Your Health Care Dollars
We are all very alert to where our money has to go these days. More and more people are experiencing financial stress, and anxiety about how to spend limited resources is higher than ever in the memories of many of us. I recently responded to an email from a young man who was trying to decide whether to invest in a doctor/patient relationship with me, versus following the recommendations published in one of the many ‘health guru’ books on the market. His concerns about how best to spend his health care dollars are very legitimate. Here is an edited version of my reply to him:
“Dear __________,
I usually can’t spend too much time answering questions by email before people have committed to working with me– I bet you can imagine I’d be answering questions all day, and never getting to work that helps me pay my bills! But I also understand this commitment is a big one, and that you’d want to have as much info as you can first.
Hopefully you have visited my website, www.drnandunne.com. That will tell you a lot, as well as give you a feel for how I work. Although I have written a book, on a specific health condition that effects women, in general for most people, I am certain that an in-person relationship with your doctor is always a better choice. There is a key feature that makes me a much more valuable resource to help you with health care decisions than someone who just borrows what other people are researching and practicing, and puts it together in a book with his/her name on it. I have been actually DOING this work, with thousands of people, as a midwife, a RN and now a physician and therapist, for 30 years.
I KNOW what works, because I have seen what works, and my training in how to help actual human beings make information work for them in their everyday real lives is a much deeper knowledge base than researching and authoring. In fact, some of what the health gurus write about is good stuff, and frankly, some of it isn’t. Some of it just perpetuates old myths that we know are not true. And, most importantly, what is right and good for one person will not work for another.
That’s the problem with getting your health care out of books. We are all in unique circumstances. And one size does not fit all. What I can do is make your efforts, and the money you spend, be very very efficient. I can help you not waste time money and effort on paths that may not be the best way to where you want to go. For instance, there is no such thing, really, as a ‘whole body cleanse”. The different tissues and organ system have different requirements, and I am able to help a person understand the optimal way to address toxins in their systems.
I have not heard of the product line you have asked me about. Please read go to my website to get my take on products and how I can be most useful to you in that arena: www.drnandunne.com/products.html. I’ll be happy to meet with you and help you sort through your health concerns.”
Those of you who want to incorporate natural medicine into your wellness stratgey probably have experienced conventional practitioners who are not able to be really useful to you in that regard. That’s really quite fair. Their expertise is extremely valuable, and they provide what we need within their medical specialty. Although it can be very frustrating to not be able to find a one-stop shop when it comes to health care, in fact there is just so much to know, and it legitimately takes years and thousands of encounters to validate and enrich a practitioner’s experience. There is really the only way to master one’s work, and that is through hands on experience. Books don’t get you that nor does seking it from a related but not dedicated source.
You, the consumer, are best off creating a team for your health care. You are the leader of the team, and all the reading and educating and alert attention to self-knowledge you bring to the table is essential to have the best care. The rest of the people at the table will depend on your specific needs and also what’s available. Hopefully you can find a licensable naturopathic physician t work with. NDs are the most sensible keystone of your health care team. Trained as primary care physicians with specialization in natural therapies, a ND can help you get what you need the most from our health care system by showing you how to select when self-care is appropriate as well as when professional expertise to your unique circumstance is in your best interest. A licensable naturopathic physician with a rich referral netwrok in your local healh care community is a real treasure. Go to www.naturopathic.org, and check out the Find A ND feature to see who is in your neighborhood.
All best wishes for the beautiful New Year!
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
