In need of some advice

[Sareta]

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Hey there! First of all, thanks to everyone who posts info and advice on this site - it's a great help!

I'm in need of some mega mondo advice. I am a yoga teacher and linguistics doctorate student living in Barcelona and thinking of leaving the world of linguistics in order to pursue a career in medicine. What I'm really interested in doing is working to incorporate the disciplines of western medicine and eastern traditions such as Ayurveda, yoga, hands-on-healing etc. So I guess that makes me into integrative medicine - I think it's important to treat a patient instead of just an illness, keeping in mind his/her circumstances, lifestyle, personality, physical composition, etc when deciding how to go about "curing" the illness. This is especially true of such chronic conditions as depression, stress, chronic pain (such as arthritis) and conditions caused by poor diet. I think it's a great moment to start fusing these traditions.

However, I would like to do so being someone with experience and know-how in the field of "bio"medicine. I'm sick of the medical world just writing off alternative medicine as anecdotal hippie garbage, and alternative practitioners writing off traditional western medicine as cold and chemical. There's got to be a middle path!! And I'm out to find it.

That being said, I have no idea where I should go to med school (or even postbac) to suit my needs. I have a friend at Stanford med who says he likes it all right, but has friends at other schools who say med school destroyed their souls. He thinks I will hate it, unless I choose very wisely.

So, any advice would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you!

-Sarah

 

[spicedmanna]

Hi, there, Sarah,

I'm was a yoga teacher, too, before I went full force into preparing myself for medical school. I was going to say former yoga teacher, but I don't think I'll ever think of myself that way. It's just part of who I am, plain and simple. 😀

But, anyway, I resonate with your situation and philosophy very much. It's refreshing to hear others with similar roots wanting to go into medicine. For me, as a yoga teacher and wellness coach, I saw the gamut of medical and mental health issues in my students and clients, over the years. People with chronic malaise, depression, chronic infection, cancer, stress-related gastrointestinal disruptions, upper backs so twisted up that they couldn't stand straight, chronic TMJ, muscles in constant tetany that they were like painful bricks, etc. As an authority figure and compassionate person, my students frequently sought my counsel in some of these areas. In combination with my training in somatic therapy, I did the the best that I could. I tried to treat their complaints as flags leading into much deeper and more fundamental issues. In other words, I worked in partnership with them, and treated them as a whole, not just their symptoms. But I wasn't a licensed healthcare practitioner, so I could only do so much. And that was frustrating; I wanted to get past that wall. I saw that becoming a medical doctor was the most direct and comprehensive way to continue my expanding desire to promote wellness in my students and clients.

From that point on, I pretty much dropped everything and went back into school, after being away for almost 10 years. I did an informal post-bacc, meaning that I chose my own classes with minimal guidance. My med school requirements were outdated and needed refreshing both for the MCAT and for admission purposes. I chose this type of program because I wasn't entirely unfamilar with the requirements, having once considered medicine in college and having a background in biomedical research. If you don't have this background and don't have a particular desire to take complete control of your curriculum, there are many programs that take you through each step of the process, counsel you, and even have deals with medical schools for after your completion. Grades are critical in the medical school admissions process, so you'll probably need to buckle up and focus to do well. But seeing as you working on a doctorate, I doubt you'll have any problem. You'll smoke those classes. There are several formal programs out there. Here's a list of some of them: http://hpap.syr.edu/LISTPB.HTM

Now, most medical school have similar requirements, so you won't need to think too far ahead about what school you want to go to. But here is something to think about: you might want to look at Doctor of Osteopathy (DO) schools (http://www.aacom.org/), if you desire to practice in the US. I say this because the DO philosophy is deeply rooted in the holistic approach to treating a patient and values working in partnership with your patient. In addition, you will learn a rather hands-on pratice called OMM. Since I have never seen it, I can't say much about it, except that it seems like a type of bone/muscle manipulation technique. Other than that, the curriculum is very similar to the MD curriculum. DO's are fully recognized and licensed to pratice medicine, just as an MD is, in the US and some other selected countries. They have their own special residencies, but they are fully qualified to do MD residencies as well.

But the problem is if you don't want to practice in the US, and your country of choice doesn't accept American DO licensure, then you'll want to investigate a MD program, which is internationally accepted. That's the kind of program I'm applying to right now. I've refined my holistic approach through years of working with people, and indeed, it's one of the many cool things that I bring INTO a medical environment, so in theory I don't feel like it's absolutely necessary that a medical training program be all about that (although a clear emphasis is absolutely important to me); the allopathic approach isn't mutually exclusive with my philosophy (I see it as complementary). I feel that I can design what I want pretty much at any school as long as there is room for me to do that. That said, there are many MD programs that do very much value holism and preventive, integrative medicine approaches. For that you'll need to do some searching and feeling into. Also, after you become a licensed physician, you might want to consider doing a fellowship at the University of Arizona with the father of "integrative" medicine in the US, Andy Weil (http://www.integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/).

Okay, so this post is getting long. Good luck with your process. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk further.