Knowledge is power and obtaining information relative to a healthcare decision is most important. There is so much controversy surrounding healthcare both traditional and nontraditional that decisions should not be made without having serious thought and research behind them. Education in regard to options, understanding specializations and asking questions should be paramount in all patients’ minds when determining directions in their healthcare.

So how do you know; which treatment, modality and even practitioner you should be seeing, and whom do you put your ultimate trust in?

For a century or so we have been conditioned to believe that traditional western practitioners hold all the answers. In our time, we have had the option of many different types of nontraditional practitioners from nutritional counselors to naturopathic, acupuncture and chiropractic physicians. Some people have become so disillusioned to only believe in traditional western practices that they totally shun allopathic medicine and distrust anyone associated with it.

Western Medicine has wonderful and awesome abilities in emergency medicine, surgery and diagnostic capabilities. However we fall short of success in long term degenerative and auto immune diseases.

Alternatives to western medicine such as Natural medicine, Oriental Medicine and Chiropractic Medicine all have wonderful concepts and treatment strategies to compliment allopathic medicine and should be considered as valid and useful.
I have always preferred a blending of both thus utilizing in the truest sense the term complimentary medicine.

Many holistic minded medical doctors have incorporated some form of natural medicine, typically supplement based into their practices. In my opinion many western physicians simply trade prescription pharmaceuticals for supplements to justify the natural approach.
Most supplements are better in the long run for the patient, if they really require supplementation but typically none are covered by insurance drug plans. Of course medical doctors are not the only professionals who practice this way, chiropractors, acupuncturists, naturopaths and nutritionists can and are in the supplement game.

The sale of supplements is a cash business, a very lucrative cash business.

Keep this in mind when any practitioner tells you that you simply must have all of these supplements to achieve health. In my opinion the human body cannot handle too many ingestables at one time and requires the skills of observation and timing to create the balance necessary for health. Toxic terrain also plays a big part in the ability to digest and utilize the components of the supplement.

Asking questions about your treatment plan and why you would be taking this particular course of action whether it is a plan of care from an acupuncturist or a plan of care from an oncologist. The eagerness of the particular physician to explain their reasoning signals a well thought out process rather than a routine plan of action. Individualized plans of care are a superior way to practice and will have profound effects for the patient.

Finding a practitioner you can communicate with is priority. If your practitioner, no matter their specialty, cannot explain the why and how of what is happening to you, then find another practitioner.

Options in healthcare are of course varied and the responsibility for health lies not in the modality or the practitioner but in the patient. We all must take responsibility for our own health and utilize all the resources we have available to justify the choices we make.
Remember life in this particular body is short. Eighty or ninety years runs out quickly and while you’re here. Why not have ……….better health, better life……….