Conceptualizing compensatory responses: implications for treatment and research.

Many scientists approach the discovery and application of knowledge of physiological processes from a reductionistic paradigm. A reductionistic approach focuses on treating one or a few key disease-related variables but overlooks the interaction of systems and their dependency on one another to produce homeostasis. The purposes of this article are to examine the current paradigm underlying treatment and its effect on patient outcome and to present an alternative perspective for understanding the body's compensatory responses and their implications for treatment and research. Chaos theory and nonlinear methods are presented as possible ways to conceptualize and explore the complex integration of physiological patterns in response to disease, aging, and treatment.