You may think that whole health is the same as wellness, integrative medicine or holistic health, but it’s so much more.

While whole health does align with many aspects of wellness, integrative medicine and holistic health, it goes beyond the physical realm to include mental, emotional and spiritual health as well. Whole health is achieved when your life choices align with your soul’s truth. When you are living your life in alignment with your truth - instead of compromising yourself for the exchange of comfort, security, the illusion of certainty, or a set of social norms - you open yourself up to possibilities that promote personal growth and continued vitality.

“ Whole health is the scientifically validated, vitality-enhancing effects on the body when in alignment with the soul in these nine aspects of human life—relationships, work/life purpose, creativity, spirituality, sexuality, finances, environment, mental health, and physical health. When your life choices align with your soul’s truth and integrity, your body exits the “fight or flight” state that results from betraying the soul’s truth. The nervous system reverts to the homeostatic parasympathetic state, or the “relaxation response,” and the body’s natural self-healing mechanisms are optimized, facilitating self-repair.”

LISSA RANKIN, MD

Whole health care seeks to turn on the natural healing ability, not by adding something to the system, but by removing anything that might interfere with normal function, trusting that the body knows what to do if nothing is interfering with it. Standard medical care, on the other hand, seeks to treat a symptom by adding something from the outside – a medication, a surgery or procedure.

Whole Health is about working from the inside out vs. the outside in

For example, if a patient has high blood pressure, a standard medical approach would be to choose a drug that lowers blood pressure, and ask the patient to take the drug. This may lower the blood pressure, but ignores the underlying cause that is making the blood pressure high. Whether it’s a nutritional issue, faulty control by the nervous system, or a manifestation of stress - medication could decrease the blood pressure - but it still leaves the underlying problem(s) causing the symptom of high blood pressure unaddressed.

Whole health care, on the other hand, is a state of optimal conditions for normal function… and then some. The approach is to look for underlying causes of any disturbance or disruption (which may or may not be causing symptoms at the time) and make whatever interventions and lifestyle adjustments that optimize the conditions for the body’s normal function. This approach encourages natural healing, and minimizes the need for invasive treatment, which should be administered only when absolutely necessary. When the body is working properly, it tends to heal effectively, no matter what the condition. When the body heals well and maintains itself well, then there is another level of health that goes beyond “asymptomatic” or “pain-free” which reveals an open-ended opportunity for vitality, vibrant health, and an enhanced experience of life.

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The shocking truth about your health | Lissa Rankin | TEDxFiDiWomen

Lissa Rankin, MD is an OB/GYN physician, author, keynote speaker, consultant to health care visionaries, professional artist, and founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute. Discouraged by the broken, patriarchal health care system, she left her medical practice in 2007 only to realize that you can quit your job, but you can't quit your calling. This epiphany launched her on a journey of discovery that led her to become a leader in the field of mind/body medicine. She teaches both patients and health care professionals how to make the body ripe for miracles by healing the mind and being healthy in all aspects of life, not just by promoting healthy behaviors like good nutrition, exercise, and adequate sleep, but by encouraging health and authenticity in relationships, work, creative expression, spirituality, sexuality, finances, and living environment. She is leading a revolution to feminize how health care is received and delivered by encouraging collaboration, fostering self-healing, reconnecting health care and spirituality, empowering patients to tap into the mind's power to heal the body, and encouraging women not to settle for being merely well, but to strive for living vital, joyful, authentic lives full of "mojo."

Lissa’s seventh book, Sacred Medicine, will be published in Spring 2022 with Sounds True. Her other books include Encaustic Art (Random House, 2010), What’s Up Down There? (St. Martin’s Press, 2010), Mind Over Medicine (Hay House, 2013), The Fear Cure (Hay House, 2014), The Anatomy of a Calling (Rodale, 2015), and The Daily Flame (Sounds True, 2019.) Her work has been featured in O Magazine, Shape, Health, Woman’s Day, CNN Health, Dr. Oz, National Public Television, Mind Body Green, Psychology Today, Care2, Medium, and Positively Positive.