302 On Biomedical Evidence – Hedaya-2

Biomedical Evidence – Hedaya on The Biology of Mind and Body

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

— Albert Einstein

Everyday we increasingly confirm that inflammation directly effects brain function. Over time it can create permanent change.

– Robert Hedaya 

Treatment Failure Without Biomedical Evidence Treatment failure, especially in the face of proper training and the best information, means you’re/we’re missing something. We’re missing mind complexity. It’s not the patient’s fault. It’s not the doctor’s fault. Looking to blame someone? Blame our historical dependency on behavioral appearances.

The inadequacy of reductionistic labels denies the complex reality of mind, body and biomedical functional complexity. The system is set to run on labels and medications that target those dancing clouds of surface appearances. We’re living in akimbo-land, with a frustrating global problem of misperception in the context of current scientific details.

It’s not that the current psychiatric system is bad or broken – it’s excellent – and yet the labels system remains merely inadequate in the context of fresh data from modern neuroscience. Repeated imprecision builds disdain, distrust, and stigma.

…misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.

~ Goethe – 1774

Don’t assume bad intentions over neglect and misunderstanding.

~ Hanlon’s Razor – 1990

Dr. Hedaya unearthed this flash of insight many years ago, back in 1985, and it continues to drive him, as he’s still searching today. In this episode, Dr. Hedaya shares his personal story and tells us how he turned his medical, psychiatric curiosity in a different direction. Hedaya emphatically encourages more critical thinking – with more systematic reviews of dynamic change, time, and context. More careful biomedical reviews do inevitably change the rules of the game.

Listen while we discuss just how he became one of the leading national authorities in that interesting space, the polarity, between traditional psychiatry and functional medicine. Also, listen carefully to how often we both bring up inflammation as an important marker on the crossroads between these two often adversarial diagnostic and treatment strategies.

Ed Note: Dr. Hedaya continues in active practice, and, also, remains firmly involved in mind research. In this interview, he discusses the relevance of pain and inflammation in his own life, and the discoveries he’s made on his clinical journey into the challenging territories of dementia, including TBI and Alzheimer’s. Notice how we segue into IgG measurements, and the challenges of other mind inflammations found downstream from food sensitivities.

Note also that this is a re-publication from CoreBrain Journal/005 very soon after we started this Journal three years ago, and it is not outdated. Dr. Hedaya is an internationally prominent functional medicine psychiatrist who teaches at Georgetown, well worth a listen. Inflammation matters.

His Message In A Sentence: Every treatment failure, every refractory, chronic mind imbalance deserves specific biomedical measurements for contributory factors, including inflammatory processes. Thanks, Bob!

Dr. Hedaya’s Connections For Additional Measures

* First Book: <a title="An excellent place to start your inquiries" href="http://geni.