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A different kind of medicine - Mind Body Fair |
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Written by Glenn BurnSilver
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Thursday, 25 January 2007 |
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Page 1 of 3
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Heidi Muller | for NEXTnc
Michael Johnston is a partner in the Traditional Chinese Medical Clinic, 700 W. Mountain Ave., in Fort Collins.
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Michael Johnston doesn’t like the word “alternative” to be applied to his Traditional Chinese Medical Clinic.
“It’s not really an alternative. It’s complimentary, it’s integrative,” said Johnston L.A.c. “We’re trying to get away from the word alternative.”
Johnston, who is a partner at the clinic on Mountain Avenue with founder Oliver Pijoan, will be at the Colorado State University Mind-Body Fair hoping to enlighten more people about the benefits of Chinese medicine. His biggest obstacle is overcoming the skepticism of this 4,000-year-old practice in a society where Western medicine dominates.
“A lot of people don’t know what to do with Chinese medicine because of the way it has been categorized outside of China,” he said. “People don’t know where to put it. Is it physical, energetic, spiritual or is it scientific? Our Western minds tend to think in terms of categories like that. This is especially confounding for Western medical professionals. They don’t know what’s going on in a Chinese medical office. Are they practicing something that is repeatable and predictable, meaning it stands under the guidelines of the scientific method, or is it some kind of voodoo going on?”
While some traditional treatments may seem like voodoo and require the ingestion of strange herbs, remember, many Western drugs are synthesized from natural ingredients. Other forms of treatment include acupuncture, tuina (massage) and heat therapies, to name but a few. Treatments often cure beyond than the obvious symptom, Johnston said.
“I treat someone for a sore lower back, and they tell me the ringing in their ears has stopped,” he said. “They are surprised. … Because we are dealing with people on a constitutional level, people get relief for symptoms that are beyond their main complaint.”
Johnston said many treatments are more than simply taking herbs or getting acupuncture. Often wholesale lifestyles changes — part of the problem in the first place — are addressed. Chinese medicine encourages participation and commitment to break the cycle, whether it’s pain or allergy related, a digestive or gynecological problem.
“It might require a lifestyle change... to stop doing something that is aggravating the condition,” Johnston explained. “You’ve got to try it to see if it’s beneficial to you. Often times, it is people who have exhausted other sources that come to us. That’s common in our field.”
Chinese medicine was first introduced to the United States in the early 1970s following President Richard Nixon’s visit to China. Nixon traveled with several doctors who could observe Chinese medicinal practices firsthand and later invited Chinese doctors back to the states to meet with other western physicians. In 1972 acupuncture was introduced in the U.S. Though it was slow to be accepted, it is now considered an important medicinal tool.
Although Fort Collins is considered a conservative community in many aspects, Johnston said the acceptance of Chinese medicine here compares favorably to other parts of the country where he’s practiced.
“There are a high percentage of people who use complimentary integrated medicine here,” he said. “I think Fort Collins is going to be significant on the map of integrated medicine, (and) ideally we want to create a medical system that embraces all things.”
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