Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is often called a preventative medicine because it can be effective at promoting health and preventing serious disease. While this is true the fact is that it’s role in today’s healthcare system is often interventionist. By that I mean that many people who seek acupuncture care do not usually do so until health issues are already present – whether it is pain or some other diagnosed disease. In fact, acupuncture is often a “last resort” treatment that is used because all other options have been exhausted without any results.
Luckily this mindset seems to be changing as our country is becoming more health conscious and dealing with the sky rocketing costs of conventional health care. As they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Most of us implicitly understand this concept and are willing to do those things considered “preventative” within the scope of our conventional care – yearly physicals including blood tests, mammograms, pap smears, prostate exams, colonoscopy, etc. However, these are not truly preventative in the sense that they prevent diseases from occurring. Rather these are aimed at early detection of disease. The general idea is preventative, detect the disease early enough so that it can be treated before it is life threatening or harder to treat. Yet treatment is not rendered until disease is present (or in some cases enough pathological change has occurred).
True preventive medicine is about taking care of the body, through all stages of life, to lower the chance of developing disease. This is done by keeping the body in a state of good health and reversing the damaging effects of the environment, lifestyle, and other factors. The best ways are to avoid those things that damage the body – such as pollution, physical strain, and stress – and do more of the things that keep us healthy – eat well, sleep well, exercise (appropriately), and relax. Interestingly, none of those things need to cost a dime and doing so can greatly reduce our need for medical care (and therefore reduce our medical costs overall).
However, in our current world being completely healthy is still a challenge. There are some things that we cannot completely avoid and just the day to day living (even if it is healthy) causes wear and tear. The best analogy I can give is with car maintenance. No matter how little we drive our car, no matter how good we are with doing our oil changes and other maintenance on time, our cars will still wear out. (Oddly enough I find more people are better about taking care of their cars than they are about taking care of themselves). Likewise our bodies start to exhibit wear and tear, and when it is left to build up disease can/will arise.
Using the car maintenance analogy I think of myself as the mechanic and the therapies I use (acupuncture and herbs mainly) like the oil change, tire rotation, filter changes, etc. Some people do the simple maintenance tasks themselves and leave the bigger tasks to the mechanic, while other drivers maybe wash the car in a while and that’s about it. Likewise some people are good about taking care of their health through diet, exercise, etc while others do not. Either way at some point the effects of life will build up and can create health problems. In many cases it takes years or decades for the damage to build up to the point that we have symptoms. However, incorporating acupuncture and herbal medicine into your health maintenance at an early age before symptoms have started can help correct those damages to slow down the rate they build up. In a young healthy person this may be needed only a few times a year. In an older individual it may need to be a little more often since we have more damage to correct but still can be as little as once every month or so.
So for all of you reading this, if you have not already done so, consider making acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine part of your health care and encourage your family and friends to do so as well. And just as importantly learn more about ways to take care of yourself day-today. Check back here as I hope to include more information on self-care in coming posts.
