A frequent query over my 60-year medical practice: What makes Internal Medicine different from other specialties? Some of my short answers: “Comprehensive adult care. No kids or babies. Listening. No surgery. Partnership. Quarterback. Prevention. Self-care and healing. Extending Joy Span and Health Span. Education.”
From this background, I’ll discuss aspects of human body energy, sketch my expanding medical experience with energy, and reflect a bit on my 16-year ITP experience with energy.
Our wonderous bodies sense energy: light, sound, touch, pressure, vibration, and temperature. We absorb energy by taking in water, fatty acids, amino acids, glucose, and oxygen. We transform this absorbed energy into ATP (adenine triphosphate) -- the miracle that sustains cellular life.
It’s possible to measure different types of human energy. These include electrical (heart cardiogram and brain waves); electromagnetic; thermal (infrared waves, temperature, oxygen uptake); mechanical (ultrasound and Doppler studies of blood flow); chemical (blood analysis, isotope tracers); acoustic energy (stethoscopes and sound sensors); mechanical fluid dynamics (blood pressure, glaucoma testing); gravitational (bio mechanics and gait analysis).
I began medical training in 1965 and found forms of energy embedded in tools for diagnosis and therapy. To complete an electrocardiogram, I’d attach electrodes to a patient’s arms and legs and chest. The machine then produced a 10-foot strip I had to cut into12 pieces and paste on a page for later cardiologist interpretation.That was then. Here’s my recent ECG experience: 4 minutes, immediate AI analysis, direct digital transfer into medical record, available for review on portal MyChart.
In the 60’s, physical medicine and dermatology used heat and light therapies: infrared lamps to soothe musculoskeletal pain, diathermic to promote circulation and deep tissues, and ultraviolet treatments for certain skin disorders. Electricity was used in physical therapy to stimulate muscles and reduce pain. Cardiologists were developing pacemaker technology -- initially “size of a brick.” Radioactive isotopes allowed functional imaging of thyroid and bones -- my first hints of possibilities for looking inside the body. Cancer treatment with radiation was expanding, but planning and delivery was imprecise. X-rays dominated diagnostic imaging with limitations of high radiation exposure and blurry two-dimensional films. Ultrasound was rudimentary, and I had no idea what a powerful versatile imaging modality this energy would become.
Energy transformations came in the 70’s with the first “CAT” scans. Computer processing of cross-sectional images took me inside brains, abdomens, and chests. Conditions that once required exploratory surgery were now diagnosed noninvasively. Another leap was a shift from ionizing radiation to magnetic and radio frequency energy. These “MRI” scans have brought exquisite detail to soft tissues -- especially in the brain, spinal cord, joints, and internal organs. Ultrasound energy has matured into real-time high-resolution imaging used in obstetrics, cardiology, emergency medicine, and nearly every specialty. Ultrasounds are now portable and can be carried in pockets!
Today energy continues to advance therapy: precise linear accelerators for cancer treatment, lasers for surgery, radiofrequency ablation for tumors, and focused ultrasound for neurological conditions. Laser, heat, and cold energy can be delivered through small catheters into the heart and arteries and veins. Electrical stimulators are embedded to stimulate hearts, deep brain areas, vagus nerves, spinal cord, diaphragms, and muscles. Every innovation builds on the same principle -- that carefully harnessed energy can heal, reveal, or restore.
In 2009, Bob Doenges introduced this engineer-physician to an integral intentional program called ITP. Such a gift for me -- an exciting synergistic melding of philosophies and practices with continuing transformation -- within, with others, and with the world. Concepts of energy have transformed as well. Although concrete “energy physics” remain foundational, I am lighter and filled with wonder and oneness. I experience a Kata embrace of planet and star energy; interoceptive energy awareness; movement beginning from focused hara energy; palpable energy in a crystalline state; the energy of another -- and group; energy shifts from hit into gift; energy power of grounding and centering; aura energy with physical/emotional/mental/spiritual layers; chakra energy centers; and life force energy. Smoothing and balancing energy I have embraced journaling, grounding, sound baths, meditation, and breathwork. I am an energy body.
Mary Oliver speaks to me in this poem:
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.