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A Return to Healing: Radical Health Care Reform and the Future of Medicine

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I rarely comment on books I read. For one thing, there are just way too many out there, and for another, I'm very selective and maybe a bit over-critical. As an author of two books, I do appreciate the effort that it takes to bring a book to life. I am working on my third at the moment and I have been writing and researching it for nearly a year! A dear friend of mine, Len Saputo, has co-authored several books over his 40 year career as an Internist. During that time he has developed an amazing radio program with his wife Vicki Saputo, R.N., that broadcasts weekly in the San Francisco area. He has created and evolved the Health Medicine Forum over these years into an awesome "town meeting" of sorts that brings together experts in the medical and health-related fields and addresses major issues at the grassroots level.

All this experience - and more - makes this stellar physician the ideal person to author the new book, "A Return to Healing." Len has the right combination of wisdom, experience, and heart to take on the American health care system like no one else can. At a time when the Obama administration is presenting controversial health care reform,"A Return to Healing" is more poignant than ever. The fact is, Dr. Saputo has been working on this book for years - so it is no simple response to current events. This book not only looks at the challenging health care landscape in the U.S. today, but it provides an in-depth look at what brought America to this condition... and most importantly, what is required for us to move to a new level of caring for ourselves and those in need.

Len is no "typical" physician; he is amongst the small percent who really understands the worlds of East and West, of allopathic and complementary medicine, and of treatment and healing. If you are a layperson confused by what you are hearing about medical care and the pharmaceutical companies these days, this book will open your eyes to the concept of "health medicine." If you are a health care practitioner, reading Len's work with inspire you to your potential.

A few years ago, at the conclusion of an office visit with Dr. Saputo, he mentioned that he was writing a book about health care reform. At that time, I was making a 45-minute drive to see Dr. Saputo because I couldn't get the medical help that I needed closer to home.

Dr. Saputo embodies the ideal medical practitioner of the 21st century. He uses cutting-edge laboratory tests to diagnose illness. He combines conventional medicine with adjunct alternative or integrative therapies. He goes to the source of many illnesses by looking at the patient's digestive system. Conventional doctors rarely consider nutrition and digestion to be a part of good health.

Dr. Saputo makes himself accessible to his patients. He prefers that they call him "Len." He encourages patients to email him with questions--between office visits--and he responds right away, as long as the question requires a straightforward answer.

I read extensively about medical issues. I typically arm myself with a list of concerns to show my doctors. My aim to be a part of my own care puts off some doctors. Dr. Saputo welcomes questions, and he takes them seriously. He is open-minded enough to consider my thoughts. Yet, he is a strong sounding board who doesn't let me hijack my treatment with my own fears or misinformation.

This review is not of Dr. Len Saputo's medical practice, but of his book: A RETURN TO HEALING: RADICAL HEALTH CARE REFORM AND THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE. When he mentioned he was writing this book on medical reform, I thought to myself, Good luck with that. Only an optimistic, energetic person would tackle this subject. When he said that his goal was to provide a solution to the medical care crisis, I asked what his bottom line solution would ultimately be. He said something like, "People must take it upon themselves to demand change."

I had planned to write a detached and strictly professional-sounding review of A RETURN TO HEALING. But a doctor's patient is the perfect person to look at the ideas presented in this book and to view them at the micro level. Service to the patient is the bottom line--or at least, it should be. I admire the way Dr. Saputo operates his practice. Because he is honest, dedicated, caring, and open to change, I consider him a role model. Anyone seeking good medical care should read this book. Any doctor searching for a better way to practice medicine should read this book.

How familiar is this scenario? The doctor dashes into the exam room after you've camped out long enough to read People Magazine from cover to cover. This doctor is out of shape and somewhat anxious. He seems pre-occupied while he quickly peruses your file. During your quick visit, he seems irritated by your questions because at 11 a.m., he is already running behind. He has double-booked patients all day. He may have let a pharmaceutical rep cut in front of the line to school the doctor on the latest wonder drug.

Let's look at a different type of office visit: Dr. Saputo does not double-book patients. His patients individually book the time they will need. Dr. Saputo is a title holder in tennis. When he tells his patients to exercise, he is walking his own walk. His office building is filled with practitioners who are dedicated to healing their patients holistically. They CARE about their patients' physical, psychological and spiritual health. In addition, the warmth and positive attitude that is conveyed by his office staff is contagious. I wish Dr. Saputo's office were closer to my home because at times I lingered at the premises past my visit.

Let's face it: The old way no longer works, especially for those with chronic illness. Few doctors get their patients well these days. A doctor is trained to dispense pills. Much of the information the doctor has about these pills is given to him by the drug companies' sales reps. Patients may have some diagnostic tests--but ultimately they leave with a prescription slip.

What is good medical care? A RETURN TO HEALING describes Dr. Len Saputo's journey to find a better way to treat and to heal his patients. He writes about the challenges he has gone through in order to offer better care. He has set up a model for other doctors to follow as a starting point for change. This book is particularly interesting to me (as a patient who has read about various courageous "rebel" doctors) because it never occurred to me---as I enjoyed what Dr. Saputo offered---that he had received flack from members of his own industry, and that he was risking his own livelihood by stepping out of the box and daring to question the way things have always been done.

Dr. Saputo operates the Health Medicine Center in Walnut Creek, CA. At this center a patient can find several complementary therapies (such as, chiropractic care, cranial sacral therapy, sports medicine, pain management, guided imagery, etc.) While developing this practice--which is a part of what he calls the "Health Medicine Movement," Dr. Saputo has aligned himself with other medical doctors and dedicated healers to form the Health Medicine Forum . The members of the forum present guest speakers and hold conferences to exchange information in order to improve and expand their practices and to bring about a needed paradigm shift.

Although the purpose of this book is to ultimately bring about this paradigm shift, the ideas are simple; the suggestions are plausible. The author isn't someone with his head in the clouds who carries crystals in his pocket. He is a well-trained medical doctor who is a scientist.

What is science and what isn't? Much of what we've known to be "scientific medicine" is now a system of prescribing pills to patients that do not heal them. Today, those of us who seek good health must question exactly what science is when it comes to curing disease and treating patients. Is it scientific to take a medication that has a cure rate only slightly higher than a placebo? Conversely, there may be irrefutable evidence that an "alternative" therapy improves health or even saves lives. But when there is no ownership or patent on a product (like vitamins, for instance), finding the financial backing to publish research is not feasible. Without the research, there is no FDA approval. Without FDA approval, there is no insurance coverage.

This book delineates the power structure of the FDA and the large pharmaceutical companies. Who determines exactly what drugs and therapies are approved? The power that is wielded by the FDA, the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies has drastically changed the practices of today's doctors. This power makes it difficult for doctors to offer a full spectrum of treatments. A power shift must occur for doctors to be able to offer their patients all types of therapies and all life-saving remedies.

The U.S. government cannot legislate this paradigm shift. Both doctors and patients must look at the need for better medical care with new eyes. The following four categories listed in this book demonstrate a hierarchy of treatments from the least invasive to the most. Each category includes many choices and various things a patient can try to create and sustain good health. The first level of treatment is prevention, and the last level (or extreme) includes the most invasive treatments. Success at the first level can prevent the need to go the next level and so on:

FIRST LEVEL: "Lifestyle strategies such as a healthy diet, adequate sleep and exercise, stress reduction, weight control, avoidance of toxic exposures, and securing emotional and spiritual balance in life are the first line of defense.

SECOND LEVEL: Noninvasive complementary and alternative services such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, chiropractic, bodywork, homeopathy, and energy medicine are the next line of defense.

THIRD LEVEL: Natural-medicine approaches based on the latest advances in orthomolecular medicine, functional medicine, and bioenergetic research--and inclusive of the more advanced forms of testing--are a further line of defense.

FOURTH/LAST LEVEL: Very careful and sparing use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery, and other invasive strategies are the last line of defense."

A RETURN TO HEALING is an informative guide for both patients and doctors who seek good medical care. It is a map for health care reform. If both doctors and patients adopt the above hierarchy in preventing illness and maintaining good health, a paradigm shift will occur.

*****

A Return to Healing should be required reading for all health care professionals, medical students, pre-med students and everyone working to reform our current "disease management" system. Dr. Saputo honestly outlines the problems with our current "find it, fix it" philosophy of care. He describes modern medicine as fighting a war with nature, on the defensive at all times rather than focusing on fostering health and well-being. Yet rather than lament the present system, he also provides his integrative vision for the best way to truly reform the US health care system so that we no longer rank 37th in the world! Our best hope is if all health care professionals in training and all those working on health care reform take the time to read this heartfelt, incisive and illuminating account.
Donald I. Abrams, MD
Co-editor, Abrams and Weil, Integrative Oncology

As a patient and an attorney, I've been researching alternative health issues and studying health care economics, politics, and laws for 20 years. Dr. Saputo's incredibly important book sounds a clarion call regarding our very sick "disease care" system that engorges the medical-industrial complex at the expense of our optimal health and freedoms of knowledge and choice. The book is meticulously researched and sourced, well-written, and illuminating on so many levels, macro to micro. Yet at base, it is also a compellingly personal story. As others have noted, this should be required reading not only for every medical student, health practitioner, and legislator in our country, but also for anyone who wants to glean valuable insights and workable solutions to these complex problems.

Being well written and having a logical progression of ideas, this book is so necessary at this time when the United State is facing a health care crisis for the majority of its citizens. We will fail economically if we don't get our house in order in regards to the health of our citizens. The current disease care system sees our ill citizens as profits to be harvested. We need a system that actually cares enough to lead its citizens into healing and superb health. Len Saputo, MD shows us how this can be done.

A Return to Healing exposes what many of us in the healing professions have known for a long time: The business model not only doesn't work in medicine, it corrupts it. Dr. Len Saputo, along with co-author Byron Belitsos, give the reader a strikingly clear picture of how profit-driven medicine has gone terribly wrong -- poisoning good doctoring to near death. The good news? This book includes a refreshing antidote guiding us in a philosophical and principled direction by which a genuine healing profession can become the new standard. This is an important book for both professionals and for laypersons who share the belief that the primary mission of medicine should be to help, not hurt the patient -- and who want to understand the changes recommended in establishing a new standard for care.

Dr. Roger Kotila, clinical psychologist

This is an immensely important book at this time of national debate on the future of health care in America.

While Dr. Saputo may be rushing into a political melee where even angels fear to tread, he is certainly no fool. An internal medicine practitioner for forty years, he began to see another side of medicine when medical science failed his wife, condemning her to a downward spiral of drugs and steroids. In desperation, they began to research and employ alternative therapies, and she was eventually able to regain her health.

When Dr Saputo shared his results with his medical colleagues, their reactions ranged from indifference to hostility. This was a major wake-up call to someone who had dedicated himself to being a healer. How could these doctors turn their collective backs on treatments that could relieve suffering? They had all sworn the Hippocratic Oath, "First do no harm...", yet they closed their minds to a promising treatment protocol, just because it was not part of conventional medical practice. Dr. Saputo embarked on a mission to put the wellness of his patients ahead of the medical orthodoxy of the system and offer them the best healing practices from both conventional and alternative medicine.

In order to do that he had to create a new model of "health care" radically different from the "disease care" practiced today. To do so he faced the censure of his colleagues, the state medical board and even legal challenges. All he wanted to do was to offer his patients a choice regarding their own health care. (Sound familiar?)

The first part of the book cites chapter and verse about the incestuous relationship between the drug companies and doctors, researchers and politicians; it describes how hospitals and health insurance companies have morphed from service industries to profit-driven corporations, and all of them together have created the failed system we have today. He quotes one hair-raising fact after another from sources like respected medical journals, the Congressional Record, the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health:
o Medical mistakes are the leading cause of death in US
o No more than 15% of medical interventions are supported by reliable scientific evidence,
o The FDA approved bad drugs like Vioxx and Lupron, that cost tens of thousands of lives, but 90 studies that showed that vitamin D from sunshine reduces cancer risk by 50% have been suppressed
o Half of all bankruptcies in America are due to medical bills
o By 2017, $1 out of every $5 spent, will be on health care
o The US spends more money per capita than anyone, but is #37 in health outcomes in the world, just above Slovenia and Cuba

Dr. Saputo has created a group practice through considerable trial and error that offers a fascinating model that could revolutionize health outcomes, patient and doctor satisfaction, and still be more economical than the current system. He calls it "Integral Health Care", adapting the philosophy of Ken Wilber. Depending on the needs of his patients, Dr. Saputo wants to shift the priorities from disease management focused on drugs, expensive diagnostics and surgery, to health management, starting with prevention and health education, then the greater use of gentler alternatives like herbs, chiropractic, acupuncture and guided imagery, with drugs and surgery as options of last resort.

His practice has pioneered the use of Healing Circles that include the patient, his/her health champion (the lead practitioner) and a panel of other complementary practitioners relevant to the particular case. Both patient and doctor satisfaction have soared with this approach. The problem is that the insurance companies will not cover much of it, even though it is cheaper and more cost effective, so this kind of enlightened health care is only available to those who pay out of pocket or pro bono.

Dr. Saputo thinks that a single payer insurance system would be a big step forward. The present system is untenable. It is as bad for patients and doctors as it is for the economy and the national deficit. It is time for an informed public to pressure the politicians, who seem to be paralyzed by the fear of losing campaign funding from Big Pharma and the rest of the medical-industrial complex.

This book needs to be read by every politician, medical practitioner and citizen. It is a manifesto for what health care should be, and what it can be with honest and intelligent reform.

In A Return to Healing, Dr. Len Saputo does a remarkable job of explaining where we are in healthcare today and where we need to go, as individual patients, physicians, and as a society. Trained at Duke, Dr. Saputo was my Chief Resident in my early training. Everyone looked up to him because of his impressive ability to be both compassionate with patients and rigorous in his evaluation of medicine, and these traits are clearly displayed in this very important book.

Anyone interested in what true health care reform would look like like needs to read this book, and recommend it their friends, family members, doctors and other healthcare professionals. It's a truly remarkable and very well done call to action in an area that is critical to our personal and public health -- and it's a compelling read as well! Very very highly recommended.

Loved the book: informative, thought provoking, and courageous. The health care reforms that are being proposed in Congress are not going to get us where we need to go. This book shows the way. Bruce Wapen, MD

Something has got to change about American health care, and many people just don't know what. "A Return to Healing: Radical Health Care Reform and the Future of Medicine" is a discussion of the current health care crisis and how to go about finding a solution. With some unique and cutting edge ideas, author Len Saputo offers readers much food for thought in what is really important in medicine, and what could cut costs and lead to healthier America. Another fresh and original perspective on the health care debate, "A Return to Healing" is a fine and recommended read.