Biochemical versus Bioenergetic Healing Strategies

These days, doctors of integrative medicine treat their patients with biochemical as well as bioenergetic strategies. Biochemical treatments include things like vitamins, minerals, herbs, and drugs. Bioenergetic treatments encompass homeopathic and homotoxicology remedies, energy medicine devices like Rife and biophoton machines, and mind-body healing strategies such as EFT.

Doctors may use one or both types of treatments on their patients, and both are useful for healing the body. Bioenergetic and biochemical treatments can both kill pathogens or render them harmless; they can help to normalize immune, endocrine and neurological function, and balance other processes in the body.

Knowing when to use a biochemical treatment rather than a bioenergetic one and vice versa is important. Because, for instance, if a chemical imbalance is due to a nutrient deficiency in the body, no type or amount of energy medicine will restore that deficiency. A biochemical substance must be given to make up for the deficiency. While it may be true that some energetic treatments function to enable the body to synthesize that missing nutrient, this may not always be the case. Conversely, if an imbalance in the body is due to an improper metabolism of a substance and not a lack of it, providing the body with additional biochemicals may not be helpful. What the body may need most is an energetic treatment that will help it to properly produce the substance.

To illustrate, doctors sometimes correct hormonal imbalances by giving their patients synthetic hormones when an energetic re-balancing of the endocrine system with an acupuncture treatment might be more appropriate, because the problem may not be that the body lacks the biochemicals to synthesize that particular hormone, but rather, that it's not utilizing them properly. Or there may be a breakdown in the body's ability to produce hormones which acupuncture can restore. Conversely, doctors may attempt to balance the body's neurotransmitters with a biophoton machine or other bioenergetic modality, when what the body really needs is some 5-HTP or L-tyrosine so that it can build up its levels of serotonin or epenephrine.

Lab and other kinds of tests don't always reveal whether an abnormality is due to a biochemical deficiency or a problem with the body's energetic system, which causes it to improperly produce or utilize chemicals. Most often, it's probably not an either-or situation. Nutrient deficiencies and environmental factors can cause imbalances in the body's energy which in turn cause more deficiencies and consequently, more imbalances. And still, it's probably not even that straightforward.

Why does understanding this matter? Because as people who battle chronic illness or who are simply striving to maintain wellness, we should know that both biochemical and bioenergetic treatments are important for the body. And some people may require more of one type than the other, but for most, a little of both is probably necessary.

Unfortunately, I see health care practitioners prescribing substances to make up for a lack of something in the body, when the lack isn't due to a deficiency, but rather, an imbalance. And I have met others who believe that energy treatments (such as homeopathy or biophoton machines) can fix all that ails the body. That may be true for some, but again, it depends on what the source of the problem is.

Doctors may consider other factors when deciding upon whether to use an energetic treatment or biochemical substance to treat their patients' conditions. The important thing, perhaps, is having a large arsenal of remedies or strategies that can be used for the treatment of toxins, infections and biochemical dysfunction. The trick, of course, is to know the origin of the problem and all of its contributing factors. Which is no easy task-for anyone.