As we see more articles each day about declining health of individuals in America, coupled with rising health care costs, nurses and doctors are starting to look elsewhere to improve not just their own health, but that of their families and their clients. This nation is now ranked 49th in the world for life expectancy, dropping more and more each year from our highest point in 1950 when we had the 5th highest ranking, yet we spend more on modern medicine than any other nation!
According to research published in the Health Services Research Journal, 76 percent of health care workers are now using Complementary and Alternative forms of Medicine (CAM). Insiders of allopathic, or modern, medicine speculate that so many health care workers use CAM healing because they know the shortcomings of the allopathic system.
Joya Lynn-Schoen, M.D., told Health Behavior News Service, “As insiders, health care workers understand what’s missing in our medical system. They’re more educated than others about orthodox and alternative medicine…. Mainstream medicine will say, ‘Here’s a pill’ or ‘Have an operation’ or ‘There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re just tired.’ ” Or maybe it has a little something to do with the fact that one in five hospital patients will have a preventable adverse drug reaction causing additional injury or even death.
Average Americans seem to be catching onto this as well, as 63 percent of us are now utilizing natural forms of healing, compared to 2007 when only about 38 percent of adults and 12 percent of children in the U.S. utilized CAM therapies. In just four years, we have seen this number almost double!
In the State of Minnesota, we are very fortunate. We have a wide variety of CAM therapies and thousands of well trained, professional practitioners available to us, with a wide range of modalities like:
- Massage / Shiatsu / CranioSacral / Ortho-bionomy / Reflexology
- Meditation / Hypnosis
- Chiropractic / Network Spinal Analysis
- Yoga / Qigong / Pilates
- Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Color Light Therapies / Chromotherapy / Esogetics / Colorpuncture
- Reiki / Pranic Healing / other Energy-based therapies
- BodyTalk / Matrix Energetics
- Chakra healing & Crystal therapies
- Naturopathy
- Herbalism / Homeopathy / Nutritional-based therapies
- Ayervedic
- Shamanism & Native American styles
With such a diverse selection of CAM therapies, you are sure to find a therapy system and practitioner that works well with you and your individual, specific situation. Know that the state of Minnesota requires that each CAM practitioner must give a “Client Bill of Rights” to each client as defined by statute, and each practitioner must adhere to specific standards by listing the practitioner’s educational background, pricing, confidentiality of client information and much more. CAM therapists will not tell you to stop any allopathic treatment; instead, they will help you to find what works best for you within their scope of knowledge based on their trainings. They also will encourage you to have an active conversation with your allopathic doctor to also come to an individualized solution within that system that is best for you.
How do you find a practitioner or natural healing modality that works well for you and your individual situation? This is one of the reasons that The Edge magazine is so great! In this magazine, you can find listings of holistic health practitioners that you can call and interview, or explore the happenings event listings and attend expos and events where you can meet with holistic health practitioners face-to-face. Articles also help you discover something new for yourself.
Ask your friends or family members what they have tried — or your allopathic doctors and nurses, since so many of them are also looking for natural ways to heal themselves and their loved ones!
