An Interview in Santa Fe with Katy Whitcomb DOM, Acupuncture and Reiki Practitioner

TB: How did you get started orienting towards health? Was it early on? KW: Pretty early on, Id say it started in high school. My mom was always really good about asking, What do you like to do? What makes you happy? Thats where you should focus. and I remember thinking Okay, what really makes me happy? and it was helping other people. So naturally I thought medicine would be a perfect avenue for that, so I started out pre-med at George Washington University and did work study at the George Washington University Medical Center. I worked in five different departments there over two years and really got a good idea of what it was like to be in that system. I interviewed several medical students there, and I remember asking one of the students, How much nutrition do you study? She said, We have a one semester elective in nutrition. Thats when I remember

thinking, Somethings really wrong here. If a med student is only getting only one semester of nutrition, thats bad... Ive been a DOM for ten years, and in all my experience the thing that makes the biggest difference in someones body is what they put into it. Period... Food, drugs, all of that, makes the biggest difference in health. TB: I remember it was so striking in that movie Super Size Me, when Morgan Spurlock went to all those Doctors who said what you eat isnt going to make a difference! KW: Exactly! That movie was amazing. It makes total sense really, if you think about it, that what youre putting into your body is definitely going to affect it. TB: That old saying You are what you eat! KW: Theres a reason! So then I had the thought, I dont think I can help people if Im not getting the education to really learn how to help them! And then looking at the Doctors I worked for, I noticed probably 2 out of 5 of them really were there to help people, and had it in their hearts thats what they were

doing. The other 3 out of 5 were medical researchers and scientists, and probably should have stuck to research. From my perspective it didnt seem they cared about their patients. They didnt treat them kindly. They were rude, cold, flippant. They were really medical researchers, and Doctors on the side. The other thing I learned was how prominent the pharmaceutical industry is in the medical field. I worked there five days a week. Every day the drug reps would be there with huge platters of fruit and pastries for the Doctors and secretaries. Beautiful people, beautiful food, very generous, handing out samples for the Doctors - they always had gifts. Every single day a different drug company would be there. They would host luncheons; they would hand out airline tickets... Of course this was 15 years ago, theres been some regulation so they cant actually pay the Doctors to prescribe, but thats basically what happens. TB: Interesting. Ive also noticed many of the pharmaceutical companies are listed as major funders of the colleges of medicine. KW: I did a presentation at one point about the history of medicine in the United States. The AMA took

control over medicine in the US in the early 1900s through educational and financial dominance, as well as through the manipulation of publicity and politics. They published volumes called Quackery and Nostrums which was an early version of JAMA (the Journal of the American Medicine Association), which vilified anyone who was in any way competing with the scientific doctors. These publications made the AMA the official authority on medicine and created a financial force in the pharmaceutical industry, which advertised in them heavily. Finances were then used to lobby Congress to pass laws supporting what was deemed science-based medicine only. They were able to effectively ban most other practitioners and alternative medical schools in the US. They established educational standards focused solely on science, and took complete control over medical licensing in the US from that point until the present time. TB: I read a little about the AMA discrediting Dr. Royal Raymond Rife when he wouldnt sell exclusive rights to his therapy to the AMA. KW: The Rife Technology was also suppressed by the editor of JAMA- Morris Fishbein.

TB: So before that time there were actually western schools teaching herbalism? KW: Oh absolutely! And Naturopathy. It was a combined study, and then when they took over the textbooks they started pushing for only pharmaceuticals as medicine. TB: So how did you move from a student of western medicine, to become a Doctor of Oriental Medicine? KW: It was mainly my experience in the medical center. I felt the Dr.s couldnt help patients even if their heart was really in it. One specific example of that was a Dr. who had an 80-year-old patient. When you age your blood pressure naturally goes up. But the AMA has established a number for representing high blood pressure, and if your patient has that number when you take their blood pressure you HAVE to prescribe drugs because of the malpractice insurance. So even though this Dr. knew his patient didnt need it, he was required to prescribe. Research has indicated that pharmaceutical use is the third leading cause of death in the US. That was when I realized Doctors in this system have their hands tied.

TB: And they cant suggest herbs or suggest people looking into them? KW: Theyre not educated in that. They dont even have an education in nutrition! They are heavily trained in anatomy and physiology, as well as pharmacology. They are very good at breaking down the body into its little parts, and looking at them individually. In contrast, Chinese medicine looks at the body as a whole entity. So western Doctors can do surgery and prescribe drugs, and thats basically what youre going to get. So I started looking into alternative schools, and found the one that worked for me the best, plus I did studies in China with a Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist as well. In China they have an extensive system of Herbology that goes back 2000 years. TB: So why is their system so different than ours? Do you get the feeling that people there are actually trying to help people and ours has become about money? KW: I do. I think ours is definitely about money. I dont think its the Dr.s necessarily; its the insurance

and the pharmaceuticals. Theyre banking on sick people. And theyre banking on making people sicker really, because how else can they make money? If people get better then their profits go down TB: I have a friend with MS, shes been going through the western system and the amount of money shes been paying to remain ill is really phenomenal. KW: Yeah, it is phenomenal, and they dont know much about it, and they cant do anything about it really. What I like about Chinese medicine is, as a system, it looks at the whole body: the patterns of the body, what the body is showing, and a persons lifestyle. Chinese medicine focuses primarily on Qithe energy, or aliveness of the body. Most science tends to ignore this aspect of health- the tangible difference between a healthy and alive body, and a very sick, or even dead one. I like to point out to patients the more alive, or the higher the Qi content of the food you put in your body, the more alive you become, the stronger your Qi will be. Acupuncture and herbs can also increase the level of Qi in the body, as can regular exercise and stretching. Regular exercise and stretching also move Qi in the body preventing stagnation, which leads to disease. A

state of health stems from someones lifestyle and the emotional body, the emotions that people have. Very basically its based on balanced Yin and Yang, which are the two opposing elements in the universe, as well as the five elements. So we look at all these elements and how they affect the body. Emotions are the basis for most disease. For instance, if you get angry all the time it can start to affect your organs and affect their physiological responses. So we look at the root cause and ask questions like, This person gets angry all the time so we have to treat the root of that, but how it has effected their body? For some people, when they have a lot of anger, their digestion shuts down so we treat the digestion with herbs and then address the anger that was causing it in the first place. So I look at emotions, diet and lifestyle and how they affect the whole person. TB: Im so curious because Ive never put the two together, but do you know the percentage of mental illness among the general population in China? Because it seems that, in NY anyway, nearly one out of every two people are taking anti-depressants. KW: I dont know what the numbers are in China. Id be curious as to what they would consider to be

mental illness. TB: Im curious what the treatment would be too! KW: Exactly! Of course they use herbs for almost everything. In a basic Chinese hospital there are two wings, there is the western wing and the Chinese medicine wing so they do have both systems there. And they usually do a combination of therapies, which makes sense really. All the options are available for everybody. TB: When did you start integrating Reiki with your acupuncture treatments? KW: Six or seven years ago. I really wanted to do more hands on work. I think people really need that touch, instead of just needles. It helps to soften the experience and I find it really relaxes people and its very balancing. And the energy work helps the body to integrate the needles. TB: Do you have a typical session? KW: Definitely. If you come for a first treatment I do a full intake. I get your diet, lifestyle, stress, go through

all the systems in the body, ask about digestion, sleep, all of the bodily functions and cycles for women. With that I get kind of a picture of your pattern. Like, This person is sensitive to cold, gets stressed easily, and has digestive issues. So from there I do a treatment plan where I think about what organs I am going to address, insert the needles to balance the systems being effected, and do a little Reiki. Each session lasts about an hour. TB: Is there anything that youre seeing more commonly? KW: More and more Im seeing people who have been exposed to environmental toxins. Youve heard of environmental sensitivities? TB: Yes. Multiple Chemical Sensitivities? KW: Yes. Thats more and more prominent. The toxins all over the environment are really starting to affect people. TB: What are the symptoms of that? KW: The main symptoms are fatigue and body pain.

Joint pain, foot pain, back pain, headaches, achiness and fatigue. TB: Are people able to recover from that? KW: Absolutely... Definitely... Theres lots of different ways to get the toxins out of the body. From what Ive seen on average, it takes about two years, if the symptoms are severe. But there can be a significant difference in how you feel after six months. TB: Do you prescribe herbs for people generally? KW: It depends on what someone comes to me for, but yes I prescribe herbs for all kinds of things. Most people that I see come to me for stress management or pain, and most of the time acupuncture takes care of that pretty well. But if someone comes to me with chronic digestive problems or fibroids or endometriosis, then I would want to use herbs in addition to the acupuncture, because its an internal disease process. For anything thats internally based and not necessarily muscular or emotional, I use herbs. Please direct any questions for Katy to

kwhitcombdom@gmail.com or to set up an appointment.