Intro
Hi everyone,
My name's Yaminah. I was born and raised in Oakland. I spent a lot of my youth doing political organizing, and through this work, I learned a lot and experienced some victories. However, I found that political work without a system of healing the body and mind was exhausting and failed to challenge the ways are negatively impacted by our culture. This led me to study European herbalism through books and the early internet days, and other healing methods such as meditation, yoga, Ayurveda, and curanderismo. I'm really excited to be studying Traditional Chinese Medicine alongside all of you! My hope through this education is that I can be apart of a wider group of healthcare practitioners bringing creative responses to community health.
Yaminah
Reading Response
This week's reading on doctors' use of placebo helped me reflect on the power dynamic between practitioners and patients. I find it extremely unprofessional to prescribe a medication not intended for the complaint of a patient. An estimated 84% of doctors were okay with using "impure placebos" or medication not meant for the condition their patient describes. "For instance--the use of antibiotics to treat a virus," (Walton, 2013) may assuage a patient's anxiety about getting better, but can cause serious trauma to a person's gut flora. Furthermore, using expensive pharmaceuticals means unnecessary spending for both patients and insurance companies. Many patients who are low income may choose to resort to pharmaceutical, prescribed or not, in order to not miss work. The added expense of an unnecessary prescription could really impact patients who are already struggling financially. In addition, using "impure placebos" does not encourage patients to develop the skills they need for self-care. Doctors would be better off educating their patients on how to care for themselves through diet and lifestyle to treat minor issues rather than giving them medication that may have negative side-effects.
The phenomenon of using impure placebos exposes a deep problem in our healthcare system. Doctors are rarely given enough time with their patients to really assess any underlying health problems that manifest in the symptoms the patient reports. This is true across all strata of society. However, people of color and women are frequently not believed for their complaints, especially when it comes to pain. Our healthcare model, as a country, is not based in respecting and empowering patients to understand their bodies and take responsibility for their health.
I think, however, that understanding how effective placebos can be, or at least their role in patient satisfaction, could implore healthcare practitioners to create environments cuing optimal healing. By working with patients to understand the power of their own subconscious, we could really assist them in transforming many aspects of their lives: which is a reachable goal if we approach and treat patients as the complex and whole people that they are.
Well I have never experienced that my Dr does not spend enough time with me, but this is just me ,I feel sorry that some people are thinking like this,I believe other reason can be because we are short with Dr,and that is why we are trying to hire more PA for our health care system. But you are right,I wished that was a program that let Chinese medicine Dr;s where able to work in hospitals as a prime care.
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