Welcome

The therapeutic spectrum of our practice covers the entire field of general medicine. While formerly acute diseases used to be the focus of general medical practice, today chronic diseases are in the foreground, even in children. Especially in children a careful care and a cautious treatment is required in order to improve health conditions, even in acute disease like infections.

The spectrum of chronic diseases ranges from allergic and autoimmune diseases, to orthopedic problems with all kinds of pain, to diseases of the respiratory and digestive tract, the urological system, and hormonal disorders in men and women. Psychosomatic disorders are also becoming ever more common. Stress and its consequences play a major role in this development.

Every general practice has certain areas of focus. In our practice, it is asthma (especially children’s asthma), diet-related diseases, diseases of the thyroid gland, rheumatic diseases and diseases of the musculoskeletal system (especially fibromyalgia and osteoporosis).

Drug therapy is usually classic homeopathic or phytotherapeutic.

The often encountered expectation that a disease can be adequately treated with a drug (of chemical, herbal or other nature) tends not to apply to chronic diseases. Most of the time a drug treatment must be accompanied by supporting measures. These supporting measures are often even more important than the drug therapy itself.

Primary and Secondary Prevention

General health measures improve the physical and mental function. Such a general improvement of health is usually a prerequisite for dealing with chronic diseases. Even in cases where a complete cure is no longer possible, a better health ensures that serious consequences are prevented or limited and the quality of life increases. This is called secondary prevention.

As primary prevention we understand all measures to prevent diseases. The best of all therapies is that diseases, acute or chronic, do not develop in the first place. This has always been a major concern of naturopathic treatments, actually since the time of Hippocrates. Gradually even general medicine recognizes the importance of preventive medicine, but it is practiced too little, too superficially and often with inadequate methods.

Prevention starts with the classic naturopathic measures such as nutrition, exercise and sleep, the so-called 3 pillars of health. Furthermore, a large number of psychosocial measures are often necessary. In children, the question of screen time, exposure to chemicals or simple, but difficult educational questions like setting limits are essential for the development of their health.

Stress reduction is central to primary and secondary prevention. Stress-related illnesses are becoming increasingly common, even among children. School stress and the resulting depressive moods prepare the ground for acute and chronic illnesses, in pupils and their parents. Stress prevention and treatment are therefore an important part of preventive medicine.

Many preventive measures require an intensive counseling. To do this effectively a precise understanding of the individual situation of the patients and/or of their families is necessary. This is one of the reasons why this form of psychosocial prevention hardly takes place. Another reason is that there is no one really responsible for this kind of counseling.

We, my colleague Christina Tsineli and various external assistants, try to offer this form of integrated counselling in order to optimally support the patient’s recovery process.

Polypharmacy of the Elderly

Another topic becoming increasingly important in general practice is the treatment of elderly patients. Their main problem is polypharmacy. People over 70 usually take up to 10 medications a day, while more than 4 are regarded as problematic. Drug side effects are now one of the most common causes of death and lead to most hospitalizations. In this context, secondary prevention means the careful reduction of drugs and their replacement by health-promoting measures.