I had an interesting conversation the other day with a patient and I would like to express some things that came up because the points were/are important.
She had gone through some issues that I was trying to sort out because she had done a cleanse and imbalanced herself. While I was treating her for the imbalance, she unintentionally didnt mention she was continuing to use a couple other supplements form her naturopath who had her on supplement to "techincally" solve her issues post cleanse. However, using supplements for their "technical" purpose is not the only way to view rebalancing the body. With many forms of natural medicine, using supplements recognizing that they drive the body's energy in certain directions with different kinds of forces sometimes can be effective in ways that using them for their technical function can't.
When we were discussing her case, we uncovered the fact that she had been taking these other supplements and I explained how they were influencing her energetic in her body and the net effect of what I was giving her in an opposite manner of the desired strategy.
The issue that is important here is that it often is incredibly important to consider both sides of the supplement coin-what is it doing physiologically and how is it interacting with the body's nergy systems. When incorporated in this way, often the results will be greatly improved.
Anyway, we thought this post might bring up some interesting conversation.
Dr. M & B
Comments
Thank you. I think so many of
Thank you. I think so many of us are used to thinking about herbs in western terms and cant begin to understand the energetic properties of the herbs. It is fascinating tho! It is amazing to me how different I can feel on different combinations of herbs, depending on the doses, the combinations, and where my body is in this dynamic process.
On a slightly different note, it is the same western thinking that brings us to the notion that a "cleanse" is going to restore balance. After reading your blog and talking to patients for almost 2 years, I am always surprised when a patient thinks it is a good idea to do something like a cleanse. It seems you have cautioned against this type of thing on numerous occasions. This is the thing that puzzles me. Is it the pressure of other voices in the holistic world that allows us to continue to make these choices, despite your thinking on these issues? I am puzzled by this!
If we don't excel at health, the only other option is disease.
Thank you for this Dr M.
Thank you for this Dr M.
After experiencing the effects, in your treatment, of even the slightest change in supplements and in dosages, this has become my daily awareness......surely, yet another gift of this journey and the body awareness it brings.
It is always fascinating to
It is always fascinating to read about how herbs and acupuncture influence the flow of energy. Wish I understood it better, but I know it works. Hard to believe that how quickly one can feel the changes whether it is for the better or worse. I know when I attempted to see a naturopathic DO it was hard to explain to the Dr how quickly I would feel a shift and usually for the negative and the response was "what I'm giving you would not cause pain." This frequent comment really made me think and question does every naturopathic Dr understand the impact a supplement can have on each individual? It was like I was being putting in one category because I stated I had this certain symptom, like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, which is just not possible. My own personal experience with this has made it more clear and made me even more grateful to know I have a Dr who understands the properties of the different herbs/supplements and how they influence our energy given how sensitive our systems can be. Thanks for sharing this, always a good reminder to think twice about everything we are doing in our day to day lives that we may put off as no big deal, when in fact it can make a huge impact on our healing.
Right now there are far too
Right now there are far too many languages in medicine. Hopefully one day Western docs and Aleternative docs will speak and blended language and the patient will not feel so isolated. Many times people use metaphors to describe their pain. I think this is wonderful because it helps me healp them. Many medical professionals are put off by this. REcently a patient of mine was consulting another doctro who actually asked for a description in this manner. I thought how wonderful this is to see an MD asking for metaphors. I have been accused of some unpleasant things in the past for allowing this in my practice which I was always perplexed by.
Western medicine is so stuck
Western medicine is so stuck in the 1-10 pain rating scale, so subjective and patients usually don't know how to respond so more often than not don't or become so vague with their responses. The use of metaphors is way more practical, can get a clearer picture of what is being felt. Other practitioners must have too much time on their hands to ridicule you for this practice, and I'm so glad you didn't allow them to persuade you away from allowing us to describe and use metaphors for our pain and symptoms. I'm sure you have heard it all!