How holistic medicine helps to heal
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Does our body really talk to us?
JOACHIM BAUER: Our body gives us signs. We should pay attention to these signals without becoming anxious or hypochondriacal. If we do not listen to them or do not understand them, then at some point the organism may force us to pay attention to it, producing symptoms and causing discomfort.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: We all have an internal doctor.
JOACHIM BAUER: That's what you could call it. But you know: many people are afraid of the doctor. They experience what signs of their bodies emit with fear and terror. This is the reason why many of her body do not want to know anything. What is important, however, is that we have a basic confidence in its functioning and wisdom and do not panic when we feel something in it.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: How do I learn to pay more attention to warning signs?
JOACHIM BAUER: By taking time to be alone with me and my body. Only then I have the necessary peace and concentration to perceive my own body. Such a mindfulness can be practiced especially by pausing, by relaxation. However, we can also feel the body in motion, for example during gymnastics, during fitness training, running or swimming.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Is there a "translation tool" for the signs sent by the body?
JOACHIM BAUER: Every body speaks its own language. That means that every person has to learn to understand this individual language of his body. This happens because we pay attention to the context, that is, to the external situation in which a sign, a symptom, occurs. Anyone who occasionally gets headache or muscle pain, stomach, bowel or circulatory complaints, should therefore pay attention to what has happened in the period before or what happens afterwards. Both, something both recently experienced and things I expect in the near future, can be significant and produce physical signs.
Professor Joachim Bauer heads the Psychosomatic Medicine department at the Freiburg University Clinic. He advocates a holistic medicine that includes body and soul
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: How and why can disturbed interpersonal relationships make you sick?
JOACHIM BAUER: Everything that we perceive with our senses in interpersonal relationships is registered by the brain. By the way, most of that we perceive without being aware of it. The brain transforms all perceptions, including the unconscious, into biological reactions. Support and kindness usually do our body well. On disrespect, excessive demand or intimidation, however, he responds with reduced motivation and signs of illness.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: How high do you estimate the influence of harmonious relationships?
JOACHIM BAUER: Good relationships have a huge impact on our health. And they do not have to be just harmonious. Whether at work or in private life, good relationships can and must endure conflicts! A relationship where I can not or should not show my anger is not a good relationship. However, I should always express my anger in such a way that the other person does not feel humiliated, but can possibly accept what I have to say to him.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: What significance does the soul have in the development and treatment of cancer?
JOACHIM BAUER: The assumption that it is a certain type of personality that is more prone to cancer than others has proven to be wrong. There is no "cancer personality". However, what has been shown in several studies is an association between depression and the risk of developing certain cancers. Long-lasting stress and depression depression weaken the body's immune system and thus the body's defense against cancer cells. Just as important as psychological balance is for cancer prevention, however, that we do not smoke, only consume alcohol moderately, move and eat healthy.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Will and can mind-body medicine replace conventional medicine in the long term?
JOACHIM BAUER: Not quite. We need a technically advanced medicine. A patient with coronary artery disease and an acute heart attack does not need long sympathetic conversations at the moment of heart attack, but needs a fast-acting cardiologist as soon as possible. However, if the cardiac patient is not cared for sensitively by physicians during and after conventional medical treatment, or if he is subsequently exposed to the same stress in his private environment as before, he will soon suffer the next attack.Body medicine and psychosomatic medicine have to work together, that's the only way to make a shoe out of it.
To person: Professor Joachim Bauer manages the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at the University of Freiburg. He advocates a holistic medicine that includes body and soul.
