Western medicine is great at dealing with acute and life threatening problems. Heck, if I break my leg, I’m not going to stick needles in it, I’m going to the hospital to get it set properly and immobilized so it can heal properly. Then I’m going to do acupuncture and herbs to help the healing process. The problem is that only about 1% of all health complaints are acute or life threatening. And prevention? You might get some lip service about what you can do to improve your health but there is not much that western medicine has to offer for disease prevention. It’s almost like they are saying “Come back when you’re really sick and then we can help”
Where Acupuncture Excels
Acupuncture, on the other hand, excels at treating chronic problems and with prevention by treating things that are preventing the body from doing what it is supposed to be doing, healing problems and remaining healthy. I’ve said this many times before, the only thing that heals the body is the body itself. If something is wrong, there is something that is stopping the body from doing it’s job. By identifying and removing these obstacles, the body goes back to its normal state…health.
Treating The Person, Not A Symptom
When I look at a patients health history, there are normally some red flags that pop up that most patients don’t consider problems. I ask if they have reflux for example. Some will say no…the medicine I’m taking takes care of it. Or someone has been diagnosed with type II diabetes, but the medicine is taking care of it. The issue with this is that the person is still sick, the body is not functioning properly and may even be causing the problem that brought them in in the first place.
By treating the person and not the symptom, we can provide not only symptomatic relief but lasting relief and prevention of problems down the road.