There is a great deal of conversation happening these days surrounding health and medicine, thanks to a new faction of influencers who have rooted themselves in the MAHA movement (a Trumpian health campaign, Make America Healthy Again). Much like the MAGA movement, it is fueled by misinformation and emotions. As someone who believes in the power of blending eastern and western medicine together, I find someone like RFK Jr. to be a danger, as he seems to prefer blending science with pseudoscience to sell his ideas, so…let’s talk about some of these spaces of health and wellness (and since it is a bit longer of a post, I’ll break it out into four sections).

1. What are the Differences?
2. How to Tell What is Real
3. What Does Work?
4. Final Thoughts

What are the Differences?

First, we must agree that, while there is overlap, these are all separate concepts. Health, itself, must be qualified in some way. A person’s health can be in decline or it can be optimal, and everything in between. On its own, it can be somewhat meaningless. Additionally, there is physical and mental health, two parts of a larger whole (one part often receiving more care and attention than the other). Wellness is a bit more subjective. I prefer terms like wellbeing or welfare over wellness, as wellness has too much of a marketing presence. For me, wellbeing and welfare (or “wellness”) is more about my being within a larger context. While health is about the attributes of my individual physical and mental status, wellbeing is about my access to resources and the atmosphere or spaces in which I live that afford a more positive (or negative) lifestyle, leading to my health outcomes.

Medicine can also be broad, from eastern medicine – holistic & natural and a mind-body connection – to western medicine – scientific, diagnostic & treatment based, symptom focused, pharmaceuticals, and surgery. Most of the time, medicine is about treatment. When a person’s health has declined in some way either from chronic illness or infection, etc., the medical sciences take the helm to rid a person of disease or alleviate symptoms.

These lines are being blurred within the MAHA movement. Unfortunately, because there is so much overlap between these spaces, it is hard to know when something is true or false. One way these lines are blurring is due to the wide net that preventative medicine casts.

Preventative medicine is the intersection of naturopathic medicine and traditional western medicine. This can include nutrition, exercise, vaccines, wellness and annual check-ups, bloodwork, full body scans, and other tests, such as fecal analysis, pap smears, and colonoscopies. Some of this is somewhat nonsensical, such as hormone testing for perimenopausal women, which, due to continual fluctuations, might lead to unhelpful results; some can be dangerous, such as full body scans that can detect the presence of benign abnormalities, causing anxiety or unnecessary surgery; and some are poorly utilized, such as nutrition and exercise, prescribed only AFTER a person has succumbed to maladies that require dietary and lifestyle changes.

MAHA has cherry picked what they want to include in their definitions of health, wellness, and medicine. They have also erroneously vilified some of the treatments as well as misunderstood the concepts of population health versus individual health, conflating the two. As a result, the movement and its leaders have, at times, made assertions that are rooted in truth and backed by science, and at other times made some wildly dangerous and misleading statements. That mix of truth with lies can make everything incredibly confusing and problematic.

How to Tell What is Real

In the most basic terms, these are some ways you can navigate the claims being made by influencers and pseudoscience experts:

First, if it sounds easy or too good too be true, it’s probably bullshit. If it claims to fix a whole list of ailments, it’s probably bullshit.

Second, do your research using sound, published scientific papers from reputable sources. Every published paper requires a statement indicating any conflicts of interest. That is at the bottom of the papers, usually before the citations. See if the authors belong to organizations that have extreme view points or manufacture wellness products or pharmaceuticals. Check their methods. Longitudinal studies and Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are great, keeping in mind that nutritional studies are inherently flawed due to the unreliability of self-reporting.

Additionally, if they used comparative methods, ask yourself “could a different conclusion be made with these results?” Or, maybe “could another factor have been involved in their conclusion?”

Finally, if it stirs up emotion, walk away and think about it for a moment. Are they trying to manipulate you? The Health and Wellness industry has perfected mass-marketing techniques to convince you that their product can improve your life in some way that no other product can. Currently, nearly every person in this administration has a conflict of interest and is trying to sell you something. An idea, a product, or their personal lifestyle, and RFK Jr. is no exception.

What Does Work?

Let’s start with philosophies and practices of Eastern Medicine. There are several reputable studies to show that the following concepts have merit in improving your health and wellbeing. Note, however, the majority of this list is PREVENTATIVE or lifestyle habits that can improve your health outcomes and should not be taken as medical advice or treatment of serious illness.

• Meditation can improve cognition and neural plasticity, increase grey matter and neural networks, and benefits mood and stress management.
• Yoga and tai chi are beneficial for mobility and improved mental health
• Food and nutrition as medicine (more on this later)
• Tangentially, there is evidence to suggest using certain herbs and spices in your cooking practice can have impactful, positive benefits to health (i.e. blood pressure and metabolic disorders)
• Shinrin-Yoku, or forest bathing, has shown positive results in stress reduction and improved mental and physical health as well as connection to nature
• Gardening is great for connection, but inoculation of soil containing certain microbes (Mycobacterium vaccae) has also shown an increase of serotonin and positive stress-coping mechanisms.
• Exercise, especially in our modern, sedentary lives, is important to improve flexibility, mobility, cardiovascular health, and overall health (this one, as well as nutrition, are not necessarily exclusive to eastern medicine practices, but also don’t fall perfectly into western medicine)
• Acupuncture offers a lot of benefits for pain management from migraines to arthritis and more.
• Massage therapy

Note: you will not see essential oils, healing crystals, collagen powder, reiki, and some other concepts as there is either no, limited, or conflicting evidence to support the claims at the time of this writing. Some studies show that lavender oil can help with anxiety/stress (a calming effect) and may have some antibacterial properties when used topically (please, don’t pour lavender oil on a wound) and the same is true for tea tree oil. There is also generally no harm in incorporating some of these practices, provided you are not replacing them with better, proven, and more effective therapies. In other words, you can’t treat a fungal infection with oils, cancer with food, supplements, and spices, or major depressive disorder by digging in the dirt.

Also, as someone who is half German, I say “eastern medicine” here, but Germans are big fans of things like: walking, hiking, hot/cold therapies, natural, healing waters, nudity, massage therapies, fermented foods, fasting, minerals, and other more homeopathic remedies for treating illness and living healthful lives, so much of this isn’t exclusive to the East.

Benefits of Western Medicine include the following:

• Antibiotics/anti-fungal medications
• Vaccines (i.e. live attenuated, inactive, mRNA to prevent childhood illness and disease caused by pathogens)
• Medications for chronic illness (i.e. insulin)
• Immunotherapies (most commonly used in the treatment of cancers)
• Surgery
• Pap smears, colonoscopies, endoscopies, and other preventative/diagnostic testing
• Glasses and other eye care
• Dental care (fillings, root canals, etc. with pain blockers)
• Advances in maternal care during childbirth (i.e. early detection or life saving surgeries and medications) – also, RhoGAM, to prevent Rh sensitization in an Rh-negative mother
• Occupational and physical therapy
• Epidemiological studies to identify, track, and warn of disease trends

Final Thoughts

Neither list is exhaustive, and created more to give you an idea of the differences between the two. Much of western medicine exists to help when other, more natural therapies prove ineffective. RFK Jr. is admittedly right when he says that we are in a bit of a healthcare crisis in the U.S. Obesity rates in children are high, half of the nation is unable to pay for healthcare, and fake foods are marketed as healthy alternatives, adding to our chronic illness. Mental health is in decline around the country and more people are subjected to harsh or sedentary work environments, leading to more bodily risk and injury. Our disconnect with nature has left much of the population apathetic towards our climate crisis and I, personally, never see children playing outside anymore.

These are valid points of contention for which we must, as a nation, come to terms. That said, until we can offer concierge medicine or personalized health and medical programs for everyone, taking a more whole-body, whole-person approach to a person’s wellbeing, then we are stuck with the current paradigm. Stifling progress of western medicine does not improve our awareness of the benefits that eastern medicine can offer. It just breeds mistrust for western medicine while muddying that of eastern practices. And ideally, we would blend the two together, looking at health and wellbeing together, bringing the east and west together, considering indigenous medicines and bringing environmental and animal health into the fold. This is, after all, a One Health blog, so I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the importance of doing so. Our connections to the Earth and one another are important parts of our total health.

One final thought on everything I’ve stated above, apart from poor nutrition (which is a whole conversation on its own) and inactivity, our greatest disease burden in the U.S. comes from stress. Why so much of eastern medicine is helpful in preventing illness and promoting wellbeing is in great part a result of its focus on mindfulness, inner peace, and stress reduction. This topic could go deep into the failures of capitalism and our FOMO for more, but I’ll stop here.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: don’t get angry. Get curious.