Sep 14, 2026 · 13 min · 7 segments
What happens when your test results are described as normal—but you still don’t feel well? In this episode of SkillCast by LOSD, Nurbanu Somani speaks with Dr Desiree Eakin, a physician specialising…
Desiree AikenGuest
Nurbanu SomaniHost
Being someone who's from the clinical practice- How do other people react to this whole integrative medicine, this whole holistic side of things? Is there a disharmony, or do you think they should be you're either clinical, you're either down the pharma route, or you're either down the more holistic, more naturalistic route? Can you...
How, how do other physicians react to that? Do they say it's okay to integrate, or should they be two separate things?
Yeah, that's a excellent question, and this is what I think i- in Western medicine, is we're really seeing that challenge today.
I think we need to integrate both sides of it because with integrative medicine, you're not saying no pharmaceuticals.
We're still doing clinical, but it's saying that we must look at the vitamins in our bodies, the nutrients in our bodies, and not just knee-jerk to a pharmaceutical.
But what happens is when a patient comes in, in, in traditional practice, and this is what I was struggling with as a physician in traditional practice as well, um, is that I would only have 15 minutes with a patient.
They would come in, give me their, their one main complaint, which we call a chief complaint, and maybe a few symptoms.
And how do I have time to really access what all of those symptoms are and the history behind all that in 15 minutes? So the knee-jerk becomes on, "Okay, you have headache.
So we are tackling it from a symptoms-based approach instead of saying, how are all of these interplaying, and what is really causing your high blood pressure? Maybe you are under a lot of stress.
Instead of, "Here's your medication, AKA your Band-Aid, and I'll see you back in six months."
I like the way that you explained it as well and being so open-minded about both and how important this whole integration is.
Being someone who's from the clinical practice- How do other people react to this whole integrative medicine, this whole holistic side of things? Is there a disharmony, or do you think they should be you're either clinical, you're either down the pharma route, or you're either down the more holistic, more naturalistic route? Can you...
How, how do other physicians react to that? Do they say it's okay to integrate, or should they be two separate things?
Yeah, that's a excellent question, and this is what I think i- in Western medicine, is we're really seeing that challenge today.
I think we need to integrate both sides of it because with integrative medicine, you're not saying no pharmaceuticals.
We're still doing clinical, but it's saying that we must look at the vitamins in our bodies, the nutrients in our bodies, and not just knee-jerk to a pharmaceutical.
But what happens is when a patient comes in, in, in traditional practice, and this is what I was struggling with as a physician in traditional practice as well, um, is that I would only have 15 minutes with a patient.
They would come in, give me their, their one main complaint, which we call a chief complaint, and maybe a few symptoms.
And how do I have time to really access what all of those symptoms are and the history behind all that in 15 minutes? So the knee-jerk becomes on, "Okay, you have headache.
So we are tackling it from a symptoms-based approach instead of saying, how are all of these interplaying, and what is really causing your high blood pressure? Maybe you are under a lot of stress.
Instead of, "Here's your medication, AKA your Band-Aid, and I'll see you back in six months."
I like the way that you explained it as well and being so open-minded about both and how important this whole integration is.
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