the problem so I can’t help you.
14 months into this journey, I finally found a doctor who said: I know how to help.
She took the time to see me — really see me — the person, not just the patient or a number. There was no assembly line healing.
Quite simply, she saved my life. I’m so grateful to doctors like her and you that believe in true healing.
Thanks for the work you do!
Throughout my career I have tried to adhere to this quote.
“It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has."
— Sir William Osler
He was a Canadian physician who is often described as the "Father of Modern Medicine" and was one of the four founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
This particular quote reflects Osler's philosophy that medicine should be patient-centred rather than disease-centred.He emphasised understanding the individual patient's circumstances, personality, and overall health rather than focusing narrowly on diagnosing and treating a specific disease. This perspective was somewhat revolutionary for his time (1849-1919) and appears to have been forgotten as a foundational principle in modern medical practice and medical education.
Osler's emphasis on treating the whole patient rather than just the disease has influenced generations of physicians and remains relevant in today's discussions about personalised medicine and holistic care approaches.
Brilliant! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you. "A system that sees nutrition, sleep, movement, community, and purpose as foundational prescriptions, not "alternative" care."
Just 'wow.' Thanks for this. Reposting on my page.
Thank you.
Thank you for this! It illuminates the disconnect I feel when I see my doctor, who doesn’t want to hear me when I state my values. He is focused on longevity, which I have repeatedly said I am not concerned about. He gives me statistics about the chances of dying of this, that, or the other thing. It feels like a scare tactic- to try to keep me buying more tests until I find something wrong so that he can prescribe more drugs.
I am old enough (74) to fondly remember having doctors who had their own practices and who got to know me and had time to treat me as a whole person and not manage me by data. I miss those days.
I worked for a health services research company during my last 18 years of working and we helped our state develop electronic medical records. It seemed at the time to be a wonderful idea but now it seem that my doctors are wed to them entering data, data, data, ordering tests to cough up data, data, data, to manage my health and bring my “numbers” into line. I’m only now reading that some allowances should be made for the elder population to not have to hit those numbers. Finally! I’ve wondered how, in seeing and experiencing the slow down of my body and the slow breakdown of my spine despite what I consider healthy practices, why I’m expected to fit the one size fits all data points that “say” I am healthy. I’m not adverse to taking medication that is necessary and helpful to prolonging my health and life or to screening tests like a colonoscopy and occasional mammogram although I’m approaching the age where because I’ve had clean tests thus far, I have the choice to no longer do those.
I listen to my body. I try to do all the healthy things although I allow myself more desserts now that I’m getting up there in age. I’m not into denying myself pleasures the way I did when I was younger. I adapt to my spinal issues. Walking is not as easy as it used to be. I can no longer hike but I bought a wonderful Swedish all terrain rollator (Trionic Veloped) that I use to walk my dog each morning on the paved trails in the community where I live and I’ve taken it up on our mountain trails too. That’s what it was designed for: to be able to continue to walk in nature under almost any condition. I have a small indoor rollator with a tray for indoors so that I can ferry heavy things around the house and now that I can no longer do Iyengar yoga, I do chair yoga though the Yoga Vista website for a nominal fee to have hundreds of chair yoga and chair dance yoga programs 24/7 at my disposal. Adaptation is a wonderful thing when you age.
I recently subscribed to you healing circle posts Dr. Marbas. I want to thank you for filling the gap for what I feel is missing in medicine today. I don’t even know how I found your posts, probably because I follow a few other doctors on Substack. But I’m glad to have found you.
Thank you Nanci! You embody a beautiful spirit. Staying active however you can is so important not only physically but mentally as well. Nature is an incredible healing element and appears you have been writing that prescription for yourself for many years. ❤️
Yes. True true true, And so much more. I am not a fan of the industrial society. Especially when it comes to allopathic medicine. It was a few months ago that I had a breakdown in a medical waiting room . White coat syndrome is on my chart. I was roughly told " This is a business" as if that made malpractice sacred. Thank goodness for the medicine people like you . 🦋🦼❤️👍🌎🫂
🙏
Thank you Laurie. There are excellent medical professionals in many fields. From your writings I know you as an excellent psychologist. Having experienced extreme trauma since birth from cruel from cruel or wrongly educated MDs suffice it to say that my ongoing healing is progressing nicely, though my injuries would curl your short hairs into a knot, so I won't go there on a public media platform. I have in my later years experienced excellent care from a nurse practitioner who has since relocated out of state. Keep up the good work , Laurie.👍❤️
Maybe you are not a " Psychologist", but you have an excellent and integrative understanding of the relationship between body, mind and spirit and a compassionate approach to healing , unfortunately rare today. And as a person who loves to facilitate healing in my own right as a Comanche mother and grandmother, I deeply appreciate that.
🥰
Thank you. I am not a psychologist, although I have been fascinated with psychology and human behavior since college. I am a family medicine physician just sharing my own stories, perspectives, and learnings, in hopes that it helps someone along the way. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my posts.
Good enough for me.
🙏
Reading this felt a bit healing. ❤️
🥰
Love yourself deeply,Dr. Marbas ♥️. Not only do you deserve infinite Love, but this energy is required to continue sharing the sacred healing space! You are a blessing🙏🏽. Let Joy be🎵🎶
Thank you!
Magnificent! The Marbas Manifesto on Medicine and Healing. I've studied manifestos as long as you've practiced medicine. The challenge always has been how to move hearts and minds to make this their manifesto. My bias--I think every human needs to create their own manifesto and cover all seven areas of life. Health is one of those areas.
Famous manifestos: 1517 Ninety-Five Theses by Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. 1776 The Declaration of Independence. 1999 The Cluetrain Manifesto, which starts out "People of earth..."
Oh my goodness, what a fabulous suggestion. This is got my creative energies flowing. :)
You know how to reach me directly by phone, text and email. I'm a great resource for The Marbas Manifesto on Medicine and Healing. I'm willing to put in the time to understand where your writing and commmunity building strategies work with your medical practice because that's a specific and rare combination of three tracks.
Here's something that's not on my website: I started my professional career as a technical writer for the National Institutes of Health, researching and ghostwriting articles for national publications for famous doctors who were so far beyond genius they stumped their professors in medical school. Before I was 22, I knew how to spell abetalipoproteinemia and could tell you what it meant.... and not to be confused with familial dysbetalipoproteinemia. Since then, I've worked 50 years with more than 600 different professions and helped them tell their story and write their manifestos.
This not a criticism of people replying here but there is a real danger that some people, who have had experiences like these lose trust in their doctor / the system. They then turn to the snake oil peddlers, part of whose pitch is the “sympathy” angle, which was missed by the Doctor. When these attitudes are reinforced by those with the greatest media clout then Society, Science and Medicine lose!
Thank you - I need to be stirred up now and then. Treebeard rules🤗
Back again 😊 Been turning this “frustratingly multidimensional truth” idea over in my head.
Please help me here 🤔 does this mean that something that is true, might not be? I don’t mean verifiable facts themselves but if I have come to a conclusion (based on those facts) then that may not be true😳
You can probably tell I am science trained. I was a Secondary School Biology teacher for 35 years, so I’m used to the notion of things not being what you expected 😊
Research has shown that people can heal through the "placebo effect." Respectfully, medicine is not the only miracle.
Sorry if it came across as disrespectful of placebo. That was not intended. It was meant to be more of a kick back against anti-vax and examples of proven BAD science being peddled.
I fully accept that there are natural remedies that work. Manuka treatment of antibiotic resistant infections, Sour cherries for gout ( that from personal experience 😊) for example. Not sure if I’ve put that clearly enough 🤔🤞🏻
My pleasure 😊 That’s SubStack at its best Lighting up any age neurons!!
What you said was truth, but truth is frustratingly multidimensional. I'm grateful for your post. It prompted my old neurons to light up a bit more in that moment.
Absolutely! The belief in a positive outcome starts the energy flowing towards healing.
yes so true, and not just in the US. In UK and Europe, Australia and beyond. We have to take more responsbility for our own health & wellbeing and the connection between body and mind.
Not drugs but deep understanding of our bodies and how everything is connected.
Functional medicine the new frontier.
Thankyou for articulating this. I have spent the last two years learning to navigate this broken system. It hasn't been easy but it has been immensely empowering.
Yesterday, I met with a PA at my local clinic in a semi-rural area. I have been experiencing difficulty with my breathing - struggling with getting a deep breath. I had no other symptoms or related conditions and I had already researched anxiety as a possible cause.
I have been exceptionally anxious January. I am 66 and have done a lot of work on my self and I know that my chaotic and dysfunctionall childhood motivated me to create an adulthood based on feeling safe and secure. That now feels threatened by the current adminstration. I also have assumed control over my health, eating right, exercising, managing stress, incorporating herbs for remedies. Part of my weekly journaling includes a body and mind check-in.
I made the appt to rule out any other possible causes.
The PA, about 30 years younger than me, listened with a blank, non-responsive presence but she was practicing the "I am listening" professional demeanor. There was no empathy and at one point, when I expressed the fear and panic that I and most everyone I knew was experiencing, she interrupted me to say, "Trust me, not everyone is panicking."
That lack of empathy and arrogance reminded me of why I seldom go to my only clinic. She asked no questions, didn't bother to listen to my lungs, and recommended that I meet with a counselor so I could get "tools" to use. She never asked me what I was doing, if anything, to help with my anxiety. When I explained that I was doing she again recommended talk therapy.
This only confirmed, again, that I am just another insurance billing and that I can't turn to my only clinic for anything beyond lab work.
Thank you for this important post!
Perhaps the PA was too depleted to enter the sacred healing space. Consider taking the mental health referral and maybe you might meet a person with the necessary energy to assist in healing. If not, seek another. Our "healthcare" system demands us to be assertive, even at times when we struggle to be so. 🫂🙏🏽☮️♥️
I do understand that healthcare professionals are also victims of a system that is based on the profits of disease. It's one of the reasons why I invested years in learning anatomy and physiology and more importantly, how to critically examine medical research so that I can work in colloboration with my doctors. My experience with traditional systems has been mostly negative. Last year, I went in for an annual Medicare "wellness" exam and I brought a list of five questions and my doctor told me she could only deal with three because of time.
I have also tried talk therapy with few positive results. The last counselor I saw met with me for three one hour sessions, writing on her pad while I talked and offered nothing. $375 cash later, the only thing I learned is that I would not go back. to be honest, the mental health system is riddled with a focus on profit and disease.
I live in a rural area with limited access to other healthcare professionials. We had two functional doctors open practices and they filled within several weeks, no longer taking patients and have a two year wait list.
I understand and feel the frustration in my life, too. Any telehealth possibilities in your area? I know telehealth lacks the hands on and up close vibes, but it might be a doorway to other opportunities. Sounds like your area is limited. I live rural too. It's a three hour drive to see a specialist here, but then there's telemed for follow ups. I completely recognize that you deserve so much more than you got🫂, but, in our system, healing care requires a search for the holy grail. It's a trek!
I am so sorry Sue to hear this. It irritates me to think we (the medical profession) can brush off patients, not do a proper examination, etc. I could go on and on but know I hope you find someone to fully evaluate your situation and minimally give you some peace of mind.
Had to be said. Thank you.
You are welcome.
Yes, this post. We started seeing a functional medicine practitioner years ago, and it's made all the difference.
I imagine! That is wonderful.