Dear Ian,
Hey, didn't mean to skip that part, just fit in a bit of an answer when I had a moment and just didn't think much about it.
Well, there are issues with what might be called "orthodoxy", but I think that some of that is breaking down as more people do more science on what has been considered the world of CAM, and more paradigms are shifting in places, though for most purposes, the emergency department is not really a place where I think much about those things, as it is based on a business model and constrained by factors that make it very fast. It requires rapid diagnoses and treatment effects within very narrow parameters, and the expectations of patients, particularly here in this relatively conservative part of the world (Missississississippi), make it such that basically nobody is asking about things like that, and I have so little time for much of anything that requires the slower, more specifically patient-centered and holistic paradigms that it really isn't much of something I think about day to day.
There are a few exceptions:
I consider much of we do in the realm of "saving" people who would have died an otherwise dignified death often to be excessive, unhelpful, and ultimately a waste of resources that also produces more suffering and less good in the world, so it is bad from all points of view: see this site by a friend and colleague of mine who shares this view:
Ok to DieBeyond that, I often do trigger point injections often (something my colleagues basically don't except a few rare ones on occasion), which is sort of like basic acupuncture but with a medicinal kick (sensorcaine +/- decadron), and these are actually some of my happiest patients.
I did make a diagnosis of mercury poisoning after numerous specialists had worked this poor guy up for all sorts of things to the tune of 10's of thousands of dollars by asking something really basic that they didn't, namely, "What do you eat?" to which he replied, "Canned tuna."
I do try to ask people about things like stressors, diet, sleep, and the like, but it is extremely rapid-fire due to the pressures of where I find myself.
I can tell you that if I did get cancer, I would go full-court press: herbs, diet, exercise, shamans, energetic work, whatever it took to avoid chemo unless that really seemed the only thing or the time course required something extremely rapid (such as blast crisis in leukemia). I personally try to eat an organic, very healthful diet, something nearly none of my colleagues do except the rare few.
I have all sorts of theories about all sorts of things related to meditation and physiology, many of which were hinted at in the titles of the journal articles I wished to see in the call for a new scientific journal.
I have had all sorts of experiences that are so far out from anything related to what I do on a daily basis (such as the time I could see all my energy channels and manipulate them just by gently moving the energy around and opening the channels and the like) that I can't fit into any medical context easily in any practical way that would change what I actually do in the ER.
I think I do have an appreciation of what the mind can do to the body and vice versa that is beyond most of those I work with, but I could be wrong, as it is not something I have spent much time talking with them about, so this may be projection.
I get the sense that you have thoughts beyond those you mention below. What's on your mind?