How to Choose an Alternative or a Complementary Medicine Practitioner

Food is the foundation for vibrant health, but sometimes your body needs more. Here is a recent example from my life. Due to severe financial hardships from repeat layoffs and anxiety around money, I developed severe insomnia. I couldn’t break the pattern, even when a job and money became abundant again. Exhaustion, irregular heartbeat, and premenopausal symptoms resulted because my adrenal glands were exhausted. In this case, food was not going to fix the problem, but homeopathy and Oriental medicine did in less than a month. There are many examples where more help is needed or desired, and that is where an Alternative or Complementary Medicine practitioner comes in. There are many great ones out there, but there are some lousy ones, so you have to select carefully. Here are some thoughts about how to do that.  

What are Alternative and Complementary Medicine?

First, know what you want or need. The National Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine defines alternative and complementary medicine as follows:

Complementary medicine is used together with conventional medicine. An example of a complementary therapy is using aromatherapy therapy in which the scent of essential oils from flowers, herbs, and trees is inhaled to promote health and well-being to help lessen a patient's discomfort following surgery.

Alternative medicine is used in place of conventional medicine. An example of an alternative therapy is using a special diet and enzyme therapy to treat cancer instead of undergoing surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy that has been recommended by a conventional doctor.

Practitioners could have any of the following credentials and more:

• Dr. of Oriental Medicine
• Dr. of Chinese Medicine
• Acupuncturist
• Chiropractor
• Massage Therapist
• Homeopathic Physician

How to Choose a Practitioner

I have been fortunate to have chosen great practitioners who are true healers, with two exceptions. One of the practitioners was a crook who only cared about getting his patients to follow his treatment plan and pay their bills. When you exceeded the number if treatments covered by insurance, he kept pushing his patients to keep coming, even when they couldn’t afford it. Stay away from practitioners with treatment plans and contracts – I believe they put money before your health. The other practitioner was relatively incompetent; he did the same thing over and over regardless of the patient. He was a good person – he just didn’t know much.

What Makes a Great Practitioner?

Now for the fun part. The great practitioners by whom I have been treated have several things in common.

• They truly care about you and want to help.
• They treat every patient and every physical challenge individually.
• They are flexible in their approach. If they don’t “get it right” the first time, they look for other solutions.
• If they are unable to help you, they will tell you that as soon as they know it and then refer you to another practitioner.
• If their treatments are only a piece of your healing puzzle they will refer you to other practitioners and try to heal you as part of a team.
• They educate and empower you. It is their goal to have you taking care of yourself as soon as you are able. The number of treatments and the money they make is a non-factor.

I experienced practitioners like these when I fractured my back. The western MD told me that it was a bad sprain and gave me some pain killers and muscle relaxers, which did not do a thing. I had never been to an alternative or complementary practitioner, but now was the time to try. I went to my husband’s chiropractor, who was over his head in regards to my injury, and he referred me to his chiropractor/homeopathic physician, who was a genius. This new chiropractor is the only one who knew how bad I was injured, and without the benefits of x-rays (my injury was finally diagnosed three years later after it healed in a slightly deformed way).

My husband’s chiropractor also referred me to an acupuncturist. The acupuncturist prefaced his treatment with a statement to the effect that not all acupuncture styles are the same, and if his treatment did not work, he would send me to another acupuncturist. Within 40 minutes of beginning treatment, the excruciating pain was diminished by about 70 percent and the spasms were gone.

Finally, my husband’s chiropractor referred me to a massage therapist who specialized in severe injuries. What an amazing healer that man is.

The fantastic thing about this story is that my husband’s chiropractor knew that I needed practitioners who were more skilled, and he immediately referred me. The people to whom he referred me worked wonders and I couldn’t have asked for any better treatment, yet they were all willing to refer me if I did not get results. They all believed in the synergy of their separate treatments and specialties, and money was not their motivator.

Final Thoughts

Your body wants to heal. It is always striving for optimum health, and when given the chance it will jump at it. Nutritious, healing foods are the foundation, but sometimes more is needed. If you want to jumpstart your health, a complementary or alternative medicine practitioner can launch you. If you are seeking your first practitioner, ask your friends, family and coworkers for referrals, and compare what they say to the above stories.

Comments

[Alan]

Have you heard about the award-winning book UnBreak Your Health - The Complete Guide to Complementary & Alternative Therapies (Loving Healing Press 2007). With 300+ listings in 138 different subjects, testimonials and some of the most interesting recent scientific discoveries it's a great place to start the journey.