Blending modern medicine with traditional natural approaches

Are you aware that there are several types of practicing doctors out there? The most conventional is the doctor who practices allopathic medicine.

Allopathic medicine primarily focuses on the treatment of disease rather then the promotion of heath.

Doctors of Osteopathy are dedicated to treating and healing the patient as a whole rather than focusing on one system or body part.

An osteopathic physician will often use a treatment method called osteopathic manipulative treatment (also called OMT or manipulation) a hands-on approach to make sure that the body is moving freely.

This free motion ensures that all of your body’s natural healing systems are able to work unhindered.

What makes osteopathic doctors different from those who practice allopathic medicine is that they receive an additional 300 to 500 hours in the study of hands-on manual medicine and the body’s musculoskeletal system.

Another type of practice is Naturopathic medicine. It is based on the belief that the human body has an innate healing ability.

Naturopathic doctors (ND’s) teach their patients to use diet, exercise, lifestyle changes and cutting edge natural therapies to enhance their bodies’ ability to ward off and combat disease.

ND’s view the patient as a complex, interrelated system (a whole person), not as a clogged artery or a tumor.

Naturopathic physicians craft comprehensive treatment plans that blend the best of modern medical science and traditional natural medical approaches to not only treat disease, but to also restore health.

I would like to discuss seven of the principals of Naturopathic Medicine that I have been reading about.

1. The Healing Power of Nature – the belief is that the body has considerable power to heal itself.

The role of the physician is to facilitate and enhance this process with the aid of natural and non-toxic therapies.

2. Identify and Treat the Cause – a ND is trained to seek the underlying causes of a disease rather than simply suppress the symptoms.

3. First Do No Harm – like all medical professionals, ND’s seek to do no harm with medical treatment by employing safe and effective natural therapies.

4. Treat the Whole Person – individuals should be seen as a whole. A person is composed of complex interaction between physical, mental-emotional, spiritual social and other factors.

5. The Physician as Teacher – ND’s (not to mention MD’s an OD’s) should not only be a practitioner but also a teacher. Patients should be empowered, educated and motivated to assume more personal responsibility for their health and well-being by adopting a healthy attitude, lifestyle and diet.

6. Prevention is the Best Cure – prevention of disease is accomplished through education and life habits which support health and prevent disease.

7. Establishing Health and Wellness – basically this is the premise of the ND. Health is defined as the state of optimal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Wellness is defined as a state of health, characterized by a positive emotional state.

The goal of the ND is to increase the level of wellness regardless of the disease or level of health. The theory is that no matter how severe the disease is a high level of wellness can often be achieved.

On a personal level, I can attest to this. When my late husband was at the end-stage of his battle with cancer, he still had a really good attitude.

He felt every day spent with us was a gift and cherished every second he was able to spend with our boys.

This may sound too new-agey to some of you, but I think there is so much out there that we can learn from.

For example, my orthopedic doctor basically told me to suck it up as far as my “tennis elbow” is concerned. (Yeah, like I’ve ever played tennis a day in my life!)

I have done some research and am considering acupuncture to help with the discomfort. I do believe that attitude and outlook on life can make a difference in our physical health.

Look around you. Isn’t it true that there is always someone worse off than you?

Think about the simple things in life. Smile. Don’t you feel better already?

Warm, wet weather should yield healthy berry and nut harvest

People have been talking a lot about the weather lately. As the rains fall in our area, tornadoes ramble over the Midwest and South, and snow still falls in the Rockies. Something is screwed up for sure.

With this wet weather and accompanying high temperatures the trees have greened up more and more. Most trees and shrubs are all in flower. Let’s not have a cold snap like last year. If they all produce fruit it will be a banner fall of berries, cherries and nuts.

There is not much bee or butterfly activity in the wet weather. Hopefully the millers and some species of fly are doing the pollination job.

Actually, black flies and deer flies feed on flowers as they grow into adults. That’s before they try feeding on you. I saw Deer flies today (5/29) so they must be feeding on something.

It’s going to be the year of the mosquito because of all the moisture. If you have old tires, flower pot bottoms, or any standing water you are adding to mosquito population.

I once looked in a rain barrel that someone was using to water their flowers and it was alive with mosquito larva.

I haven’t seen any noseums yet, but if we have a few warm nights they will be upon us. If the flycatcher birds could get through the raindrops they would surely be having a picnic.

There was a Bluebird singing around View (Arts Center) yard the last few days. A few Tree Swallows are on nest and should bring off a big batch of young.

The wildflowers seem to be thriving in all the rain. They will be fine if they can keep their heads above water. I’ve seen several Pink Ladyslippers and a few Yellow Ladyslippers.

The patch of Yellows that the Deer spared me are doing well under a wire cage. I have two double blooms and a couple new blooms that have seeded from the old patch.

The Large Round Leaf Orchids are putting up a flower stalk already. Last year they were at about this same stage when a frost hit and killed them all.

I got some great shots of Blood Root at Crown Point. Normally they have already bloomed and only the leaves of the plants are showing.

The rock walls outside the fort were covered with Red Columbine which attracted the Hummers. We must have released well over 20 of them from our nets.

Normally all you have to do is pick up the net pocket and they put it in reverse and back out. One got tangled and we had to use our crochet needle to get the net off it.

It was wet and it had gone into tupor (relaxed sleep) to conserve energy. We got it out and it laid in our hands for couple minutes before it flew off.

Other flowers that are in bloom are Spring Beauty, Foam Flower, all kinds of Violets, Trout Lily, and Bunch Berry. There is a nice patch of large Solomon Seal on a rock on the curve at St. Peter’s Hill.

The Azaleas are coming into bloom along many of the lake shores. They give off a pink glow that makes for a great refraction picture.

Beaver Lake and Eagle Falls up by Number Four have many blooming along their shores. I also saw several along White Lake as I drove by today.

I have a couple in my yard that were shared by Mart Allen a few years ago. They came with Poison Ivy attached, but I cured that quickly.

The invasive Tatarian Honey-suckles are in full bloom and are moving slowly our way north from Otter Lake roadsides. A few of the ornamental bushes have escaped, or have been planted as food for birds. They are pretty but will take over your yard and woods in a few years.

It’s the same story for Garlic Mustard which will replace all the wildflowers in an area when they become established. They are now in bloom.

If you look around the new Adirondack Bank parking lot you will see what it looks like as it’s everywhere. It probably came from seed in hay or straw that was used to help get the grass started.

Does will be dropping Fawns locally. Leave them alone, but that’s another story. See ya.

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Reforming welfare-benefits to work

The great welfare debate has raged for years. How do we help the needy, stop the greedy, ensure that welfare programs are accountable, and make personal responsibility our goal?

In 1996, Congress passed a welfare reform bill, replacing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Congressional action gave New York State more flexibility to transition families from welfare to work.

The state legislature enacted sweeping, historic welfare reform measures in the 1997-98 budget to bring New York State into full compliance with the federal changes.

The primary focus of welfare reform is on work rather than on eligibility for benefits. By emphasizing work over welfare and providing families with a wide array of support for those who are transitioning back into the workforce, New York State has helped record numbers of people free themselves from welfare dependency.

Welfare rolls are now at historic lows. As of March 2008, welfare recipients in New York totaled 513,388. That’s a drop of over 1 million (nearly 65%) from January 1995, when there were more than 1.6 million New Yorkers receiving public assistance.

A senate initiative signed into law makes sure that some money is exempt in calculating the amount of benefits of any household under any public assistance program. For example, the law exempts and disregards an asset up to $2,000 ($3,000 if someone in the household is 60 or older), a primary residence, and an automobile valued at up to $4,650 (or $9,300 if it is needed to seek or retain employment). This ensures that families do not have to divest themselves of everything in order to qualify for public assistance. And it keeps a car available for people to get to work.

Caring for families is important as well. In 2007, public assistance recipients whose full-time presence in the home is required because of illness or incapacity of another member of the household were exempted from the traditional work requirements. A cost of living adjustment was enacted in 2007 to increase the personal needs allowance for aged, blind, and disabled persons in residential care.

In order to emphasize the importance of access to child care for working parents, the legislature approved a measure that permits employed applicants or recipients of public assistance benefits to choose to receive child day care subsidies in lieu of benefits even if they are not working the minimum number of hours required to fulfill public assistance work requirements.

Fraud detection is key to maintaining the integrity of welfare programs, which is why the state had enacted “finger imaging”-to ensure that the person receiving benefits is legally entitled to them. The governor removed that requirement for recipients of food stamps, so the senate passed a bill to reinstate the requirement as a matter of law rather than agency rule. The bill requires social services districts to conduct automated finger imaging eligibility verification of all members of a household 18 years of age or older, including the head of household applying for or receiving food stamps, and provides for denial of food stamp benefits to households refusing to participate in the verification process. Unfortu-nately, it did not pass the assembly.

The legislature approved legislation last year to require local social services districts to emphasize training for and employment in sustainable wage jobs, and to promote understanding of nontraditional work opportunities for individuals participating in public assistance employment programs. The intent was to move recipients into careers that provide economic independence, rather than into low-wage, low-income jobs that tend to cycle recipients back into the welfare system. Sadly, the governor vetoed it.

Let’s help the needy. And let’s be sure we emphasize work as the precondition of eligibility for benefits.