by Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhD
It was an interesting week in my practice, as there were an unusual number of patients coming in with extreme symptoms that were addressed and resolved using the "when you hear hoof beats, think of horses and not zebras" practice model. If you are a practitioner and don’t know this one, it’s worth while exploring.
Having been in medicine and healthcare now for almost 40 years, (I’m as old as trees as my children like to tease me), there is no doubt that medicine is focused on looking for the zebras. That is, looking for the pathology, the disease, the exotic condition, something to diagnose instead of recognizing that most "hoof beats" are made by horses. This simple, practical and common sense approach to practicing health care has been lost within today’s fast paced, “expert” based practices and has even begun disappearing from "alternative" health care practices, as well.
Here is an example from one of my recent patient visits. A very gifted, integrative health practitioner called me up after having intractable muscle pain for a week. He could not lie down, could not sleep was in great discomfort and was also concerned about what this could mean. He had spoken to a wide variety of practitioners who normally deal with musculo-skeletal conditions and at the end of his exploration was still in pain and becoming rapidly more concerned.
When this happens to us we start to think, "do I have something really wrong with me?", if you're older you think "this must be what getting old is about", or if you are an active, healthy person who takes care of yourself you might ask, "how could this be happening to me, I take care of myself." This individual said he called me because he "didn't know where else to turn" to understand his pain and condition and isn't this what I did in my practice – figure things out about cause and effect?"
Being a Whole Person Health Care practitioner, I started with the basics:
> what specifically had he been doing prior to this onset?
> where is the specific discomfort?
> what makes it feel better?
> what makes it feel worse?
> did he experience any other symptom along with this pain?
He explained that he just joined a gym and was working out for the past week, but that he wasn't doing that much exercise to cause this discomfort and it wasn't just in one muscle, it was all over his body. He is in very good physical condition so the idea of the mild exercising causing this full body pain didn't resonate.
He reported that he hadn't changed his diet, work habits, taken any unusual supplements, changed beds, changed shoes or had any upset or stress over the past week. He tried a series of natural remedies and treatments to no avail. He was both personally and professionally stumped and so were the practitioners he had spoken with about his pain.
Having been called the "Sherlock Holmes of Whole Health", I knew the task at hand was to find out the missing piece of information that would unlock the cause of the problem. So we discussed his new membership at the gym. Logic told me that there was something connected to his activities at the gym that was the casual factor in his pain experience because it was after joining the gym that his pain began. It was just a matter of putting our finger on it.
After a few minutes of detailed review, one factor that surfaced seemed the right solution to the problem. After his work out, he went for a swim in the gym's pool. Interesting.
Now some of you who are practitioners reading this might think, "Ah ha, he has a virus from the pool water", or " His immune system must have had a toxic reaction to the chemicals in the pool". Sorry, but no cigar - these are all zebras.
Having a comprehensive, evidence-based, whole person health education is critical to truly serving our patients and clients and being able to empower them with the knowledge they need to take control of their health.
What does chlorine do to our body? It leaches minerals, most importantly calcium and magnesium. Because chlorine has double negative bonds it is wildly attracted to double positive bonds, as found in calcium. What minerals are significantly involved in muscle function? Ca & Mg - correct!
I recommended that he go to Whole Foods and purchase A to B Calm calcium and magnesium powder, take a dose and see if that helped. I received an e-mail about 24 hours later with the subject title "WOW" - it completely took away all his discomfort, he got a great night sleep and felt excellent. He is swimming away, but mindful to take his calcium/magnesium after each swim.
This is the perfect example of thinking horses and not zebras in our practices. I do hope you found this helpful ~
With all good wishes,
G
© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Should Doctors Take Back Control of Health Care?
by Georgianna Donadio, MSc., DC, PhD
For those us of old enough to remember Marcus Welby, MD and Dr. Kildare, the beloved TV docs we grew up with, we also remember a time when the physicians ran health care. They set policy, budgets, insurance coverage guidelines and pretty much, back then, "everything healthcare".
The insurance carriers, growing tired of paying for questionable procedures and surgery, warned physician groups running the show that if they did not clean up the medical abuses taking place, the insurance industry would take away their decision making by enforced second opinions and limited pay outs for procedures that were being unnecessarily performed. Back in the 1970's, there were millions of hysterectomies, 66% of all those performed were after the fact deemed "unnecessary" by what has become today's Medical Review Boards.
Now in the U.K., to quote an article in latest English.news.cn "The new British coalition government revealed on Friday that it planned to put doctors in charge of funding for frontline services in England's National Health Service (NHS), in a change hailed as the biggest in 60 years."
This is big! If this were to be enacted in the U.S., we could see a return of physician driven health care that is provided, determined and distributed by the same type of physician groups that were unable to police themselves just 30 years after the establishment of the American Medical Association and the mainstreaming of the pharmaceutical industry.
Granted, we currently have in place excellent peer review boards and medical review requirements, but this works because of the lack of conflict of interest with the way these structures function.
The health care reform bill has yet to flex its muscles and most of us feel pretty much in the dark about what we can expect. No surprise since an overwhelming majority of politicos who voted on the bill had little to no idea what the bill contained!
The issues we see with today's health care delivery simply reinforce the Whole Health vision of taking control of our bodies, preventing disease with common sense health hygiene and limiting the use of acute care medicine that we as Americans are blessed to have available to us when a health crisis occurs.
Every day the news contains articles identifying the long term use of even over the counter medications and cautions us to realize we cannot repeatedly put these chemicals into our bodies (and there are many other chemicals in our environment, food and air) and not experience consequences.
Chronic disease, which is the bulk of what is treated in healthcare today, is preventable and cost effective. Let's create our own healthcare reform with self-directed health-care. This means taking care of our whole health, living well and living long.
With all good wishes,
G
© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved
For those us of old enough to remember Marcus Welby, MD and Dr. Kildare, the beloved TV docs we grew up with, we also remember a time when the physicians ran health care. They set policy, budgets, insurance coverage guidelines and pretty much, back then, "everything healthcare".
The insurance carriers, growing tired of paying for questionable procedures and surgery, warned physician groups running the show that if they did not clean up the medical abuses taking place, the insurance industry would take away their decision making by enforced second opinions and limited pay outs for procedures that were being unnecessarily performed. Back in the 1970's, there were millions of hysterectomies, 66% of all those performed were after the fact deemed "unnecessary" by what has become today's Medical Review Boards.
Now in the U.K., to quote an article in latest English.news.cn "The new British coalition government revealed on Friday that it planned to put doctors in charge of funding for frontline services in England's National Health Service (NHS), in a change hailed as the biggest in 60 years."
This is big! If this were to be enacted in the U.S., we could see a return of physician driven health care that is provided, determined and distributed by the same type of physician groups that were unable to police themselves just 30 years after the establishment of the American Medical Association and the mainstreaming of the pharmaceutical industry.
Granted, we currently have in place excellent peer review boards and medical review requirements, but this works because of the lack of conflict of interest with the way these structures function.
The health care reform bill has yet to flex its muscles and most of us feel pretty much in the dark about what we can expect. No surprise since an overwhelming majority of politicos who voted on the bill had little to no idea what the bill contained!
The issues we see with today's health care delivery simply reinforce the Whole Health vision of taking control of our bodies, preventing disease with common sense health hygiene and limiting the use of acute care medicine that we as Americans are blessed to have available to us when a health crisis occurs.
Every day the news contains articles identifying the long term use of even over the counter medications and cautions us to realize we cannot repeatedly put these chemicals into our bodies (and there are many other chemicals in our environment, food and air) and not experience consequences.
Chronic disease, which is the bulk of what is treated in healthcare today, is preventable and cost effective. Let's create our own healthcare reform with self-directed health-care. This means taking care of our whole health, living well and living long.
With all good wishes,
G
© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved
Thursday, July 8, 2010
NIWH Whole Health Moves Into Health Care
by Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhD
If you have been following this blog you may have been wondering where I've been for the past few weeks. I am happy to report that the lack of posting has meant big things are happening at NIWH!
There has been a Whole Health revolution going on across the country. It seems that millions of people and thousands of organizations have caught on to the NIWH vision of Whole Health and what it can mean for all of us.
> NIWH is serving on the national leadership Steering Committee along side members from Duke University, Harvard Institute of Coaching, Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, HealthCorp - led by Dr. Met Oz, Wellcoaches and others to craft and implement health and wellness coaching standards and a national certification.
> NIWH just signed a collaboration agreement with Massachusetts General Hospital Community Health to provide our Whole Health Education program to staff nurses for the purpose of evaluating how the model enhances their work with patients.
> NIWH has recently been approved by the Department of Defense to provide Whole Health program to over 3 million active military spouses around the globe through the Military One Source, My Caa program.
> NIWH, an endorsed program of the American Holistic Nurses Association, and AsOne Coaching under the direction of Linda Bark, RN, PhD, MCC, which is also an AHNA endorsed program, has partnered to bring health coaching competencies to the Whole Health externship and practicum experience.
> NIWH and Wellcoaches, one of the leading coaching competency organizations in the world, endorsed by the American Academy of Sports Medicine, have partnered to bring Whole Health Education to the coaching community. NIWH will be adding Wellcoach’s courses to the NIWH externship and practicum components.
And, there are more collaborations on the horizon! I will keep you updated on all the most current Whole Health developments.
With all good wishes,
G
© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved
If you have been following this blog you may have been wondering where I've been for the past few weeks. I am happy to report that the lack of posting has meant big things are happening at NIWH!
There has been a Whole Health revolution going on across the country. It seems that millions of people and thousands of organizations have caught on to the NIWH vision of Whole Health and what it can mean for all of us.
> NIWH is serving on the national leadership Steering Committee along side members from Duke University, Harvard Institute of Coaching, Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, HealthCorp - led by Dr. Met Oz, Wellcoaches and others to craft and implement health and wellness coaching standards and a national certification.
> NIWH just signed a collaboration agreement with Massachusetts General Hospital Community Health to provide our Whole Health Education program to staff nurses for the purpose of evaluating how the model enhances their work with patients.
> NIWH has recently been approved by the Department of Defense to provide Whole Health program to over 3 million active military spouses around the globe through the Military One Source, My Caa program.
> NIWH, an endorsed program of the American Holistic Nurses Association, and AsOne Coaching under the direction of Linda Bark, RN, PhD, MCC, which is also an AHNA endorsed program, has partnered to bring health coaching competencies to the Whole Health externship and practicum experience.
> NIWH and Wellcoaches, one of the leading coaching competency organizations in the world, endorsed by the American Academy of Sports Medicine, have partnered to bring Whole Health Education to the coaching community. NIWH will be adding Wellcoach’s courses to the NIWH externship and practicum components.
And, there are more collaborations on the horizon! I will keep you updated on all the most current Whole Health developments.
With all good wishes,
G
© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved
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