What can you do yourself for good health?

I think the most important thing is to listen to yourself. And for that, you can first pause to listen. Actually, every human being is very wise. Only we have forgotten to listen to ourselves.
If you listen carefully to your body, it will tell you what it needs to stay or become healthy. For example, a good diet, sufficient sleep and exercise. With these, you can boost and strengthen your immune system. And an optimal immune system ensures that you can resist the diseases that come your way in the best possible way.
In fact, we have many qualities inside. So if you can make contact with those - which sometimes takes some practice - then we have a lot of ability to make ourselves healthy again. Sometimes we can use some help in this.
The self-healing capacity is unprecedented. Our physical body actually always just wants to get healthy. In this, integrative medicine can help you a lot.'

In autumn and winter, viruses rear their heads. What can we do to keep them at bay as much as possible?
'First of all, make sure you have a good basis for your health: eat well, sleep well and get enough exercise. With perhaps an occasional addition to your diet in the form of supplements. You can take a few extra things that are not enough in our soil, such as selenium and magnesium, or take extra vitamin D if you don't get enough sunlight. And whole milk products and real butter instead of those low-fat products or artificial butters. Fat contains vitamins. Make sure you get enough protein, plus plenty of vegetables, some of which are raw vegetables. And keep getting outside! Preferably with some skin exposed. Taking a walk outside every day, even if it's just half an hour, is so important.
Above all, listen carefully to yourself, what is right for you now? Those ten thousand steps or are five thousand enough today. And for some, yoga is good and for others it makes them completely nauseous, then you should absolutely not do that.
If you get creative with that, you can combine one with the other. Running errands, for example.
This way, you tap into the self-healing ability and stimulate the immune system. So you are better protected against bacteria and viruses, including the corona virus.
In principle, all viruses can cause people to become seriously ill and die. Usually these are the elderly, because the self-healing ability in this group is often less resilient. Then the strain kind of wears off at some point.
Another tip is to ensure good ventilation indoors. This reduces the chance of spreading viruses, because there are then fewer virus particles in the room.

In short, for good resistance to viruses and other germs, on the one hand it is important to strengthen your self-healing capacity as much as possible, on the other hand there are also practical things you can do, such as ventilate well. Furthermore, it is good to remember that everyone is different. So listen carefully to yourself and to the wisdom of your own body.'

What is integrative medicine to you?
'Integrative medicine for me as a doctor is actually about using all the healing methods that are available and for which there is evidence. With a vision of the human being as a whole and an equal relationship between doctor and patient.
It is not an addition to regular medicine, it is the combination of regular and complementary medicine. Where you actually use the best of both worlds. Common sense medicine, where you use what is needed.
The Doctors' Association of Integrative Medicine, AVIG, has four main streams: homeopathy, naturopathy, neural therapy and acupuncture. The integral vision connects these four currents, which collectively share a certain core vision of life. Thus, we see the human being as a dynamic whole that is more than just its parts. That man has a body, mind and soul, which interact with the environment.

Within integrative care, we can use different treatment methods. Acupuncture uses needles, naturopathy uses herbs, among other things, and works mainly from the gastrointestinal system, the microbiome and nutrition. And homeopathic doctors use homeopathic medicines.
Many complaints that are called SOLK, 'somatically unexplained physical complaints', which people often can't get any further with in mainstream care, can be explained within our integral way of thinking.
I think integrative medicine is actually the connection back to medicine as we used to have it and as old doctors had it. If you can combine that with today's technology, then I think we can take a huge step forward that will benefit everyone.
Wondering which AVIG doctor works in your area? Check out the AVIG website and read more about integrative medicine.