In John Carpenter’s 1986 film “Big Trouble in Little China,” a Chinese medicine man named Egg Shen offers up a bit of advice for Jack Burton, the hoagie eating, loud-mouthed All-American hero. “Life is like a salad bar,” Shen says. “ You take what you want and leave the rest.”
Integrative medicine, which is by and large unknown to most Americans, looks at healing the same way Shen looks at life: it cherry picks, choosing the very best from both traditional and non-traditional practices and, in doing so, aims to treat the patient as a whole person rather than merely treating their disease.
Not only are a patient’s physical ailments addressed––the broken leg, high blood pressure, or diabetes––but his or her emotional and spiritual well-being is also taken into account, considered equally as important as the body’s flesh and bone maladies.
Janis Kleinberger, Executive Director of Emerging Healthcare, a 501(C)3, has recently introduced this unique model of integrative healthcare to Pickens, with new offices on Camp Road just behind the Bargain Barn.
“We are a non-profit outreach model that is unlike anything in this area,” she said, “Unlike anything in the country, really. We are creating a network of both traditional and complementary healthcare professionals that will help empower people to take back responsibility for their own health. We want to generate positive effects for the community…Emerging Healthcare is like health and well being from the inside out. ”
Kleinberger, who has 30 years experience in human services and is certified in gerontology and reflexology, says integrative healthcare is not “alternative” or “new agey.” She says it utilizes “evidence-based” modalities such as massage, reflexology, breathing techniques, yoga, etc., which, when used in tandem with traditional medicine, maximize a patient’s potential for success.
“We give patients something they can take home with them and do themselves, from breathing techniques to conscious eating habits,” she said. “But everything, every type of treatment we use hinges on science-based research. A fully credentialed holistic RN will assess the patient. We will communicate with the patient’s regular doctor and create an individualized treatment plan.”
Critics of these complementary practices, however, argue that integrative medicine is a pseudoscientific fad driven by consumer demand and, further, that the increased amount of funding these practices are receiving is not justified by enough scientific evidence.
This year the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institute of Health, has a budget of $126 million.
According to Kleinberger and other complementary treatment proponents, however, benefits of these “gentle, non-invasive” techniques are said to reduce stress and anxiety, improve circulation, lower blood pressure, aid in pain relief, improve quality of sleep and enhance quality of life.
Suzanne Bryant, a one-time Emerging Healthcare client who now works intimately with Kleinberger and who has since been instrumental in launching the Jasper program, weighed well over 200 pounds in 2005 when she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. At that time, she took five insulin shots each day. She took a variety of prescription pills. She suffered from hyperthyroidism and slept with a breathing machine.
“I was exhausted,” she said. “I was lethargic and was mentally confused. I had a difficult time doing my daily tasks.” Traditional medicine, Bryant said, was only “treating my symptoms. But I the used conscious eating techniques at home,” she said. “It was the small things I could take with me. I would chew slowly, put my fork down when I took a bite…it’s little things like that that don’t cost any money, but do the most good,” Bryant said.
After she lost the first 40 pounds, Bryant was able to come off the nighttime breathing machine, and she no longer has to take insulin. She has lost over 100 pounds and has maintained her weight for three years. She is, quite literally, a fraction of the size she once was.
“People tell me all the time how good I look,” the thin, jovial woman said. “I tell them thanks, but it’s nothing compared to how I feel.”
Using conscious eating and other complementary techniques, Emerging Healthcare is prepared to assist individuals who suffer from chronic illness and disease and to provide support for hospice patients as well as their caregivers who “oftentimes need just as much support as the patient.” Kleinberger says the program can help those looking to create optimum health and wellness in their lives, too.
“People can come who have serious issues, or people can come in who don’t know where to go for reflexology,” Kleinberger said, who told us the ultimate goal of Emerging Healthcare is to increase access to a broad range of complementary practices, to promote wellness and prevent illness and, as a result of improved health, control the skyrocketing costs of healthcare.
“Integrative medicine offers relationship-centered care for its clients,” Kleinberger says, “and this model really deepens the experience for all parties involved. Doctors are happier because they have better patient compliance, and patients have a deeper sense of well-being.”
Vision for the community
All Emerging Healthcare clients aren’t necessarily single serve. The scope of Emerging Healthcare extends beyond the individual. Families, businesses and other groups are also included in their model of healing, Kleinberger said, and they are now in the thick of organizing with local groups and practitioners to create a “community of love and support” in Pickens.
Their practitioners are also now facilitating group sessions in the area, and Kleinberger and her team are hoping to bring educational programs and services to home and community settings, civic groups, businesses and churches.
During the last month, for example, Lori Sugarman, a children’s yoga instructor working with Emerging Healthcare, has been meeting once a week with three and four year olds at Head Start in Pickens; Kleinberger and her team have initiated a corporate wellness program with Alpha Insurance; they participated in the Big Canoe Senior Expo in which they provided reflexology and massage, and they recently provided a stress management program for the staff at First Step Healthy Families where they are also “exploring providing experiential health and wellness-related educational programs for the young families they serve,” Kleinberger said.
This week Kleinberger will conduct a training session that will include instructors of KinderMusik, yoga for seniors, psychotherapy, art, nurses, equine therapy, and tai chi, and next week she will hold an open house for practitioners and clients who want to learn about and sample natural ways to relieve stress.
“We want to restore awareness and, again, we want to instill strategies that people can use on their own. We approach healing of the mind, body and spirit by blending the best of traditional and gentle, non-invasive practices. My hopes are that we can ultimately create a community of support and care.”
If you would like to know more about Emerging Healthcare, visit www.emerginghealthcare.org, call Janis Kleinberger at 404-375-8678 or send an e-mail to Janis@emerginghealthcare.org.
The open house is Tuesday, September 29 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 95 Whitfield Drive Suite D, behind the Bargain Barn. Participants will lean about and sample ways to release stress and tension through yoga, nutrition, reflexology, nature therapy, mindful breathing, tai chi, KinderMusik, blood pressure monitoring and weight management. Healthy refreshments will be available free of charge.
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| PHOTO BY HEAD START STAFF |
| Students at Head Start in Jasper get a lesson from a children's yoga instructor who is now working with Emerging Healthcare, a local non-profit specializing in integrative health treatment. |
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