Wellness and prevention | Columnists | heraldstandard.com – Uniontown Herald Standard

Nearly a decade ago I was discussing future strategic initiatives with the CEO of a New Jersey-based multibillion-dollar health system. A few minutes into the conversation, he looked at me and said, The future of health care in this country is in Wellness and Prevention through Integrative Medicine. We went on to work together to build a philanthropy generated multimillion-dollar integrative medicine center as the crowning jewel of that health system.

One of my dreams from that point forward had been to create an affordable educational program that would expose participating practitioners to hands-on wellness and prevention practices, a program designed by an organization which we then co-founded, the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine (AIHM). We would use actual hands-on practitioners as instructors to make such a program functional and affordable for those health-care providers who would go on to be board certified in these practices.

As a former hospital administrator who had introduced integrative medicine to our hospital back in the late 90s, my exposure to the remarkable attributes that can be credited to these efforts to keep people healthy confirmed its importance to the me. All those years ago, it was evident to me that the future of health care in the United States would work much better with a system rooted in wellness and prevention. These practices could improve the health of our population as a whole as it gets to root cause, is evidence-based, and addresses the whole person.

The problem with wellness and prevention techniques is that the insurance companies still do not adequately fund these types of initiatives. If there was any doubt that there are massive health disparities in this country, one simply needs to look at the details of the COVID deaths among those who are marginated, out of shape, uninsured, and uninformed.

Its logical that health systems across the country will be under pressure to contribute more meaningfully to the health of the population they serve. In order to remain competitive, more health systems will also need to consider wellness and prevention as a means of doing this.

There was an interesting example of the power of the mind in an article which published results of a study that appeared in the British medical journal, The Lancet, regarding the use of heart stents to ease chest pain. According to the article, more than 790,000 people have heart attacks each year and stenting is the primary treatment for these incidents. These heart events result in more than 500,000 heart patients worldwide having stents inserted each year.

This new study presented data that was described as stunning to top cardiologists both across the United States and internationally. In the study, some patients received stents and others did not. They literally were given fake stent procedures. When the patients were tested six weeks post-surgery, both sets of patients said they had less chest pain, plus they also did better on their treadmill tests.

One of the observations made was that these outcomes might have been the result of a placebo effect. Without getting into the ethical or financial implications of this single study, it provides another indication that integrative medicine might be the first line of defense for the patient. Diet, exercise, stress management, and positive social support are all proven elements of care that can literally produce a reversal of heart disease without invasive intervention.

As the recipient of seven stents, five of which were because my first two stents were not medically coated, I can honestly say that, if youre having chest pains, eating a salad is not as calming as having a procedure that immediately allows increased blood flow. The other side of this tale, however, is if we exercise, cut back on the consumption of saturated fats, and find ways to reduce our stress, we can develop and grow collateral blood vessels that may bypass our blockages naturally.

Nick Jacobs of Windber is a Senior Partner with Senior Management Resources and author of the blog healinghospitals.com.

Read more from the original source:
Wellness and prevention | Columnists | heraldstandard.com - Uniontown Herald Standard