CAM (Complementary & Alternative Medicine) PRACTICES IN THE UNITED STATES
From pacemakers to birth control pills, from kidney transplants to artificial hearts, America has always enjoyed an international reputation for making medical breakthroughs. But even as revolutionary medical techniques continue to make the headlines, another, quieter health revolution is happening in homes across the country. As conventional medicine becomes ever more complicated and costly, a growing number of people are turning to natural healing and alternative methods of preventing illness. Far too often, conventional medicine lacks the ability to adequately treat and cure chronic illness.
This is where Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) excels. Through diligent questioning, physical examination and state of the art laboratory investigation, CAM not only provides for the resolution of the symptoms of disease, it also treats the cause of disease. This is something traditional medicine ignores. For example, at the time a previously “healthy” individual with no known risk factors for coronary artery disease suffers his first heart attack we all agree that he is sick or with DIS-EASE and his symptoms are treated appropriately. But when was this person firstill? Was it when he had his heart attack (when the symptoms first appeared), or before that time when his arteries were becoming clogged from years of poor diet,lack of exercise, excessive alcohol intake and other poor lifestyle choices? CAM intervenes before symptoms appear- when you are “ill” and perhaps don’t even know it. This idealization puts emphasis on treating health, not disease. Thus the importance and reality of the age old adage: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.
When a patient chronically suffers with signs and symptoms that do not resolve despite what is considered “appropriate” medical treatment, doctors begin to question the patient’s reliability and motives rather than question their own diagnosis and treatment practices. Then, when doctors have ruled out all possible illnesses fulfilling set criteria, they begin to label (not diagnose) patients as having “Depression.” On the other hand, many patients may request and need a diagnosis so they do not feel their symptoms are in their head. It is all too common for a patient to have self-doubt after months or even years of complaining, without improvement, and with frustrated doctors not really knowing what is wrong or what to do to help. They often misdiagnose the patient as having “Fibromyalgia”, “CFIDS”, “Lyme” or some other popular diagnosis of the month. Once again the patient is given a label on their forehead of “Depression.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing this kind of frustrating health problem, this message is for you: The “depression” that you are experiencing is probably the only accurate diagnosis that your doctor has made regarding your ongoing, chronic, unaddressed, unresolved symptoms. Yes, you are hearing me correctly. You Are Depressed and should be! BUT, your depression is a result of the longstanding unresolved symptoms rather than the cause of them, and this is why anti-depressants often don’t help. (If you are not chemically depressed they are of no value and often will cause harm).
In reality, the missed diagnosis (or diagnoses) and cause of the patients unsettling constellation of symptoms is secondary to a combination of alterations, deficiencies and imbalances of the bodies hormonal systems. Specifically; adrenal fatigue, menopause/andropause (male menopause), hypothyroidism and/or brain neurotransmitterabnormalities.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CAM AND HOW TO GET TREATED, CALL 609-978-9002
