Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the Tiger begins on the 14th of February. Let's consider the fearsome Tiger. Those people born under his sign are doers, movers and shakers. They manage to accomplish world-class projects. This description provides myriads of information about them and sets very high expectations for their great activities and achievements. The Tiger has many other attributes to its personality that are compatible to the time in which we are living and the current state of acupuncture and Oriental medicine in the United States.
We have just finished up the year of the Ox. We dug our heels in, stood firm and worked hard. This coming year, just as the Tiger does, we must look to our wits and our cunning ability to survive and thrive. It is time to be professional self-promoters. It is time to come out of the dark forest and willfully further the progress, growth and advancement of acupuncture and Oriental medicine. It is time to popularize this medicine through publicity.
Those who are Tigers are all-or-nothing people. The Tiger's states of mind can be described as passionate, emotional and intense. This level of passion, intensity and emotions is leading the profession toward results that we can point to as examples of the fact that acupuncture and Oriental medicine does work. Now is the time to educated patients and the citizens of America about healing benefits of this medicine. Stand up and roar about how much you love this medicine!
Defiance is also a big part of what makes up a Tiger personality. The professional must stand strong, just like the Tiger, when forces work to assail our medicine. Now is that time to face that challenge. As the news of the effectiveness of acupuncture and Oriental medicine spreads, so many more challenges will face us in the health care arena. As other groups, from both outside and inside the profession, try to assault or minimize acupuncture and Oriental medicine, we must stand firm, speak out and push (or even sometimes pull) our medicine forward by blazing new trails, and creating new friends and new patients.
Two more of the Tiger's attributes are eagerness and excitement. They are willing and eager to find out about and participate in new activities. There must be new, as well as older practitioners who are equally willing and eager to participate in activities (whether big or small) that will do such things as create new laws in states with no regulations and spread the word to regulators, insurance companies and potential patients about the effectiveness of acupuncture and Oriental medicine. As one example of the impact we have had so far, consider that insurance companies are increasing their coverage for acupuncture and Oriental medicine every year.
Tigers also re-invent theirs live every single day. Tigers get bored with their everyday lives and want to escape their same routine. This year, take up this challenge and create a new way for you to inform, reform and perform something for your own life and the profession.
This is where you can also take a cue from yet another Tiger attribute: confidence. This is the year to build on your confidence. Take a step outside your normal routine and help build the strength of our medicine.
Finally, Tigers know how to make money. Tigers do not slack off. They put their shoulders to the wheel and work smarter to create what they need and want in their lives.
This year, 2010, let's take an example from the mighty Tigers. Let's make this year better for ourselves, our families, our patients and our profession.
Structured water (H3O2) can be considered a fourth state of water between liquid and solid. It has the hexagonal structure of ice; however, missing a critical bond, it behaves more like a gel than a solid, but retains some of its crystalline structure.
In the past five years of my clinical practice, I have seen an astonishing upsurge in the chronic use of proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) medications for the gastrointestinal issue diagnosed by allopathic medicine as GERD. It is not uncommon to encounter patients taking these prescriptions for five-plus years.
Working with chronically ill patients entails acknowledging the reality that not all patients will survive their diagnosis. Chinese medicine and acupuncture play a crucial role in palliative and end-of-life care, addressing medication and disease side effects, alleviating pain associated with death, reducing anxiety and stress, and helping patients find peace during the dying process.
