As naturopathic medicines (osteopathy, acupuncture, mindfulness-meditation, etc) seem more and more to be seeping into the mainstream . . .

Recently discovering this post (by David Wolf -  thanks for this, only included here, so could comment more fully on it) on Facebook, I am struck by how we might be getting quite a different kind of medicine nowadays, or so it would seem. At least it's 'power to the patient' rather than more and more to pharmaceutical multinationals. All food for thought..

However, sadly I suspect such a doctor would never loose all their patients, as not everybody it seems, really wants to be proactive in their own healthcare and well-being. But at least doctors are saying the right things a bit more.  Well, let's hope so anyway. 

At least mainstream healthcare is changing. It always seemed to me that the greatest failure of the medical model is foster a 'culture of dependency'. And even the accountants realize that the implications for this are greater healthcare costs. All developed countries and struggling with higher and higher healthcare costs, as we live longer, but not necessarily any healthier.

All good that Naturopathic and traditional medicine (and here I could include Osteopathy,  Acupuncture, mindfulness-meditation, Qigong,  yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine) seem to be seeping into the mainstream.  This would seem to be a win-win scenario for all:  especially individual patients, but also for the tax-payer.  OK, potential losers here might to a very limited extent be the pharmaceutical companies and their revenues, but they are such huge players, with so much influence, somehow I don't think most people will worry about this.

Of course,  pharmaceutical medicine has its place - do one would deny that (I hope).  The feedback I get from many of my patients, is not that they are necessarily unhappy with their doctors  - but only that in additions to their script for pharmaceutical drugs, their doctors (in the past, at least) have often offered little else.

So this is why perhaps we could call this 'power to the patient'.  After all,  isn't this a good thing.   With the advent of the internet, almost all educated people will go to their GP with a lot more questions.  Or I would certainly hope so.

For more on this please see my self-care / rehabilitation osteopathy page:
http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/selfcare/selfcare.html

and my Naturopathy pages:
http://www.christchurch-osteopathy-acupuncture.co.nz/naturopathy/naturopathy.html


sorry  -  you'll probably have to copy an paste these links into your browser