Social Medicine
“Acupuncture Doesn’t Work”
I don’t hear this phrase often, as patients who return to our clinic do so because they have benefited from acupuncture. However, acupuncture may not be the treatment of choice for some concerns.
No modality of medicine can treat everyone or everything, so there will always be a contingency of nonresponders. Specifically with acupuncture, this becomes a publicity problem when a lack of expected results gets equated with an inefficacy of the entire modality. Let me explain.
Guns and Drugs May Be Bad for Your Health
Opioid use and gun violence have reached epidemic levels here in the United States. At the root of each often lie addiction and mental illness. Going deeper, at the very core one will usually find insecurity and a lack of social connectedness that must be acknowledged in order to heal from and curtail the ravages of these addictions.
Taking Time to Heal
Time heals all wounds. This old adage alludes to the body’s self-regulating function. Simply put, wellness is your birthright, and your body is always trying to heal itself.
A Crisis of Consciousness in Today’s Healthcare System
Modern western healthcare is expensive. The United States has the highest healthcare spending at 17 percent of its gross domestic product, nearly twice as much as other developed countries. Given the current economic climate, we need to ask some difficult questions to evaluate whether our chosen healthcare system provides value, equity, and compassionate care to all recipients.