Cover Story Educating Yourself That was my decision. Someone else might have chosen to go the surgery route, which perhaps would have been right for them. But it wasn’t right for me, and that’s the first point I want to make here: When we’re talking about traditional versus non-traditional healing modalities (and that’s “nontraditional” to us Westerners—healers in the East have been practicing what we tend to term “new age” for, in some cases, thousands of years), I believe each individual needs to go with what feels right for them. That which we believe in stands the greatest chance of working, because our mind and body are then playing for the same team. That which we resist, or don’t believe in, stands less of a chance of success because of our tendency to sabotage, consciously or unconsciously, what we really don’t want to do in the first place. So what’s the first step in deciding what’s right for you? Educating yourself about the options. And that’s what this article will try to provide for you: a starting point for educating yourself and de-mystifying some of the cutting-edge, alternative/holistic/complementary methods for healing that are readily available right here in our community. And the choices are many! But first, let’s define what we’re talking about. “Complementary” and “alternative” medicine (or “CAM”), along with “holistic medicine” are some of the terms that may confuse someone looking for non-traditional methods of wellness for mind, body and spirit. These all basically refer to the same type of care: non-mainstream, sometimes helpful on its own, sometimes as an effective “complement” to traditional care, and tending to be “natural” (non-pharmaceutical and noninvasive) in its healing properties. Wikipedia adds, “The major CAM systems have many common characteristics, including a focus on treating the whole person, promoting self-care and self-healing.” But let’s face it: the thought of someone putting a dozen tiny needles into your body can be a bit intimidating for the uninitiated. A person passing their hands over you and “taking a reading” as to where your problem areas are and how the pain likely originated can seem a little, well, out
there. And the idea of being twisted to resemble the DNA model from seventh-grade biology class in an attempt to snap, crackle, and pop your spine into better health can be downright frightening. But once you open yourself up to the possibilities, and learn a bit about how they work, you’ll get a sense of the tremendous healing potential that can come from the many methods that perhaps you’ve heard of, but have felt too timid or confused to explore for yourself. The following is an example of what I mean.
Keeping an Open Mind When I was in my mid-20s, several years after the knee debacle, I was working in television production in Los Angeles and, simply by reaching for something the “wrong” way, I threw out my lower back. (I’m happy to report the major body mishaps ended here, and I’ve not had any accidents, sports injuries, or the like for these past several decades.) I immediately sought out the help of a local chiropractor who was referred by a friend. The chiropractic adjustments and manipulations instantly helped, and began for me a life-long belief in wellness maintenance through massage, chiropractic care, acupuncture/acupressure, and meditation (and more recently, yoga). But the part of this story that relates to keeping an open
mind comes when my friend, Terry Jeanne, a licensed acupuncturist here in Chattanooga, offered to let me experience the benefits of a “resonance device” that affects the energy fields in the body for help with pain management. Terry has recently started working with this non-intrusive device with impressive results. (I think of it as acupuncture without the needles.) Well, on this day, my lower back was acting up a bit and causing me some discomfort. I admit I was a touch skeptical at first, but enthusiastically up for experimenting with a new healing technique, and figured the experience would also be good research for this article. As she moved the penshaped device over different parts of my body, many of the same areas she might have poked a few needles in, I began to feel a very pleasant tingling sensation in corresponding areas. And wouldn’t you know, after about 10 minutes I stood up and—drum roll, please—my back pain was gone. Now that’s my kind of treatment. Not convinced that alternative methods may be worth a try? Consider this: As reported by Life Extension Magazine, a group of researchers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have discovered some worrisome statistics about the state of our present medical system. They conclude that, “The number of people having in-hospital, adverse reactions to prescribed drugs is 2.2 million per year. The number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections; the number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually; the number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually; each number in the millions per year. The most stunning statistic, however, is that the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year, over 200,000 more than the number of deaths attributable to cancer, which is 553,251 per year.” Ouch. Even given these sobering stats, am I glad we have the pharmacological plethora we do here in America? Absolutely. There is definitely a time and place for Western meds. But in my private practice, I encourage folks to first try “homeopathic” (or natural) options for healing, and we
www.chattanoogapulse.com | September 9, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 36 | The Pulse
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