Dr. Raskin Goes Back to Basics with Slow Medicine

By JACQUELINE PRIMO | Assistant Managing Editor

When most people imagine their last trip to the doctor’s office, they remember sitting in the waiting room, seeing the doctor and leaving with a prescription.

Yet Dr. Damon Raskin, namesake of the leading internal medicine practice in Pacific Palisades, is taking the “art of medicine” back to basics with his practice of “slow medicine,” or “personalized care that looks at the whole patient,” Raskin told the Palisadian-Post.

Raskin said slow medicine is not just treating the symptoms of a disease, but getting to know the patient and understanding his or her lifestyle in order to combat the ailment from all fronts, including by diet and exercise when appropriate.

“Especially with chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes,” Raskin said, “a lot can be impacted with lifestyle changes, taking a good long look and figuring out what’s best for that patient.”

In the case of treating a patient with diabetes, Raskin said his first steps would be to learn about the patient’s lifestyle and diet in order to personalize a diet for him or her.
“Is it that they just don’t have access to healthy foods or don’t know what healthy foods to eat?” Raskin conjectured. “Is it a knowledge or access thing?”

Raskin said that, while pills and tests may be necessary, “sometimes the best medicine is just listening to the patient.”

“I want to spend more time with my patients, get to know them, find out the root of where their conditions have come from if possible,” Raskin told the Post.

“Is there a family history [of the condition]? Is it new or old? How long has it been going on?”

When asked what sort of lifestyle changes go along with a patient being treated with slow medicine, Raskin said treatment is not “one-size-fits-all,” and that depending on the disease or ailment, the patient could benefit from smoking cessation, stress-reduction techniques, alternative therapies like acupuncture and meditation, or even marriage counseling or taking a vacation.

Raskin said these “all can affect change in such a positive way and can have an affect on mental and physical health.”

While the practice of slow medicine relies on a strong doctor-patient relationship and the patient’s commitment to making lifestyle changes ,Raskin said it does not mean the total elimination of pills, procedures, tests and exams

“The slow medicine approach is the backbone, but then you still will oftentimes need to get a stress test or lower cholesterol with a drug if someone isn’t able to get their numbers down where you would like them,” Raskin said for example.

Slow medicine means a customized “but often combination approach – not that you would eliminate tests or procedures or pills. They still may play an important role, but maybe not right off the bat for every type of chronic condition.”

Raskin said that even patients with minor ailments like colds and stomach bugs could benefit from the practice.

“Our society wants quick fixes – a pill for this or a pill for that, to lose weight or get rid of a cold – but the shift has to be that sometimes things get better with time, or rest, or oral hydration and fluids and getting more sleep,” Raskin said.

Stressing the importance of going “back to basics” when it comes to medical treatment, Raskin said that advances in technology often distance patients and doctors from one another.

“People don’t want to be treated by robots. Robots and computers are good at certain things, because humans make mistakes and doctors will miss things, but touching the patient, examining, listening to the heart, looking in their eyes gives me an idea if they’re sick or aren’t really that sick. It’s called the art of medicine. It’s not always about science or a list of symptoms,” Raskin said.

“It’s being in the presence of the person to be able to affect change.”