Wellness

Overview

“Health insurance has as much to do with being healthy as life insurance has to do with being alive. If you rely on an insurance company’s recommended plan for your healthcare needs, we hope you have good life insurance.” -Anonymous

What if you went to a dentist only when your teeth hurt? What if you changed your car’s oil only when you heard the engine making noise? This is referred to as “damage control.” Everyone knows that damage control is much more painful and expensive than regular maintenance. This is why we get dental checkups and oil changes. It is our goal to help our patients abandon the prevailing model of sickness care management – waiting for symptoms and then taking action. The emerging model of wellness care seeks to avoid damage control with regular health maintenance.

Many conditions cause symptoms which are then classified into treatment categories. For instance, a common viral infection causes coughing and nasal congestion – symptoms that would be treated by antihistamines and decongestant drugs. This approach is something to which we are all accustomed, but the underlying problem in this example is a weakness in the body’s immune system. Coughing and nasal congestion are then listed as symptoms and treated accordingly by chemical drugs. Strengthening the immune system is often not considered.

Likewise, a patient may be diagnosed with a migraine after going to the doctor for frequent headaches. The patient presented with headache and was given a diagnosis of…”pain in the head.” Not only is this counterproductive, but the underlying cause of the headache has still not been addressed such as chemical toxicity, vitamin deficiency, or brain imbalance.