7 Steps to Health & Wellness

I often tell my patients that everything we put into our body has a potential to create untoward effects. Whether it is the fast food we eat because we do not take the time to eat a well-balanced diet, the lack of water we are drinking or medications that pose the risk of significant side effects or interacting with other medications that you may already be taking. Because of this, I tend to take the minimalists approach when it comes to prescribing medication. I am judicious in the choice of medications I use in my patients and try to limit what I prescribe to only those medications that I am certain will treat the condition for which they are being seen with the least possible risk for increase in untoward effects. After all, the first rule of the Hippocratic Oath is to first do no harm. Unfortunately, with new medications, I often find myself being asked to write for prescriptions that may not be properly suited for the situation or patient at hand.

This is what I find so intriguing and refreshing about this book written by Ms. Christiansen. Her easy, step by step, explanation of breathing techniques, pressure point massage and tapping offer an almost side effect free method of improving your health regardless of what medical conditions you may have. I feel like it is a common sense approach to some well known and widely accepted alternative medicine techniques that empowers the patient to help take control of their health without adding medication and thus increasing the risk for medication induced reactions or interactions. I certainly believe alternative medicine can offer a viable alternative in conditions such as anxiety,depression, and hypertension. While, as Ms. Christiansen points out, these technique may not take the place of your medication, it is definitely an adjunct therapy which could prevent the need for additional medications in the future.

In my opinion, it would be worthwhile to learn these simple techniques to see if they benefitted you and offered a natural alternative for treating an underlying medical condition you may have before simply adding another expensive medication which could result in unwanted negative side effects or other unforeseen medical complications.

Nathan Harper, MS, APRN-CNP, Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner.