Dr Hirt’s Unique Approach
As a Western trained physician, I have spent many years learning about the treatment of disease, first at Harvard, then at UCLA, and finally in my private practice. What I have discovered is that treating disease rarely leads to true health.
True health can only be achieved when “alternative” medicine is combined with the more traditional western treatments. We call this unique hybrid Integrative Medicine, and it is the most powerful medical discipline ever practiced because it unites the healing traditions of Eastern, Western, and Nutritional medicine. Integrating these medical disciplines allows practitioners like myself to promote health, not just to manage disease.
Whether therapies are one week old, one year old or one thousand years old, Integrative physicians only rely on the safest, most efficacious, scientifically proven healing therapies. Each medical discipline has an important role in Integrative Medicine. While Western medicines are proficient in helping manage diseases, Nutrition and Eastern medicine are capable of curing and preventing many diseases. This is the real power of Integrative Medicine.
Integrative Medicine is not new to America. America is new to Integrative Medicine. While this powerful discipline is the leading form of medicine practiced in Europe and Asia, less than one percent of US doctors practice this healing modality.
Taking AIM
Achieving and maintaining true health requires the human body to be in a state of balance. There are three core principles that enable us to maintain balance: Adaptability, Immunity, and Momentum (AIM). It is the mismanagement of Adaptability, Immunity, and Momentum -“bad AIM,” if you will – that leads to disease.
Adaptability is the ability to adapt, and is the most important survival trait of all living things. In fact, if any living species does not possess adaptability, then rest assured it will not survive for long.
The ability of the human body to adapt depends largely on its hormonal system. Hormones are critical survival factors and without them we would struggle with waking up, going to sleep, maintaining normal blood pressure, building bones, building muscles, fighting stress, keeping energy levels up, calming anxiety, relieving depression, making memories, and thinking clearly- just to name a few.
Hormones provide resiliency, which allows us to bounce back when we are down, recover when we are sick, and respond to Life’s many challenges. As we age, our hormone levels decline as well as an accompanying loss of resiliency and adaptability.
We live in an exciting time when many of these “rejuvenating” hormones can be measured, deficiencies noted, and levels safely restored to more “youthful” levels. This does not mean we can stop the age clock, but we can slow the hands down and sometimes even turn them back to improve our well-being.
Seeking Immunity
Our immune system helps us to stave off two constantly looming threats: infections and cancer. While it might sound like bad science-fiction, we really do live in an era of Superbugs, a class of bacteria, viruses and fungi that our best antibiotics cannot effectively kill. Some of these bacteria actually eat antibiotics and grow more powerful. Some even eat the kind of strong hand soap used in hospitals.
Though clinical research continues to make substantial therapeutic gains, cancer is still one of our most prolific killers. Cancer basically starts as a good cell gone bad- transforming into a cell that keeps dividing and dividing and dividing. This uncontrolled growth crowds out normal cells and interferes with the body’s functioning.
You might be surprised to learn that the cells in our bodies go “bad” fairly regularly. That’s why it is the immune system’s job to find these “bad” cells and destroy them before their growth gets out of control. A weakened immune system may not be able to effectively deal with these bad cells, thereby allowing a cancer to develop.
Chemotherapy and radiation never get rid of every last cancer cell. It is up to your immune system to eliminate all remaining traces of cancer in order to prevent a recurrence.
Having a strong and active immune system is therefore a key component to enjoying true health. Diet, nutrition supplements, hormonal balance, and emotional balance all must be implemented to fully support your immune system.
Gaining Momentum
Momentum is the third key characteristic of true health, and it can only be achieved and maintained through proper balance of the human condition. Sir Isaac Newton’s First Law of Physics will help us understand this better. The First Law states that objects in motion tend to stay in motion and objects at rest tend to stay at rest.
As we age, we tend to spend more and more time at rest…probably on the couch in front of our TV set. Some accept this loss of drive and stamina as inevitable and untreatable. As an Integrative physician, I do not.
The ability to keep your momentum- or your energy-going gives your life the enviable quality of thriving, not just surviving. Experiencing the sustaining and enriching energy of Life requires active management on the part of the patient and the practitioner.
The “Golden Years” may have the advantage of quantity, but many of my older patients bemoan a lack of quality. Fatigue ranks top in patient complaints, more than all the complaints of aches and pains. Together, we can dramatically improve your quality of life.
The honest truth is: One day your energy will fade. But how soon or how fast that energy declines is up to you and me.
Adaptability. Immunity. Momentum. These are the three most important characteristics of true health. Integrative Medicine is not your ordinary medicine. It is real medicine, and it forms the core of my belief that actively managing and promoting the health of my patients, in addition to treating existing illnesses, is my primary role as a physician.
I created the Center for Integrative Medicine to fulfill my goal to be a physician who not only heals but also promotes true health. My caring staff and I are committed to providing traditional and complementary medicine to patients seeking an alternative to their current, limited healthcare options.
Whenever possible we work together as a team to develop a unique strategy that works for the individual patient; first to manage any disease and then to develop strategies that gently guide each patient towards true health.