By Dr Justin Welsh.

The conventional and traditionally listed treatment options in medicine are not the only options out there, and being told that there is nothing more that can be done is simply not good enough.

Too often I have found that the responses, attitudes and opinions from the practitioners of conventional and traditional medicine regarding holistic medicine in general are all the same. For example “where is the evidence”, or “there is no regulation”, or “it’s just expensive urine”, or “these patients have nothing else to spend their money on”, etc, etc.

My response to these people is short and sharp.

At a scientific meeting in London in 2003, the worldwide vice-president of genetics at a pharmaceutical giant said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them.

Professor Avni Sali AM, arguably the founder of integrative medicine in Australia and a great advocate of healthcare as it literally means: caring for health, sat me down in his office one afternoon in response to the unresolved personal conflicts I was experiencing regarding evidence, validity and the role of nutritional and environmental medicine in the whole scheme of life, the universe and everything in it. “Justin”, he said, “Say it like you mean it. YOU are the expert.” “People don’t need studies. They need someone that believes in what they are saying. THAT is the evidence.”