If you are already under a medical doctor's care to treat your chronic disease, you may be considering using another medical doctor for your complementary, integrative, or alternative care. That's like buying the same item twice from different displays in the same supermarket. Why would you want to buy the same item from two different places in the same store? Was the display or packaging different? They are identical items. Why would you do that?

 

As most people, you might get comfortable with the way you have been managing your health, and get caught in the routine of repeating the same things over and over. In the same vein, you are already familiar with the way you get examined and treated by medical doctors: the types of tests they use, like blood tests and x-rays, and the type of beliefs and philosophy they have. So, out of habit, you might seek more of the familiar; even though deep down, you know that something is missing, or not enough. That's why you need complementary care in the first place, and need a licensed practitioner who has the ability to see things differently than another medical doctor.

 

Still, your initial idea may be that you can find a medical doctor who might do things differently than your current doctor, even though he/she is schooled under the same institutional banner, and practices largely the same as most other medical doctors. Are all the types of tests he/she uses the same to you? Didn't you already have those kinds of tests? Even if a candidate doctor claims to be different and if you want to believe him/her, at least for now, really, you only feel like choosing "more of the same" because the familiar presents no risk to you, and what's familiar feels safe to you.

What's the difference? If the candidate doctor's philosophy and beliefs are the same as all other medical doctors, i.e., that your body is incapable of regulating on its own, and therefore needs drugs to help, then you will only be getting more of the same care. Even if it feels "safe" to you, because it is so familiar, you know that more of the same just won't work. Aren't you looking for complementary, integrative, or alternative care? You know you really need an alternative for your complementary care, to cover what a medical doctor misses, because you know Medicine is not a perfect science. You already know this. So why buy the same item because it is dressed differently? You need a real alternative.

Your way to know if any of your candidate doctors are really just more of the same, is to ask yourself this simple question: Do they prescribe drugs, or recommend using over-the-counter drugs, to any of their patients? Even if you have been told that no drugs will be used with you: Do they? If you know the answer is yes, then how are their beliefs about your body different than any other medical doctor you may see? They're not. You know that medicine isn't perfect. So, for complementary, integrative, or alternative care, do you really want someone who has the same underlying beliefs, and limitations as your current medical doctor? He believes your body is incapable of healing and repairing without drugs, surgery or radiation. This is a belief system, not science. Do you really need to believe that too?

The key point here is this: the choice to use any over-the-counter drugs or prescription drugs in medical practice indicates a fundamental belief system: a belief that your body is incapable of helping itself without these substances. Why would a doctor prescribe such chemicals without the belief that your body is unable to function without them? Why would he recommend them to anyone else if he believed that their body could function without them? The reason a doctor would ever use these is from the doctor's belief that the human body is incapable of self regulating and self healing without using these substances.

Don't be fooled into thinking that your complementary care will act against your current medical plan, or roadmap if your complementary integrative, or alternative care were given by a licensed professional other than a medical doctor. That's just medical sales-talk. Any licensed practitioner who takes-on the role to manage your complementary integrative care will do a full history and consultation with you, and be willing to have open communication with any of your medical doctors. Any practitioner who wouldn't be willing to discuss their approach in your complementary care should be avoided.

Beware! When seeking advice regarding complementary integrative or alternative care, you should never take the advice of someone who is not immersed in, and does not fully understand, a complementary, integrative and alternative kind of practice. Without telling you not to listen to your medical doctor on things for which he is not an expert (because he has no formal training in alternative, complementary and integrative approaches such as functional medicine, or even muscle testing, and doesn't practice that way), you should understand that you need a different kind of doctor; an alternative doctor. Finding an integrative practitioner who really understands complementary care is not easy, and taking the advice of a non-expert in complementary care, can be confusing and terribly misleading. Now, lets see a different understanding of how your body functions, from an exclusively different philosophy and belief system than that of "your body is incapable." Since I am a chiropractor, I teach chiropractic principles: "your body is a potentially self healing, self regulating organism." You might think: 'Sure, but that's not different than a medical doctor's belilefs, because sometimes a person needs to take prescriptions, or over the counter medications.' However, if you are willing to pause for a minute and take a step away from that ingrained belief, I can show you how it is different. Just for a minute, allow yourself to think that maybe there really is a difference between these beliefs. Either your body is incapable, or you body is a potentially self healing and self regulating organism.

If your body has the potential to self repair, heal, and self regulate, then why would you have to use a chemical substance that forces a reaction in your body? You know, that's what drugs do: they force a reaction in your body. Their purpose is narrow and meant to change a symptom, or a number related to a test result, and, in effect, overwhelm your body's current state of equilibrium, to force a change. If your body is truly incapable of helping itself, then of course you would need to take many different drugs to force many different reactions in your body. If you think that sometimes a person needs a drug to force a reaction in the body because "just at that time" the body is incapable to self regulate, then your philosophy is that the body is incapable. Period. It is either incapable or it is self regulating. It can't be both, and it can't be that the body is just a little incapable, because it only needs one drug.

Chiropractic principles teach the opposite, and hold that the body is a potentially self healing and self regulating organism. But just hold-on a second, put your defenses down for a moment more, and get out of the all-too-familiar, ingrained-belief, "drugs are needed" philosophy, for just a moment more to let this alternative idea have a chance to sink in.

Imagine that your body is truly self healing and self regulating. Just imagine that for a second. Can you see it? Wait... Is something still not right? Is there a problem with this belief because your body isn't well? You might ask: How can my body be self healing and self regulating if I already have a chronic disease and it is not getting better? Doesn't that prove that the body is incapable and needs a drug?

That is an important question! The answer is No. The key word in this chiropractic principle is "potential." Your body certainly has the potential to be self healing, self repairing and self regulating. Chiropractors know that this is due to your body's innate intelligence. However, a chiropractor should also know that if there's something in the way of perfect communication throughout your nervous system, the central controlling system of your whole body, then this natural potential can get dimmed (less light, sub-lux-ated ).

Chiropractic principles teach the opposite of the philosophy proclaiming that the body is incapable. The principle is that your body has the potential, no matter how broken down it may be, to self heal, self repair, and self regulate. The only thing that holds it back from its full potential is when something is in the way of nervous system communications. No drug could ever restore this innate potential of your body. The innate is there, yet there are things that can get in the way. Those things are not caused by diseases. Diseases, e.g. breast cancer, are the end results of blocked healing potential, not the causes. To unblock your healing potential we use chiropractic adjustments, and real, whole food nutritional supplementation.

The opposite of drugs is whole food, and whole food, the most important thing for your body, is the opposite of drugs.  Whole food, or whole food supplementation, does not force a reaction in your body.  It does not override your body's equilibrium to force a change.  Its purpose is broad and meant to nourish your entire body, while promoting health and wellness. Likewise, the chiropractor's adjustment frees irritation and interference from your nervous system—the central controlling system of all your body systems—to unblock your healing potential. Every body will function better with a better functioning nervous system.

How to choose: If you are about to choose an integrative "alternative" doctor, and if he uses drugs, you might as well get it at the same place you already get your medical care. Why even bother? However, if he uses foods, that's in line with chiropractic principles. However, you'll still need the chiropractic adjustments for your full, integrative, health empowerment. You just can't get that from anyone but a chiropractor. Integrative medicine means integrating the care of your whole body including spinal care and nourishment, instead of just focusing on one area of your body. Functional medicine means improving your body's function, not just looking at killing disease and stopping symptoms.

When you realize that you want your complementary care to truly be a complement to your body, and not just another window dressing of medicine, to cover disease, then you will seek the care of a licensed chiropractor who not only does not recommend drugs, but when you ask the doctor, can tell you why your body is not self-healing, or self-regulating at this time. Your candidate practitioner should be able to explain this to you without blaming it on your end-result disease. Thats what I do. Call us. You can start your care today.