Is Patient Empowerment a Myth?

“Empowerment” is defined as the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights. Patient empowerment involves shifting authority or power to patients so they can make more informed healthcare decisions. I want to teach my patients, to share information with them so that they could take initiative and make decisions to solve their own problems and improve their health, while I do what I gotta do with the herb or needles.

The term “patient empowerment” assumes that if healthcare professionals provide skills, information, resources, and authority to patients, then patients will be more active and accountable for their decisions, and that will ultimately contribute to improved competence, self-reliance, and better health outcomes.

In my efforts to empower my patients, I find that many are still under the erroneous assumption that there is a pill, or an acupuncture treatment, to take care of any ailment or discomfort, and keep it gone without them needing to make any lifestyle changes or any behavioral modifications that would keep them ticking along great.

Here are a couple of examples of patients I have seen. Bill is in his late 70’s and he likes his food a lot. He has ringing in his ears for which he originally visited me. Ears, in Oriental medicine, is an organ that is nourished by the kidneys, and kidneys, like other organs, become depleted of their essence and qi as the years go by. Naturally, I have to work on his kidney jing and kidney yin in order to resolve the complaint. As I started to work with Bill, he informed me that when he eats a large meal at night, specially a steak with lots of butter (and his breakfast includes bacon and eggs), he has a pain in his legs and in his chest! I helped him make the connection between his fatty meals and his chest pain and leg pain, and promptly started him on an herbal formula that helps to lessen the impact of coronary artery disease. He started to improve with the ear ringing and his chest and leg pain, but amazingly, given how serious the nature of his condition could turn into, he kept up with his love for meat and fatty foods. Bill was not open to being empowered to take better care of himself thru a more mindful diet. He wanted the problem fixed without having to make any changes himself.

Another patient, Anne, in her mid 60’s came to me with severe pain “all over” and the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Upon doing the physical, I learned that she has essentially no water at all throughout the day. Three small cups of water is all she has in a day, which is probably an overestimate. She hates water she says. Its so boring. After doing my work I informed her about the value of staying hydrated throughout the day, and specially with some of the work I did that will require good hydration to “flush” out the toxins.   I assured her that with better hydration she will also have more energy, clearer thinking, better sleep, and less chance of a herniated disc (and many other problems) later on. The older we are and the longer the problem has been around, the longer it will take holistic approaches such as acupuncture and herbs to resolve the situation, if at all. She started to follow my advice and improved so fast it was truly amazing. No medicine needed. Couple of different herbal formulas to nourish her over time is all she needed once she started to be better hydrated. Of course the acupuncture really plays a vital role in pushing the body towards a state of good health, but I have no doubt that better hydration played as important a role as acupuncture or herbs. It rejuvenated her!

If you are willing to follow advice and be empowered, I can help you with almost anything. If you choose not to make necessary lifestyle changes that maybe necessary or essential, it’s a longer battle. I have seen on many occasions the patients that follow my advice get better faster and stay better longer.

 

 

So my question to you is: do you want to be empowered and play a large role in your own healing?