The science of virusesvirology


Top 10 Ways Chinese Medicine Can Help You, Part 2

#6  It's  Interactivehelp or hinder their healing from an
emotional  and  behavioral  perspective.
Chinese Medicine students learn about how
every aspect of our lives (from bowelAnd vice versa, we can look at people's
movements to emotions) relate to one another.emotions and behavior and guess what kind of
We  learn  to relate to every kind of person.physical problems they might have. This makes
for a quicker, more comprehensive medicine,
Patients  Can  Push  Your  Buttonsand helps patients feel understood and
confident  in  the  care  they  receive.
Patients sometimes push our buttons, and this
give us the opportunity to interact with#10 It can be a Lucrative AND Altruistic
ourselves. This is not always easy. We don'tCareer
always like what we find! But if you commit
to growth through interaction, helping, andAs former AMA president and Medscape CEO
self-examination, you can deactivate yourGeorge Lundberg, MD says, medicine walks a
buttons, grow past your limits, and increasethin  line  because:
your  usefulness  to  others.
* It is supposed to be altruistic (selflessly
More  specifically:concerned  for  others),  but
* Some students may realize they came to* It is also a business (and thus vulnerable
medicine for a selfish reason and decide toto  selfish  greed).
put  helping  others  first.
We could think of this as the yin and yang of
* Some students find they are people-pleasersthe  medical  business.
and have to learn how to set boundaries and
be more assertive (not aggressive orInsurance  Coverage for Acupuncture and Herbs
passive-aggressive!).
Some alternative medicine practitioners are
* Others are more confrontational andhappy to stay outside of the managed care
aggressive by nature and need to learnsystem. It's valuable enough to patients to
compassion  and  patience.pay out of their own pockets. Increasingly,
acupuncture is covered by insurance, HMO's
* Some are analytical and live in their headsand worker's compensation boards... sometimes
- they need to learn to focus on theirthe full cost of the treatment is covered and
hearts, gaining rapport and loving theirsometimes it isn't. Herbal medicine usually
patients.isn't covered... but patients are used to
buying herbs and vitamins without
Letting  Go  of  Bad  Habitsreimbursement.
Your bad habits are called into question. AtLundberg  suggests  that:
one point in my training, I went back to
smoking cigarettes. It was a guilt-laden 6* Proven preventive care should be financed
weeks! It seemed hypocritical to want to be aby  the  government,
healer while destroying my health. And I felt
like I had to hide it. I quit to be a better* Proven catastrophic care covered by
example to my patients, and not to have toinsurance,  and
hide  anything.
*  Everything  else  paid  for out-of-pocket.
I also had to quit coffee. I knew from
chinese medicine that it wasn't helping meGrossing Gross Amounts of Money - Acupuncture
with my impatience and irritability. It wasSalaries
worsening my liver qi stagnation! I had to
give it up and take herbs instead. I had toRegardless of who pays, acupuncturists can
practice  what  I  preach.expect an annual gross salary of between
$40,000 and$1,000,000. I just heard about a
When you know something is bad, it seems likehospital position for an acupuncturist in
fun to do it anyway (it gives you theIowa that was paying $159 per hour (their
illusion of power and control). Butmedical  doctor  rate).
eventually you give in to the wisdom, do what
is right, and get to feel even better. ThenMy wife made $100,000 her first year out of
you  can  help others with the same struggle.school. One acupuncturist here in San Diego
grosses near $1,000,000 annually with
Your  Victory  can  lead  to  their  Victoryworker's  compensation  cases  only.
Occasionally, your own personal growth andRight now in California, work-comp reimburses
commitment to self-examination helps your$120 per acupuncture treatment. Some
patients directly. At one point, I saw aacupuncturists  see  4  patients  per hour...
woman with fears of abandonment. I had just
discovered and confronted my own similarLet's do some quick math on an example. If
fears 6 months before. She was able to feelyou averaged $80 per treatment (which is
understood and heard and I was able to offerachievable), saw 2 patients per hour, and
her  solutions,  strength,  and  hope.worked 8 hours per day, 4 days per week
(leaving a day or two to do paperwork), 48
In this way, we are trailblazers- pioneers inweeks per year you could gross $245,760. If
growth. If we remain shallow, so will ouryou spend 40% of your gross on overhead, you
healing interactions. If we grow deeper, weearn  $147,456  before  taxes.
can  lead  people  to  greater  healing.
What  Makes  for  Making  Money
#7  It  Benefits  YOU  Too!
How much you earn depends, as in all
As was just explained, by helping others youbusinesses, upon your resourcefulness,
get  to  grow  too.initiative, marketing savvy, and - most
importantly - the quality of your service. As
Save  on  Health  Care  Costsin all service businesses, you must be good
at  what  you  do.
By giving yourself the know-how and resources
to keep yourself, your friends, and yourThe  Freedom  to  Give
family well, you can save money. One
acupuncturist said on an email list that itMaking all that money frees us to be
saved her family tens of thousands of dollarsaltruistic. A lot of volunteer care is given
in medical costs. It can be practicedby acupuncturists. During "9/11,", New York
inexpensively - for many years it treatedstudents from the Pacific Institute of
millions of poor peasants in China who had noChinese Medicine treated the firefighters.
access to western medicine. Chinese MedicineLikewise, students in San Diego from the
may be a large part of the solution to ourPacific College of Chinese Medicine treat
healthcare  crisis.Viet Nam veterans every year at a special
gathering. Of dozens of services, the
Professional  Courtesyacupuncture is among the top 3 requested. You
can take on a number of low or no-fee cases
Some acupuncturists trade treatments with onein  your  own  practice.  It's  up  to  you.
another to stay in good health. I've received
hundreds of treatments from fellow students,#11  -  There  are  so  many  options
practitioners, and my wife! It's helped me
with anger, irritability, migraines, lightIt's  a  varied  profession.
sensitivity, fear, over-thinking, colds and
flus,  and  cold  sores,  among other things.In California, acupuncturists are physicians
and can be a patient's primary care
#8  It's  Traditional  and  Ancientpractitioner - they are professionals on par
with MD's, chiropractors, and psychologists.
It's natural for us to look for reassurance,As  an  acupuncturist...
especially in dealing with our health.
Biomedicine reassures by requiring studies of* You could work with an MD, DO, DC,
treatments for safety. Chinese medicine haspsychologist, psychiatrist, or massage
been tested for safety and efficacytherapist.
(especially acupuncture), and it has
thousands of years of experience behind it to* You can work in a high-class office wearing
show what happens to the people it treats. Ita suit. You could practice at home wearing
is inarguably a positive influence in ouryour  slippers.
world. Biomedicine, on the other hand, is
only 50 years old, and the full scope of the* You could do all acupuncture, or all herbs,
side effect phenomenon (short and long-term)or  both.
has  yet  to  be  grasped.
* You could treat just sports injuries, or
Not every chinese remedy has been through theworkers compensation, or acupuncture
full rigors of the Randomized Controlledface-lifts, or gynecology, or psychiatry, or
Trial (biomedicine's gold-standard), butdo  it  all!
neither have all of the standard biomedical
treatments. The millions of hours and patient* There is room for new schools all over the
visits through hundreds of years establishU.S. - there are still states without any
traditional chinese treatments as safe andChinese  Medicine  schools.
effective. More and more studies are being
done to confirm them and understand how they* You could practice in California (where 1/3
work in biomedical terms. I have writtenof us practice), or you could have an
extensively on acupuncture safety and how it'insta-practice' in many places all over the
works  here.U.S. that don't have access to Chinese
Medicine.
#9  Its  Theories  have  Broad  Implications
* You could teach or be a clinic supervisor
Since it integrates many differentat  an  established  school.
disciplines and realms, CM concepts could be
used to reorganize and give insight to* You could see loads of patients, or spend 2
psychology and psychiatry, pharmaceuticalhours with each one. One herbalist in China
medicine, and sociology. These insights couldsees 80 patients per day. You have to be good
guide and suggest future research in allto get herbs right- to get them right and see
fields.that many patients per day, you have to be
stellar!
The 16 types of the Meyers Briggs personality
typing system have been somewhat integrated* You could create a business selling
with the 5 constitutions and 6 temperamentsproducts to the 20,000 or so acupuncturists
of Chinese Medicine (read about that). Thisin  the  U.S.  (even  more  internationally).
yields a mind-body medicine that integrates
personality  and  physical  disease.* You can write books and teach continuing
education  seminars.
From the patient's symptoms, we can
understand their personality and what mightThere are so many options!



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