Medical Intuition Coupled with Accepted Science and Lab Studies
May 16, 2022 Puzzle Piece
I just read an excerpt from Essentials of Medical Intuition. I
think it is a study for us to examine for our clinical practice and
life. I also feel we should stay as close to scientifically accepted
methods such as Blood Labs, Orthopedics, X-Rays, Palpation, ROM, CT
scans, MRIs, and all possible clinical observations etc.
The DO that taught me how to use the percussion instrument to release
fascia, Robert Fulford, stated intention is more important than
technique. You can see also muscle response testing and all evaluation
and treatment of patients should have our full attention and intention.
The more facts and observations we can accumulate before and during our
treatment, the more accurate we can be in assessment and delivery of our
Chiropractic Adjustment, nutrition, or any supportive adjuncts. To
rule out intention or intuition in treatment of a patient would not be
doing your best to the patient or give them the best possible outcome.
Muscle response testing, as stated above falls in this arena. We need
to know what acupuncture or reflex points to test and have proper
intention to ask the questions that need answers. For example, when you
test a liver reflex, you also are touching skin, fascia, muscle and
possibly a rib etc. What question are you asking? Intention is more
important than technique, just as Dr Fulford taught.
When you are delivering an adjustment, what are you thinking about and
what outcome you want to achieve? It is important we know the anatomy,
review an x-ray if available or any other pertinent information. Read
this excerpt and see if there are ways you can increase your skill and
treatment by better using and understanding your intuition.
What Is Medical Intuition?
In 2005, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened a committee of experts
to study the use of complementary and alternative medicine in the
United States. Their report defined medical intuition as, “the
utilization of a focused, intuitive instinct to ‘diagnose’ or ‘read’
energetic and frequency information in and around the human body.” With
all due respect to the IOM experts, the word “diagnose” is not used
correctly in their definition. A diagnosis implies a sequential process
of analysis through evaluation of medical history, physical examination
and testing. Only a licensed medical professional can provide a
diagnosis. Holistic psychiatrist, author and researcher Daniel Benor
suggested the more accurate term “intuitive assessment” for medical
intuition.
The basis of medical intuition is that the body and the biofield hold
information pertaining not only to physical imbalance, but also to
emotional, mental and spiritual imbalances. Medical intuition is
designed to bring the underlying energetic causes and drivers of
illness, imbalance and disease to conscious awareness, to help promote
wellbeing in body, mind and spirit. As you will discover, this
invaluable skill is intended to provide a comprehensive, whole-person
context for health.
Here is a new definition of medical intuition:
• Medical intuition is a skill of intuitive observation and assessment
using a system of expanded perception gained through the development of
the human sense of intuition.
• Medical intuition focuses on in-depth intuitive scanning designed to
obtain information from both the physical body systems and the biofield.
• Medical intuition is intended to identify and assess energetic
patterns in both the physical body systems and the biofield that may
correspond to illness, imbalance and disease.
• Medical intuition is designed to address the energetic influence of
thoughts, beliefs and emotions, and how they may impact the health and
wellbeing of an individual.
We are deeply interested in knowing what our bodies really want for
optimal health and balance. Medical intuition offers patients and
clients the potential to gain greater personal awareness and insight,
and to become a partner in their own wellness journey. For the
healthcare professional, medical intuition offers the opportunity to
deliver fast, pertinent intuitive health assessments for a
cost-effective targeted approach to a patient or client’s concerns. Most
importantly, medical intuition can help unlock the door to relevant and
profound breakthroughs when people aren’t healing, despite best
efforts.
The Clinical Hunch
Healthcare professionals recognize the importance of a “gut feeling” or a
“hunch.” A growing wealth of scientific literature acknowledges
non-analytical reasoning as integral to clinical decision-making. In
fact, the Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
is stocked with thousands of studies on how, when and why clinicians
use their intuition.
Physician Trisha Greenhalgh is Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences
at the University of Oxford, UK. She argues that intuitive insights are
commonplace in general practice and should be accepted. “Intuition is
not unscientific,” she writes. “It is a highly creative process,
fundamental to hypothesis generation in science. The experienced
practitioner should generate and follow clinical hunches, as well as
(not instead of ) applying the deductive principles of evidence-based
medicine.” Professor Tim Mickleborough of the Ontario Institute for
Studies in Education agrees. “Technical knowledge alone is not
sufficient to solve the complex problems that professionals face on a
daily basis, and intuition … is crucial for any professional’s
practice,” he writes.
How do doctors use their intuition? To find out, one study investigated
real cases of physician intuition. Eighteen family medicine doctors were
interviewed about their intuitive decision-making processes with
patients. Their responses were sorted into three different types of
intuitions: “gut feelings,” which triggered a sense of alarm that
spurred them to take action; “recognitions,” decisions made in the face
of conflicting information or a lack of evidence; and “insights,”
occurring as a rapid flash of inspiration that connected the dots to a
correct diagnosis when no symptom interpretation was obvious.
Although traditional thinking warns doctors not to trust their
intuition, the researchers pointed out, “Physicians reported only 7
cases for which their intuitions turned out to be incorrect,” and came
to the conclusion, “There cannot be a simple, catchall directive to
physicians to avoid intuition.”
Is It Really Intuition?
It is clear that the medical world values intuition. Yet science demands
that there must be a reasonable and acceptable explanation. Scientists
speculate that the intuitive process taps into an expert clinician’s
vast knowledge base gathered from their many years in practice.10 This
knowledge, stored deep in subconscious memory, can be accessed in a
non-linear, nonanalytic fashion, leading to a “hunch” that may steer
them to the correct diagnosis. Though this seems plausible, it also
implies that only experienced practitioners have access to intuition,
and that novices do not.
The idea that less experienced practitioners have no access to their
intuition has been challenged. Torsten Liem, Joint Principal of the
German School of Osteopathy, considers it “highly likely” that intuitive
judgment in clinical reasoning contributes to the final decisions of
both novices and experts.
A report published in the Journal of Holistic Nursing investigated this
notion further. Researchers chose nurses with varying levels of
experience from several different clinical units in one medical center.
The nurses completed the Rew Intuitive Judgment Scale (RIJS). Regardless
of their self-reported proficiency or years in the field, no
differences in their intuition scores were found. Among the nurses I’ve
taught, I have also seen that their length of time in nursing does not
have an influence on their ability to learn and use medical intuition.
Pattern recognition is another way intuition has typically been
explained. This is defined as the right brain’s capacity to pick up and
respond to both subtle and complex signals. Patterns in body language,
voice tone and other physical or emotional cues that may go unnoticed by
the practitioner’s conscious mind are registered subconsciously, which
can lead to a sense of intuitive awareness.
These two comfortable definitions of intuition – as knowledge gained
from expert-level experience or as subconscious recognition of subtle
cues and responses – do not accurately explain the enigmatic nature of
medical intuition. While they may seem similar, they lack the crucial
component of a pure, unadulterated intuitive event.
Most people are familiar with the uncanny occurrence of an
out-of-the-blue intuitive hit that cannot be linked to knowledge hidden
in our memories or to elusive cues lurking in our subconscious minds.
Investigation into this type of phenomenon generally resides in the
domain of parapsychology – a field with enough “woo-woo” in it to make a
medical scientist blush. Will these two areas of science ever meet in
the middle? Medical intuition may be the bridge.
Author Bio:
Wendie Colter, MCWC, CMIP, is a Certified Medical Intuitive, Master
Certified Wellness Coach, and founder/CEO of The Practical Path®, Inc.
Her accredited certification program, Medical Intuitive Training™, has
been pivotal in helping wellness professionals develop and optimize
their inherent intuition. Wendie’s trailblazing research on medical
intuition is published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Alternative and
Complementary Medicine, and she is the author of the groundbreaking
book, Essentials of Medical Intuition: A Visionary Path to Wellness
(Watkins/Penguin-Random House). For more information: www.thepracticalpath.com
- Institute
of Medicine, Committee on the Use of Complementary and Alternative
Medicine by the American Public. (2005). Complementary and Alternative
Medicine in the United States:Appendix A, CAM Therapies, Practices and
Systems. National Academies Press.
- Benor,
D. (2001). Intuitive Assessments: An Overview. Copyright © Daniel J.
Benor, M.D. 2001. Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76
Bellmawr, NJ 08099 www.WholisticHealingResearch.com [email protected]
- Greenhalgh,
T. (2002). Intuition and Evidence – Uneasy Bedfellows? The British
Journal of General Practice: The Journal of the Royal College of General
Practitioners , 52 (478), 395–400.
- Mickleborough,
T. (2015). Intuition in Medical Practice: A Reflection on Donald
Schön’s Reflective Practitioner. Medical Teacher, 37 (10), 889–891.
- Woolley,
A., & Kostopoulou, O. (2013). Clinical Intuition in Family
Medicine: More Than First Impressions. The Annals of Family Medicine,
11(1), 60–66.
- Ibid
- Liem,
T. (2017). Intuitive Judgement in the Context of Osteopathic Clinical
Reasoning. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 117 (9),
586–594.
- Miller,
E. M., Hill, P. D. (2018). Intuition in Clinical Decision Making:
Differences Among Practicing Nurses. Journal of Holistic Nursing , 36
(4), 318–329.
Yours in Health and Wellness,
John W Brimhall, DC, BA, BS, FIAMA, DIBAK
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