It’s July. The flags wave, fireworks flare, and the heat clings to our skin like memory. In this season, we often pause to reflect on what it means to be free—to live in a country that was founded, at its best, on the radical notion of self-governance.
But what does that mean in the context of our bodies? Our health? Our healing?
In this blog, I want to explore a quieter kind of independence—the sovereignty of the soul. The ability to choose your path of wellness, to know your body intimately, and to participate fully in your care. In other words, informed consent as a sacred birthright.
And to honor that, we must first look back—to the roots of holistic medicine in this country, to the visionaries who dared to believe that health could be about more than symptoms. That it could be about wholeness.
The Early Currents: Folk Wisdom, Native Medicine, and Nature’s Pharmacy
Long before integrative medicine had a name, there were people on this land practicing it.
Indigenous medicine men and women understood the power of plants, the rhythms of the earth, the spirit-mind-body connection that now feels so “new age” but is actually ancient truth. Their ceremonies were not “alternatives.” They were the original medicine.
Early settlers, too, brought herbal knowledge passed down from mothers and midwives—tonics, poultices, rituals. Healing was intimate, community-based, and deeply tied to nature.
It wasn’t until the late 1800s that the American medical system began to formalize—and with that formality came a split. What we now call “conventional medicine” rose in dominance, while traditional, holistic, and indigenous practices were marginalized or erased.
Enter Osteopathic Medicine: A Revolution of Relationship
In 1874, Andrew Taylor Still, MD, founded osteopathic medicine—not out of rebellion, but out of grief.
After losing three children to meningitis, Dr. Still recognized that mechanistic, symptom-focused medicine wasn’t enough. He believed the body was capable of healing itself if given the right conditions—through alignment, nourishment, and spirit.
He saw structure and function as intertwined. He honored the mind-body-spirit connection. He laid hands not to fix, but to listen.
To this day, those of us who practice osteopathy carry that torch. We are not anti-conventional. We are pro-wholeness. And we believe that the patient is not just a case to manage—but a person to walk beside.
The Suppression and Resurgence of Holistic Care
By the early 1900s, allopathic medicine (what we know today as MD-driven care) had become the gold standard. The Flexner Report of 1910—funded by Rockefeller interests—standardized medical education and effectively closed most naturopathic and homeopathic schools.
This brought a wave of scientific rigor—but also a deep loss of diversity in healing approaches. We traded nature for narcotics. Touch for tests. And relationship for protocol.
But medicine is cyclical. In the 1960s and ’70s, amid social revolution, a new wave of holistic thinking emerged. Women reclaimed midwifery. Psychologists explored mind-body healing. Yoga and acupuncture entered the mainstream. And eventually, “integrative medicine” began to find its voice.
Today, the pendulum swings again—toward precision medicine, yes, but also toward personal medicine. Toward asking not just “what’s the diagnosis?” but “what’s the story?”
Informed Consent: The Soul of Sovereignty
One of the most sacred tenets of medicine is informed consent—the right to understand your options, weigh the risks, and choose what resonates with your values.
Too often, that’s been reduced to a signature on a clipboard.
But true informed consent is a conversation. It’s time. It’s presence. It’s the doctor saying, “Let’s explore this together. I’ll guide you, but you are the authority of your body.”
This is the kind of care our forebears would have recognized—not because it’s “advanced,” but because it’s human.
And it’s what we practice every day in our integrative model.
Our Modern Healing Home
At our downtown Holland office—and virtually across the state—we offer more than visits. We offer relationship.
We believe in the body’s wisdom. We honor your lived experience. And we use both science and soul to guide our care.
Our membership-based model gives you:
-
Longer visits
- Personalized testing (like genomics, DUTCH, and Boston Heart)
- MycoVim, our functional mushroom blend that supports resilience
-
A care plan that respects your rhythms, your beliefs, your pace
This isn’t concierge medicine. It’s conscious medicine. And it’s built on the belief that healing is collaborative, not transactional.
A Call to Remember—and to Reclaim
As we celebrate American independence this month, may we also reclaim a different kind of freedom:
- The freedom to ask questions.
- The freedom to decline what doesn’t resonate.
- The freedom to trust your gut.
-
The freedom to be fully seen.
Holistic medicine isn’t just about herbs or supplements. It’s about wholeness. About reconnecting what was never meant to be separated.
And in that way, perhaps it’s one of the most patriotic things we can do.
Because what is liberty, if not the right to live in alignment with truth? With integrity? With your own body’s wisdom?
Your Next Step Toward Sovereignty
If this reflection resonates—if something in you says yes, I want that—I invite you to step into our care.
Explore our membership options. Try our MycoVim blend. Come to a virtual consult. Walk through our door.
You don’t need to prove anything. Just come as you are.
We’ll meet you with science, soul, and a cup of tea.
Because healing is your birthright.
And freedom begins within.
—
With reverence,
Mary Louder, DO