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Shroff
related and interrelated at the most subatomic level, making it impossible to
observe reality without altering it (Edmison, 2004).
The new physics thus emphasizes the interrelational, indeterminate and
probabilistic qualities of matter and energy, and challenges components of the
scientific method related to Newtonian mechanics, such as determinism and
linear causality.
New science and holistic health
Some physicians are moving beyond these ‘old’ scientific paradigms, however,
in conceptualizing health issues (McQuaide, 2005). Although there are literally
thousands of allopathic physicians whose work incorporates ideas of holistic
health, Deepak Chopra, MD, and Andrew Weil, MD, have gained great popularity.
Their work has successfully bridged a gap between reductionism and
holism and, drawing from quantum mechanics theory, has conceptualized the
differences between a reductionist and quantum or holistic paradigm for health.
These allopathic physicians with holistic inclinations predict that sooner or
later, allopathic medical science will catch up with the theoretical revolution in
physics – as the interdependence of mind and matter is now firmly established
in the model of reality used by contemporary physicists; these physicians assert
that medical researchers ought to seriously take up the research challenge of
analyzing how the mind and body interact.
A relatively new branch of scientific inquiry, psychoneuroimmunology, has
taken up this challenge. It integrates some of the ideas from quantum mechanics,
psychology, neurology and endocrinology. Psychoneuroimmunologists primarily
theorize the mind/body connection through studying the brain and hormones.
Hormones, particularly those from the brain, are seen as the link between the
mind and body. Candace Pert made headlines with her 1970’s research on
neuropeptides as the ‘molecules of emotion’ and was also featured in the film
What The Bleep Do We Know (2004) (Bruce, 2005). Pert’s research was posited
on the presumption that neuropeptides are the molecular messengers that affect
the metabolism of the cell and link the nervous, immune and endocrine systems
(Pert and Marriott, 2007). Pert’s contributions have given birth to a large number
of such studies within the reductionist scientific community.
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Holistic health
The aforementioned concepts of systems science and holism find concrete application
in systems of holistic health promotion, disease prevention, treatment
of illness and/or palliative care such as yoga, ayurvedic medicine, Chi Gung,
Tai Chi, Traditional Chinese Medicine and African and Indigenous systems of
health-care. What connects the diversity of these holistic traditions is that
without exception, they take into account mind, body, the environment and the
248 r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1477-8211 Social Theory & Health Vol. 9, 3, 244–255