Dr. Michael Teut does
clinical research about the effects of traditional, alternative or
complementary therapies and works as a physician at the Institute of
Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité
Universitätsmedizin Berlin.MZ: What is your academic background?
MT: I was trained as a physician, mainly in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Family Medicine, Hypnotherapy and Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Since 2007, I have been working as researcher and physician at the Institute of Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
You studied in the Netherlands and in India. What did you experience there?
Both countries have completely different cultures. In 1994, I spent a few months of clinical training in a homeopathic hospital and college in Mumbai. India’s medical system is split into three parts: conventional medicine, ayurveda, and homeopathy. Approximately 250,000 Indian physicians work as homeopaths and are running hospitals and clinics. I personally wanted to study this phenomenon more closely and subjectively had the impression that, in many cases, homeopathy produced good results, but in others, conventional medicine was clearly superior. This experience helped to support my decision to pursue Integrative Medicine, which combines the best therapeutic strategies from different systems to optimize health care for individual patients with individual needs. In the Netherlands, I participated in a four-month surgical internship at the Leiden University Medical Center, which was very good training. Practical bedside teaching was of utmost importance and I participated in many operations and worked frequently in the emergency unit. Teamwork was clearly very important, and was a strength of the Dutch colleagues.
What do you do in your current position?
Together with my colleagues, I was able to set up the Charité Outpatient Department for Integrative Medicine at Berlin Mitte (Charité Hochschulambulanz für Naturheilkunde), which provides outpatient care and conducts clinical trials. I am also teaching medical students in Social Medicine, Prevention, Health Economics and Complementary and Alternative Medicine. At the moment, we are running clinical trials on the effects of mindful walking and cupping in chronic low back pain and „Kneipp“ therapies in elderly patients in nursing homes.
What are your main topics of interest in science?
I am mainly interested in clinical research about the effects of traditional, alternative or complementary therapies. If you enter this field, placebo discussions will automatically arise. In the last years, I became more and more interested in ’self healing‘. In clinical research, the term ’placebo‘ is frequently used. But placebo is a ’black box‘, the meaning depends on the context in which the term is used. In my understanding, one important aspect of ’placebo‘ is self healing and conditions which support self healing. Already the school of Hippocrates in ancient Greece advised life style changes to increase self healing, to improve health, and support healthy aging. Much of the ancient advice remains true today. Although we know about the benefits of lifestyle change, modern medicine is mainly focused on technical solutions. Therefore, I consider trials that investigate the effects of simple and low-tech lifestyle change interventions to be of high importance. Good examples are our trials about the effects of mindful walking exercises on psychological distressed subjects or patients with chronic back pain.
Scientific research should be understood as a tool to help patients and improve medicine.
What do you think is the main advantage of integrative medicine compared to conventional medicine?
Over the last years, I realized that integrating traditional therapies in conventional medicine enables physicians to use a wider range of metaphors and concepts to help patients to create meaning about their complaints and disease. This can help the patient to reframe his situation, reduce distress, and also activate resources for self healing. Physicians integrating traditional therapies usually spend more time with their patients. Time is a crucial resource to medical quality: to understand patients, build up a good patient-physician relationship, also to avoid errors. In addition, many traditional therapies have low side effects and can be tried before, after or in combination with conventional treatments.
How will medicine look like in 20 years from now?
Medical progress is strongly driven by new technologies and industry. Introducing new technologies confronts us with great opportunities but also risks. I hope that we will be able to master this challenge and our patients may benefit from technical advances. In the United States, Integrative Medicine has become a very strong movement. Nearly all academic centers are now running departments for Integrative Medicine. The US government strongly supports scientific research in this field with more than 100 million dollars per year. I personally understand this movement as a counterbalance to the technologically driven medical progress. I hope that creating evidence for traditional therapies may lead to an integration of useful strategies in conventional medicine in the long run.
What impressed or astonished you most during your career?
The tendency of many physicians and journalists to generally classify complementary and alternative medicines as ’placebo‘ and conventional medicine as ’effective‘. Both sides are part of our medicine culture. Placebo responses occur in both systems and play essential roles in both. Conventional medical practice, as practiced in real life, is in many cases not evidence-based. We should generally be more open minded, curious, but also critical towards all therapeutic strategies.
Thank you very much, Dr. Teut, for this intriguing insight into your work and life.
This interview was conducted by Marietta Zille and originally published 2013 in
CNS Volume 6, Issue 4, Integrative Medicine
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