First you are laughed at, then you are fought, and in the end it is taken for granted.
What does this mean for you? You can be sure that at SGK you will always be treated according to the latest and most proven findings in medicine.
Personalised medicine
Better late than never... "Personalised medicine" is now on every doctor's lips. Instead of "one size fits all", it is gradually being recognised that needs can differ from person to person. Integrative or holistic medicine has held this view from the very beginning – and SGK since it was founded in 1997.
Mitochondrial medicine
We read and hear more and more about mitochondrial medicine. It is simply a fact that we need energy to live. This energy is a prerequisite for every function in the body. But what matters is not only that energy is available, but also how it is produced. We distinguish between aerobic – with the help of oxygen – and anaerobic – without oxygen. The more of our energy is supplied with oxygen, the healthier the cell. It thrives, differentiates and does its work. If, however, energy is produced without oxygen – anaerobically – this affects the cell's behaviour. Instead of thriving, the cell will begin to divide, and in the worst case it can turn into a malignant tumour. SGK put these connections into practice many years ago, and this is now one of the most important measures in cancer prevention. These biochemical and bioenergetic connections also led to the development of one of our most popular products, MitoActiv – healthy nutrition for the mitochondria. We can now look back on more than ten years of experience with it.
Statins – cholesterol-lowering drugs
Statins have become one of the most frequently prescribed drugs in the world. It is estimated that 200–300 million people take such pills every day. That it has come to this is still due to the belief in – and above all the marketing of – "bad cholesterol". For about 20 years, the doctors at SGK have repeatedly warned of the possible health risks of statins. Now a film has been released on exactly this subject: "Cholesterin, der grosse Bluff" (Cholesterol, the great bluff).
It reports on the side effects of these drugs, once again on a sound basis, and – once again – confirms our view.
Lowering fever
Until now, conventional medicine held that fever during an illness must always be brought down; fever was confused with the illness itself. For decades, the doctors at SGK have explained that fever is the healing response and should not be lowered but, if anything, supported.
In an advertisement by a pharmaceutical company, we doctors could even read: "Give fever no chance!" – which is completely absurd and counterproductive for health. The particularly tragic part... these were recommendations in paediatrics!
Now, at last, the October 2019 issue of the Swiss journal for general practice published an article entitled "Fever is our best friend", explaining that "reflexively lowering fever is not always helpful" and further: "In many cases, lowering fever is pointless, possibly even harmful..."
Stem cells
Issue 19 of the Swiss magazine Schweizer Illustrierte, dated 4 May 2015, carried an article on the "newly discovered" regenerative effect of fat-derived stem cell extracts. A similar method had already been used at SGK for years. SGK had been working with stem cell medicine for about ten years, making it one of the longest-established institutions in the field – and even one of the first with Swissmedic approval to take skin samples for stem cell storage. Since then, the switch has been made from skin to fat, with the very potent SVF (stromal vascular fraction) it contains (PULS programme of 5 October 2015). Unfortunately, SGK is currently not allowed to use this procedure therapeutically until the legal situation has been clarified (here, too, SGK was "ahead" of the law). Taking fat to obtain SVF stem cells, for cosmetic lipofilling and for storage for later use is, however, still permitted.
COPD
In Schweizer Illustrierte no. 49 of 9 December 2016 we find the article "Milestone in COPD therapy": "A new study shows that cortisone has hardly any place left in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" (quoted from the article). With cortisone, lung function was worse and there were even more cases of pneumonia. Patients at Seegarten Klinik (SGK) received this information, and the option of alternatives, decades ago.
Cancer therapy
In Schweizer Illustrierte no. 18 of 6 May 2016, the "Check-up" section reported on a "new discovery" by the University of Basel in the fight against cancer: that under certain circumstances tumour cells switch their metabolism to producing energy without oxygen. Yet this finding has existed for almost 100 years; it was postulated by the biochemist Otto Warburg, who received the Nobel Prize for it. SGK has been using this knowledge for many years in tumour treatment and prevention.
Cystitis
In Schweizer Illustrierte no. 42 of 16 October 2015, a special sugar called D-mannose is described as a new "insider tip" and "very effective remedy" for cystitis. At last. The doctors at SGK have been recommending this "wonder remedy" to their patients since 1999.
Arteriosclerosis
In another article in the same issue, a doctor writes that in the development of arteriosclerosis it is not LDL cholesterol that is harmful after all, but certain fatty acids. Integrative medicine has known this for more than 20 years and uses the knowledge in treating such risk factors – far removed from statins and their many known side effects. Healthy fatty acids have no side effects!
Gut flora
Conventional medicine has now discovered the "microbiome" for itself – in other words, the gut flora. For the first time in conventional medicine, faecal transplants are now being carried out successfully for certain bowel diseases. The first faecal transplant at SGK took place about 15 years ago! And integrative medicine has been analysing and treating the gut flora since around 1985.
Homocysteine
Homocysteine was only recently introduced into conventional medicine as a risk factor for arteriosclerosis. Presumably this parameter was of too little interest until now, since it can be improved with "simple vitamins" alone. Integrative medicine was already paying attention to it and treating it in the 1990s.
Iron
And now the problem with iron. Credit is due to the Basel doctor Dr Beat Schaub from Binningen, who has been working for many years to ensure an adequate supply of iron – and who was, once again, laughed at and fought. The same issue of Schweizer Illustrierte quotes Dr. med. Samuel Stutz on how best to age: social contact, enough exercise, a healthy diet with plenty of protein, vitamin D and… iron.
Antibiotics
Twenty years ago, the doctors at SGK were already warning against the excessive use of antibiotics. Today we are paying the price. More and more bacteria are resistant to these drugs; people are even talking about the "post-antibiotic era". It is high time to place more trust in the body's own self-healing powers again and to reserve antibiotics for really severe cases that do not respond to other treatment.
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth
I was more than a little surprised when I received the result of a test recently introduced by the Inselspital in Bern: a breath test to detect bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine. We introduced the same analysis at the end of the 1990s.
Amalgam fillings
Schweizer Illustrierte no. 40 of 7 October 2016 cites a study from the USA according to which people with more than 8 amalgam fillings apparently had raised levels in their blood. Seegarten Klinik was already looking into these "dangerous fillings" in the 1980s and recognised the risks.
The cholesterol lie
The same issue of Schweizer Illustrierte finally reports on the important role of cholesterol – how it is essential for cell tension, as a repair molecule, and for producing bile acids, hormones and vitamin D. Patients at Seegarten Klinik have known this since we started out.
The March 2017 issue of the Swiss magazine Gesundheitstipp also devotes an article to "the fairy tale of bad cholesterol".
After years of futile drug treatment, many patients at Seegarten Klinik have been "cured" simply by stopping such cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Acid blockers
As soon as proton pump inhibitors appeared in the 1990s – fondly labelled "stomach protectors" – the doctors at SGK warned against their inappropriate use. In the meantime, these potent drugs have even become available without a prescription.
The most common symptom that leads to these drugs being prescribed and bought is heartburn. Interestingly, it always conveys the impression that too much acid is being produced. Often the opposite is the case. Heartburn usually occurs with age, when normal stomach acid production declines! Digestion then becomes worse and food stays in the stomach longer. A little residual acid can then find its way into the oesophagus – and even this little can be very unpleasant there. On the other hand, more acid means better digestion: food leaves the stomach more quickly, down into the small intestine, and there is no heartburn. The doctors at SGK have been applying this principle for more than 20 years.
Now gastroenterologists are gradually recognising – and acknowledging – this aspect. Drinking lemon water is now recommended to relieve heartburn.
I would love to look back again in 20 years and see how the methods we use today – laughed at and fought by conventional medicine – have become standard.
A small selection of these to finish:
- The danger posed by root-dead teeth
- The problems of today's extensive vaccination of babies and young children
- The growing recommendation of flu vaccination
- Burdens from our environment: from toxins to Borrelia
- Food intolerances
And... of course stem cell treatment, a huge source of hope for many chronically ill people. We can only hope that this promising therapy will not be withheld from patients for much longer.
Dr. med. John van Limburg Stirum
Find out more about a clinic that has always been ahead of its time in our clinic portrait.