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A few decades ago, we saw a sudden rise in HMO’s – so-called “Health Maintenance Organizations” – after a federal regulation required many employers to make this form of healthcare available to their employees. As users experienced, HMO’s did little to maintain our health. And really, this is true of most of mainstream medicine.

I don’t mean this as a slight against medical doctors, I’m just trying to clarify their role. When you bring your car in for a tune up or a set of new tires, this is maintenance. They perform a procedure on your vehicle to refresh it, to help it stay functional, and to improve its performance. One doesn’t expect to go into a medical doctor’s office and receive a maintenance procedure. Probably you’ve never had a general practitioner perform any corrective action on you. The primary value of mainstream medicine is in diagnosis and repair – through surgery or drug therapy to fix significant imbalances that can’t be dealt with through lifestyle changes or other noninvasive means.

The bulk of heath maintenance, as with car maintenance, is ultimately a personal responsibility. – Tweet It

There’s no substitute for letting your car warm up on cold days, not riding the brakes, and using quality fuel. Likewise, there’s no substitute for good diet, frequent exercise and stretching, deep breathing, loving interactions, restful sleep, and a balanced life. Without these elements of health maintenance, no healthcare practitioner is going to be able to do much for you.

But there are medical systems that excel at performing maintenance, such as acupuncture, massage, yoga therapy, breath work, and nutritional medicine. Because these systems strive to restore balance, the corrections and enhancements they deliver may take longer than drugs or surgery to have a pronounced effect. It also means they are much less likely to produce negative side effects or throw you out of balance. As such, holistic systems (meaning, “with respect to the health of the whole being”) should be the foundation of our “HMOs,” and most of us would do well to take advantage of them on a regular basis.

This is the main reason we decided to develop membership programs at The Dragontree. We knew that people often engage more frequently in health maintenance activities when they’re part of a program, they get reminders, or they have pre-scheduled visits.

Early in my practice I had a hard time telling people to come back for a series of treatments. I told one of my mentors, “But what if they can’t afford six or ten visits?”

He replied, “What would be the best thing for the patient in a case like this?”

“For them to get six or ten treatments.”

“So, you just decided for them that they should get something less than what would be ideal?” he asked.

“Well, I don’t want them to think I just want their money.”

“So, you know how much money they have? And what they’re willing to spend to get well?” he probed.

“Errrr, no. But what if it doesn’t have the effect that they want it to have? Then they might feel like I ripped them off.”

“That happens in medicine all the time. People see doctors who don’t help them, they take drugs that don’t work, and they spend millions on supplements that don’t have the desired effect. If you do your best, you can’t let yourself feel responsible for how people react,” he responded. “But it’s more likely that they’ll have an unsatisfactory response when you practice the way you have been.”

“What do you mean?” I protested. I felt like I was pretty good at what I did.

“You’re doing a huge disservice to acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, that’s what. Were you taught in school that people’s conditions would typically be cured by one treatment? Or that acupuncture works best when done once a year?”

“Not at all,” I answered. “In China, where it’s socialized, they just give people the exact number of treatments they think is best for their condition. And that’s often a dozen or more sessions.”

“So you must think you’re pretty hot shit that you can get it done in one or two treatments?”

“Huh? I, ummm… Oh, I see what you mean.”

“Why not tell people the truth?” he offered. “Like, ‘This is how acupuncture works. This is how many treatments I think would give you the greatest benefit. And this is the ongoing maintenance schedule I think would most help you to feel  great and avoid health problems.’ And then let them decide what they want to do.”

His advice is true not just for acupuncture, but for massage, yoga therapy, physical therapy, and many other systems. Since then, I’ve tried hard not to take away people’s choice by deciding for them that they’d be offended by the frequency of treatment I’d recommend. And I’m going to practice that right now. Most people experience real, tangible improvements in health and overall wellbeing by getting acupuncture, massage, or another form of true maintenance every month. And we do even better by receiving this kind of care twice a month. During demanding times, weekly treatments are ideal.

Now, I’ll leave it to you to decide what to do with this information.

Be well,

Dr. Peter Borten

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