CAM education

[Guest guest]

In response to everyone that wrote back on the lack of good, credible CAM education….. Thank you for calling my actions courageous……I think that my mainstream medical training as a NP helped to evaluate other alternatives with a critical eye to weed out the quackery from the legitimate options. I do however, feel the you have my grandmother and mother to thank for training me in the fundamentals of nutrition. They did a lot of research before the internet was available to figure out what to do with my allergies, food sensitivities and asthma. They were well-read and often taught the doctors a thing or two along the way. They were advocates for me and if it weren’t for their research I would have been a lot sicker. I reviewed my pediatric records to check for some symptoms of a genetic condition a few of my children have. Looking back at them, I see how either the lack of knowledge we currently have or the lack of effort contributed to what I dealt with. My mother would introduce a food and then go to the doctor as I had all these symptoms and the plan was to” reassure parent. “ Hello?! Nobody made the connection that I might be allergic to the food. My mom persevered and began figuring all these issues out and once it came to light that…..oh…..the vomiting is because the patient can’t tolerate milk, then the doctor followed what was working….mostly. So, I left for nursing school knowing that cherry juice is good for gout (Grandma read it somewhere), papaya was good for the GI tract, Vitamin C helped when I had an asthma attack, and Vit A & D helped my sinuses/allergies (and mom said my ear infections too). My mom used cat nip and fennel for my colic…..which she states helped. So, I grew up learning about nutrition and I think I saw the value. The more experience I get with traditional medicine, the more I see how the integrative approach is much more balanced. Surgery and drugs have their place, but much can be treated with nutrition or natural intervention and prevention is crucial. Of course there is some apprehension about the things mentioned….economy, legal etc. but I think being thorough with documentation, disclaimers and building patient rapport help. If a patient understands the risks of doing or not doing your recommendations and you document like crazy and defer and refer appropriately these are all beneficial at preventing problems. I think the economy is a valid concern, but because of the economy we need to emphasize with our patients they cannot “afford” to be sick when they are older b/c the cost of health care is not going down. It is basic economics that if the resources are the same but you have more people to share it with, then everyone gets less and the quality cannot be as good. So, socialized medicine will only create a situation like what Russia faced under Communism………..standing in lines and waiting for things. Yes everyone gets it but not the quality that once was had by some. (Sorry I know this is a hot topic and I am usually in the minority b/c many health care professionals think universal /socialized medicine is the answer, but after preparing for a 3 hour presentation in grad school I respectfully disagree). This is not the point however, whether I am correct or not, we all agree that the economy will affect health care and if we can prevent diseases or their progression we will save people money, BUT more importantly the quality of people’s lives will be so much better. This brings me to the other comments about how traditional medicine accepts the parts of IMPs, integrative medicine etc. where it saves them money. This is sad……I did not go into health care because of money, I went into it to help people. I know businesses need to survive but I still hope that by helping the patient my practice will grow b/c my patients will speak highly of what I do and how I do it. I think having a “MD” after your name definitely gives you credibility. I also think it is a value to understand Medicine and be educated in other things so you can understand what your patients are experiencing in order to make better recommendations. Yes, NDs! I need to ask……………………is the correspondence program all that substandard from the 4 year program? Anyone have any experience as a life or health coach? Beneficial? Not? Just curious what else I can do to grow a bit. Thanks for all the feedback. I’d love to hear more. Tammy