Concepts of holism in orthodox and alternative medicine

Abstract

In this essay the nature of holism in orthodox and alternative medicine will be explored and the true meaning of the words will be illustrated with a complicated case history concerning the life or death of a young pregnant mother suffering from a BRCA type breast cancer. Holism in medicine is an open-ended and exquisitely complex understanding of human biology that over time has led to spectacular improvements in the length and quality of life of patients with cancer and that this approach encourages us to consider the transcendental as much as the cell and molecular biology of the human organism. 'Alternative' versions of holism are arid and closed belief systems, locked in a time warp, incapable of making progress yet quick to deny it in the field of scientific medicine. © Royal College of Physicians, 2010. All rights reserved.