Healing from within

THROUGH the years, it has been proven that the body can cure itself—and this Thomasian doctor that this kind of healing can be achieved through energy medicine therapy.

Dr. Willie Lagdameo, a pediatric surgeon and a professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, promotes this type of healing which uses energy in the body, instead of having a patient depend solely on prescribed medicines. His best proof? He says he himself got well owing to energy medicine. The term refers to a “wide and ever-changing field of holistic healing based on working with the human energy system to help heal disease,” according to ‘energy medicine healer’ Marie Manuchehri (energyintuitive.com).

Lagdameo says the field makes use of hand movements such as tapping, massaging, pinching, and twisting to connect to so-called energy points.

“Energy expresses itself through muscle action,” he said.

It was in late 2009 that Lagdameo was diagnosed with a coronary heart disease. He went through an angioplasty procedure, but sought other ways toward a full recovery. The following year in March, he was introduced to an energy pendant called “scalar” while in the United States. He was rather skeptical about it at first, but soon he began to take interest in the science behind it. He went on researching on energy medicine.

According to Lagdameo, energy medicine is a moving, living vital force flowing in the body of every human being.

“We have our internal source of energy which is our cell,” he said. “The cell has the energy that supplies the internal parts of the body.”

The cell contains the mitochondria, which is its powerhouse that generates the energy. The human body has around 60 trillion cells.

According to healthy.net, the Chinese medicinal practice of acupuncture paved the way for energy medicine which dated back 4,000 years ago.

“Although energy medicine has been present since the birth of Chinese medicine, the age of enlightenment during the 80’s, in which only things that can be explained by science and reason were accepted, kept it in the sidelines and only traditional medicine was widely acknowledged,” Lagdameo said. He explained that acupuncture targets these points in the body interconnected through the connective tissue frontage bridging all body parts.

According to Lagdameo, the human body also has a source of energy provided by nature in the atmosphere. However, these external energies are disrupted by radiation.

“The environment has been affected by radiation,” he said. “The basic nature that God gave us is now replaced by all this radiation from the environment of ours.”

He also explained that radiation is obtained by people through cell phones, microwaves, computers, and other forms of technological gadgets, which destroy the external force of energy in the environment.

He explained that through the activation of stored energies, weakened energies, which were disturbed or out of sync, will be recovered. Like any other traditional forms of medicine which do not involve external factors of healing. The body, he says, has an “aura” or “biofield” that emits energy which has a corresponding muscle to an organ. He added that disruption in the aura may cause disharmony in our energy, making us feel suddenly weak.

The aura, as a part of the traditional medicine, is the energy field surrounding the body. Meanwhile, there are also local energy fields positioned from seven points of the body, starting from the base of the spine right to the top of the body. These local energies are called ‘chakras’.

The seven chakras, along with their functions, are the following: the Root chakra (survival and sexuality), Womb chakra (creativity), Solar Plexus chakra (identity and power), Heart chakra (love and compassion), Throat chakra (expression), Pituitary or the third eye chakra (understanding), and the Pineal or crown chakra (transcendence of self).

Aside from these, there is a channel which is called the ‘meridian’ to maintain the flow of energy in the body. The meridian serves as the transportation system of energy and has 14 tangible pathways. Disturbance of the meridian may cause illnesses.

Complement, not an alternative

Lagdameo claimed that energy medicine is applicable to all types of diseases as it addresses energy disharmony in the body and allows the permeability in cell to take in nutrition and remove the toxin out of the cell.

However, he stated that energy medicine remains a complement to conventional medicine and not an alternative, and added that this type of medicine has yet to be qualified.

“[Energy medicine] will serve as a tool for people to have their energy flowing. And through this, they will now be less vulnerable to the disease,” he said. Although Lagdameo supports energy medicine, but he made it clear that the therapy cannot be relied solely for the patient’s recovery.

One of the therapies offered by energy medicine is the chiropractic, an alternative medicine for the muscoskeletal system. However, according to the University of California, San Diego, chiropractic is not recommended for patients with bone cancer and diseases of the spinal cord and bone marrow.

Other studies also claim that there is a placebo effect in energy medicine.

“The placebo effect has been said to occur when a patient is treated in conjunction with the suggestion from an authority figure or from acquired information that the treatment will aid in healing, and the patient’s condition improves,” explained in energetic-medicine.com.

Meanwhile, like Lagdameo, there are other doctors who are promoting the use of energy medicine in the Philippines.

Two doctors from the Energy Medicine Association, a group of medical doctors who practice internal healing all over the world, support this kind of recovery in the Philippines.

One of which is Thomasian doctor Homer Lim, medical director of Cancer Center of the Philippines who occasionally teaches at University of the Philippines – Manila Medicine School and for post-graduate courses. He went to Thailand to undergo training in integrative medicine. Upon returning to the Philippines, he developed his medical skills by studying Access, Reiki, Quantum Touch and Body Talk.

Another is American bionetic practitioner Dr. James Weaver who migrated in the Philippines and is currently practicing chiropractic.

All these kinds of healing belong to the Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). It is said to be more integrated than the traditional medicine. Medical schools all over the world had already been offering elective or required courses in alternative medicine.

“This is a challenge for the pioneering role of UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery,” Lagdameo said. “It has to take the first step in including CAM in its curriculum.” Camille Anne M. Arcilla and Brylle B. Tabora