It often baffles me when I speak with people about their health. It’s quite common for people to tell me how healthy they are when in fact they are a total mess. It appears the discrepancy lies within the consensual definition of the word “Health”. By far, most of my patient’s believe they are healthy when their western medications control their symptoms, or when they lack a clear western medical diagnosis. This is in no way a reflection of health by Chinese medical standards, so I thought I would write today to clear up the confusion.
In order to comprehend the difference, one needs to understand that Chinese medicine by design is preventative medicine. Historically one would pay their doctor to keep them well and would not pay them if they fell ill. Can you imagine our society today if this were still the standard for health care?!!?! This means that if a Chinese medical doctor wanted to eat, they had to be extremely good at diagnosing problems before they actually manifested and became significant.
What we find today is the polar opposite. My patients don’t find their way to my clinic until after they already have a western diagnosis. We have been duped into thinking that it is alright to feel crummy. We believe it is a part of the aging process. We think it is normal because most of the people we know suffer from the same problems. We are in denial that our health is deteriorating at an unacceptable rate. We have accepted our poor health because no health care practitioner has been able to treat the condition successfully and we have been told that we will just have to live with it. Let me be the one to tell you – WAKE UP! You do not have to continue down the path you are on. It is fully within your abilities to take control of your health. You can be proactive and make dietary and lifestyle changes to be significantly more healthy. You do not have to suffer from a western medical diagnosis to benefit from Chinese medicine. You do not have to be “sick” to feel better.
Chinese medicine views health in a radically different way than western medicine. Optimal health means that you sleep well at night- you fall asleep easily, you don’t wake up, and when you arise in the morning you are well rested, energized, and ready for your day; you have excellent digestion – your appetite is neither excessive or poor, when you eat you don’t have belching/gas/indigestion/acid reflux/heartburn, you have regular bowel movements everyday and they should be easy and well-formed without blood/mucus/undigested food; you are emotionally balanced – you don’t suffer from too much anger/irritability/frustration/anxiety/sadness/fear, you adapt to stress well and are rooted, centered, and balanced; and you are not suffering from pain anywhere at anytime, in any part of your body; and the list keeps going on and on. If you can read this and confidently say that have optimal health than congratulations – your one of the very few out there and whatever you are doing, keep doing it. If you read this and see yourself in the description, then I invite you to contact my clinic for a complimentary 15 minute consultation. I would be more than happy to talk to you about your specific health concerns and how I might be able to help you.
Yours in health,
Benjamin Chang, DTCM, ADS, L.Ac.
Come and talk to us today! http://bellinghamacupunctureandwellness.com/