Reflecting upon the events of this week, I think the message I want to go into the weekend with is this: Chronic disease and the connectivity between issues.

A patient of mine these last three weeks has been struggling with a severe acute problem with her TMJs. She felt that she dislocated her joint while eating and from that day froward has been in excruciating pain. A lot of issues arose from this experience. Whereas another person would just look into the problem feeling very confident that the problem would be solved, a person having had a chronic disease of course fears that this will be another chronic disease. IT does not matter how much that may not be true, the fear is there. This fear pervades the conciousness and very much affects that person's relationships. In this case this week, it really affected not only her, but her whole family, especially her relationship with her husband.

She went to a few different doctors and not suprisingly received a few different opinions. This only added to the fear, because when someone has gone through the experience of IC, in most cases, trust for medical opinions is shattered.

When she asked me my advice, I explained that again, the body is connected from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. There is no separating this connectivity. In Western medical terms there is no connection between the TMJs and the urinary bladder, but, in Chinese medicine, there is. Using these connections will allow a practitioner of Chinese medicine to treat this condition consistently with the rest of the body and not separately or AGAINST the condition of the body.

My patient was told to take anti-inflammatories to calm down the inflammation, advice that is logical and responsible. However, a doctor not understanding the underlying mechanisms of IC does not correlate the damage that can be done to a patient such as this with that class of medication.

If she heeds that advice, all of the progress that she has made with her IC and vulvadyia will be at severe risk, and will almost surely return by the time her TMJ pain has been effectively treated with the anti-inflammatory medication--and, the cycle would continue.

I recommended acupuncture for this patient and supplentation consistent with the patterning of imbalance she has been challenged with in her body at present. This will treat the TMJ problem in a consistent manner with her IC and vulvadynia and not place one treatment at risk for the other. It will actually be treating her body's problems as different extensions of the same pathology. This is the beauty of an alternative approach to health.

I want to reitterate that I am not anti-Western medicine at all. Both Western and alternative medicines of all kinds have their place--but alternative medicines should find their place with pateints with chronic conditions. This is where natural holistic approaches to the human body shine.

I wish you all a great weekend filled with positive thinking.

Dr.B