Make Your Healthcare a Worthwhile Investment

Right now is not the time you want to have a health issue.  Right now it does not sound like a fun idea to wait 2 hours in a doctor's office to be seen for 5 minutes and be charged around $150 for a barely-there exam.  As a small business owner, you do not want to spend unnecessary funds or waste hours of your day.  So what do you do if your neck tweaked when you woke up and you can't meet a new client with your head perma-tilted to the left ?  What if you've had the same irritating tension headache for days and it's becoming a drain on your ability to work?  If you are like most people, you want to see if it will "just go away" before you spend this month's car payment on a doctor bill.  Welcome to the club!  I'm lucky enough to have my own connections for muscle and joint injuries, but I'm about the last person that wants to sit in a waiting room with a cough to be told it's just a virus and that I just need to wait it out.  2 hours and nearly $200 later, I kick myself for being paranoid and wasting an entire morning.  I too understand the beautiful idea of waiting for something to go away. 

With nearly 4 years of experience treating patients I've heard a ton of reasons for avoiding treatment. I'll even admit I share some of the same reasoning for not seeking medical care.   

There is a breaking point, however.  You simply cannot wait weeks to be able to move your neck to the right, or "hope" that your laryngitis clears up by the time you have a conference call.  You need to take care of health issues that are distracting or preventing you from working.  You cannot wait to get treated, but you can choose a medical provider that is worth your time AND money.  You have options.  You do not have to spend hours in a waiting room, agonizing over all the things you could and should be doing for your business.  As opposed to the traditional care from a Medical Doctor (M.D.), termed an "allopathic" physician, you may see greater value in visiting several types of "alternative" health care professionals. 

Obviously I encourage you to visit a chiropractor for any body-ache problem.  It is my trade.  And because I am biased, I have included a compelling list of reasons why you should also be considering chiropractic care.

• We can tell you exactly whether it is muscle, joint, nerve, or bone pain.  Heck, we spend 4 years learning the intricate differences between each one of those.  We are the closest you will get to an orthopedic specialist M.D. as far as diagnosis goes.  This saves you time and money because normally you have to pay for 2 separate visits to see A) a General MD to get a referral to visit B) an orthopedic or neurological specialist.

• Recent graduates spend at least 9 quarters in school learning how to read X-rays, CTs and MRIs, and when to order each test.  This saves you time and money from visiting a General M.D. and paying for a Radiologist as well. 

• Our initial examinations range in price, but generally cost you around $50-100 LESS than a trip to the M.D. (reference my biznik page for my price list)

• Our treatments are quick, effective and often only take 15 minutes per session.  I don't know anyone who is too busy to spend 15 minutes in a day to improve their comfort levels, mental clarity, and concentration.

• Once we examine you, we physically treat the problem.  We can't prescribe medications.  But for the most part, medications don't actually heal anything (and often cause work-haulting side-effects).  Medications are meant to decrease swelling, stop your brain from registering pain and forcefully stop muscles from working.  These can help short term, but are not meant to be long-term solutions.  We save you time and money by correcting the problem at the source rather than stifling the issue with a "band-aid" solution.

For pretty much every symptom other than body pain, I refer out to a naturopathic doctor (N.D.).  The list of reasons to choose an N.D. over an M.D. is also fairly lengthy.

• At your first visit to a naturopathic doctor, you will spend between 1 and 2 hours...WITH the doctor.  An in-depth discussion of your symptoms, an examination, and options for care will be covered in your one-to-one office visit.  The incredible value of having THE doctor spend the entire time with you translates into more effective treatments and fewer days of illness.

• Naturopaths are trained in natural remedies AND traditional medical remedies.  They can prescribe both types of medicine and can carefully monitor the interactions of both, saving you from unnecessary and expensive prescriptions.

• According to the website for Bastyr (www.bastyrcenter.org), the highly-respected local naturopathic school, "The scope of practice for naturopathic medicine includes all aspects of preventative and natural health for your family, from pediatrics to geriatrics. Naturopathic doctors can help patients with ailments such as colds and flus, injuries and sleep disorders, as well as with more chronic health concerns such as arthritis and chronic pain, allergies and asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, fatigue, depression, fibromyalgia, digestive disorders..." and the list continues.  These doctors save you time by using body-wide comprehensive treatment regimens.

If you have tried the above options with no luck, or you just want something completely off the traditional medical model, look to acupuncture.  The basis of acupuncture is an energy force known as qi (roughly pronounced "chee"). A person's health is influenced by the flow of this energy, or qi, in the body. If the flow of qi is insufficient, unbalanced or interrupted, illness may occur.  Illness may include pain, allergies/asthma, fatigue, sleep disorders, infertility, arthritis, PMS, digestive disorders, addictions and much more.  Reasons to try out acupuncture include:

• Initial intakes lead to addressing multiple problems that are linked in eastern medicine but may not be connected in western medicine.  This equates to saving you the time and hassle of meeting with many different specialists for seemingly unconnected symptoms.

• Mental/emotional stresses are typically treated at the same time as physical symptoms.  This is the perfect example of a 2-for-1 purchase!

I really do understand if you are avoiding a doctor's office because you are busy.  Time is money.  The problem with avoiding treatment and waiting for ailments to magically go away is that you often compromise your ability to work effectively.  And the longer you let symptoms go on, the longer it usually takes to correct the problem.  Do yourself and your business a favor and get healthy!  The healthier you are, the better you can be at running your business.  And with the options I have just given you, you are bound to find the right combination of health care providers for your ailment.  In fact, you can even use Biznik as your tool to locate providers and special offers within your community.