Patients come to our clinic in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego seeking out acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine for many different conditions. In fact we treat patients for many different ailments on a daily basis. Chronic pain, immunological diseases and sports injury are common conditions referred to the clinic; however, there is also an increasing number of patients looking to acupuncture for depression, stress, headaches, hypertension / hyperlipidemia, metabolic and endocrine syndromes, cancer adjunct care, and even the common cold. A recent study from the U.K. shows that the consumer is searching for the most effective treatment possible for their condition and that many are finding the answers in the form of herbal medicine.
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PMID: 19942632 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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Posted:
Simply because it works better: Exploring motives for the use of medical herbalism in contemporary U.K. health care.
Complement Ther Med. 2009 October – December;17(5-6):300-308
Authors: Little CV
AIM: To clarify the reasons underlying people’s use of medical herbalism in the context of contemporary U.K. health care.
DESIGN: This qualitative, interpretative study recruited 19 adults who were consulting with registered medical herbalists in a region of southern England. Participants were interviewed about their experiences and the data were analysed thematically. Study methodology was informed by Gadamerian hermeneutic phenomenology. RESULTS: Few of the participants had initially set out to try herbalism, most looking for ‘an alternative’ to conventional health care. The main reason for exploring non-conventional options was to seek out health care that would more effectively meet their self-perceived needs in the treatment of a chronic condition. As a result of favourable outcomes from their initial treatment, participants subsequently continued to use herbalism for the management of more general, everyday health problems. CONCLUSIONS: Lay and professional ideas about what constitutes health care ‘effectiveness’ do not necessarily correspond. Participants reported that, in comparison to conventional medicine, medical herbalism satisfied their expectations of health care because it more readily met their own criteria for effectiveness and because it had greater consistency with their own understanding about health, illness and health care. Central to achieving this was the collaborative nature of the herbalist’s approach, as well as the therapeutic effect and enduring history of the herbal therapy itself. Participants were in favour of a future integrative health care system provided this did not interfere with the unique attributes of herbalism that make it distinct from conventional medicine.
PMID: 19942110 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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