«Health is the great absence in medical schools»

Karmelo Bizkarra graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of the Basque Country in 1979. An expert in the practice of Natural and Integrative Medicine since 1980, he is the medical director of the Zuhaizpe Vital Health Center (Navarra) since 1988. Today he will give a conference in León about Integrative Medicine and fasting in cancer at the Barceló Conde Luna Hotel from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., an event intended for medical professionals and accessed by invitation.

—What is integrative medicine?

—The one that integrates the physical with the psychological, emotional and energetic aspects of the human being to promote health. Which uses healthy nutrition, exercise, contact with nature, breathing and emotional expression to avoid the causes that have caused the disease. Many times cancer has to do with lifestyle habits, diet, the use of chemicals and condiments present in food.

—What can those of us who are experts in distinguishing what these harmful substances are and where they are found do?

—We all know that eating fruits and vegetables leads us to health, but eating fried foods, sausages and prepared foods leads us to illness. We all know that exercising promotes our health, and it is one of the treatments used in the United States for cancer patients, and we know that a sedentary life leads us to illness. We all know that not expressing emotions and keeping them to ourselves and letting life go by without enthusiasm and without the desire to live promotes illness. The use and abuse of medications has its consequences. Giving an excessive amount of antibiotics has side effects, the abuse of anxiolytics and antidepressants also has its consequences. What is more important to treat illness or promote health? That is the dilemma now. One of the medicines that I work with is hygienist, which comes from Hygieia, the Greek goddess of the art of living to achieve the best possible healing. This does not indicate that I am against medicine. I am a doctor who tries to integrate and provide health education, which is where the current health system breaks down.

—Yoga, for example, is considered pseudoscience by the Ministry of Health.

—That is not working for people’s health. We are in a country that uses an excessive amount of medications instead of telling people to exercise, take care of their diet and breathe calmly, have contact with nature and express their emotions. Many diseases appear because the person loses a sense of life. I have often heard people with cancer say that thanks to their diagnosis they have been able to change their meaning in life.

—Within the health system, that time of listening and tranquility of the family doctor, who knew the patient’s context, has also been lost.

—He was the doctor who knew the family and knew where the weakest points were and could advise with knowledge. Sometimes in consultations they tell me that they don’t know how to care for a sick family member, and I always tell them that it’s easy, take care of yourself! If you take care of yourself, the person next to you is calmer and better off. It is important to know how to be patient in the face of the unpleasant symptoms of the disease, but also to be patient in the health processes. Active patient is giving power to the person to take care of themselves. From schools to medical faculties, the great absence is health, we fight against the symptoms of an illness, but health is not promoted.

—It seems contradictory.

—I think there is a lot of money involved, a lot of power. Some companies in the pharmaceutical industry work for people’s health, but others do not. When the economic takes precedence, sometimes the human part is lost. Sometimes the doctor needs to spend three quarters of an hour or an hour with a patient, not five minutes, to listen to the problems, which helps to get out of the situation.

—That, right now, in the public system is a utopia.

—We have to go towards utopia to achieve a more human reality where the doctor is not the one who treats, but rather the one who treats with, the one who accompanies us to recover health.

—On social networks there are many gurus with a sanitary air with advice for everything.

—On social networks you can find golden nuggets that help you on the path to health, but also bad information. I am a doctor, and expanding the science of healing seems important to me. We must not forget that we are nature and in nature there are many remedies that can help us. Many of today’s medicines are extracted from nature. I like to say heal the human being and heal the human system. Medicine cannot be a pillar that maintains the social imbalance in which we are immersed. The more experience a doctor has, the less he tends to intervene.

-What does that mean?

—We finish medical school and we have a medication, an intervention, a surgery…I am 68 years old and as the years go by I am more conservative of the body and of the human being. We cannot forget that one of the important causes of illness and death is the use and abuse of medications.

—But the medicines are prescribed by the doctor.

—The medicine can help, take away the pain, eliminate bacteria, but what can I do to not get sick again? In medical school I realized that I was studying the disease a lot, its symptoms and diagnosis, treatments, but nothing about health, nutrition, breathing, exercise, contact with nature, healthy relationships.

—How has the pandemic confinement affected?

—We have disconnected from people. Human beings are interdependent, whether we like them or not, and at this moment we advocate a competitive life and forget the collaborative one, which is more important.

—Professionals warn of the increase in mental illnesses. Because it happens?

—If we believe that anxiety is eliminated with an anxiolytic and depression with antidepressants, and I sleep better because I take a hypnotic, something is wrong. It can help me at a critical moment, but we have to analyze why that situation has arrived, go to the root of the disease.

—You will talk today about fasting in cancer. What exactly?

—I learned about fasting in 1980, a healing technique, and that is what I will talk about today. Cancer therapies must be expanded to see if they improve current treatments. I know that they improve because I have been watching it for more than forty years. Why isn’t this system open to doctors who, like me, have been around for so long? The healthy way of life and the most natural remedies work, they help.

—What do you call fasting?

—Fasting must be done under the supervision of a specialist doctor. When a person is sick he needs broth and stillness, which is what our elders did. Drink a fruit juice, an infusion, vegetables, eat as little as possible because you spend less on digestion and that energy is diverted to healing. The body knows how to stay in balance. You have to eat foods for their shape and color. A day without color in food is a day wasted.

—And the shape?

—An expansive form, like the pumpkin, full of water and vitamins, or a contractive form, like the walnut or almond, which are minerals and proteins.

-And the meat?

—I haven’t eaten it in years. You have to eat it from time to time and of quality, without chemical substances and the animal has been well treated during breeding. In a vegan diet, without dairy, eggs and honey, you must supplement vitamin B12.

—What is the healthiest diet?

—A lot of fruit, a lot of vegetables, a lot of nuts, cereals and legumes.

—How many diseases would be avoided with that diet??

—The Association of Integrative Oncology recognizes that 40% of cancers would be reduced by changing lifestyle habits. Illness, from a cold to cancer, has to do with lifestyle habits.