Patient choice is a permutation of the theory of microeconomics that relates medical service preferences to service demand curves. The link between personal preferences, use of medical services, and the demand curve is one of the most complex relations in economics. Implicitly, economists assume that anything purchased will be consumed, unless the purchase is for integration into production. Of course, most medical care expenditures are not made for production except for those made by medical businesses. Preferences are the desires by each individual for the use of medical services or goods and services.

Chinese Medicine, classical and traditional involves a range practices originating in eastern Asia. Although well accepted throughout China and many other parts of the world, it is considered an alternative medicine. (follow hi-lited text link for more . . .)

You are what you eat, drink, breath and absorb into your system in any manner via consumption, work or ambient atmosphere in which you live. Unfortunately, whether by choice (e.g., smoking) or environmental contamination, our bodies are subject to exposure to numerous chemicals that are not healthy for us.

We can rid ourselves of some of the offending agents acutely via coughing, sneezing, the body’s excretory systems, phagocytosis (white blood cell work) and liver/bile detoxification. In the event of acute excessive exposures, there may be some medical interventions that we mey use to trap or flush a portion of the toxicants. However,  the clinical objective (and expectation) is to move these patients from toxic (and critical) to exposed, but minimally symptomatic. In most cases, only symptoms are being treated. The majority of “poisoning” by industrial toxins is not treatable and we simply attempt to avoid and minimize net exposure effects.  The effets of exposure may be completely reversibe if the body has the ability to manage the toxin and heal itself. Permanent damage follows exposure to deleterious materials in excess of our bodies’ abilities to defend themselves.

What happens if our bodies cannot effectively capture, process and discharge the offending agents? If the agent is voluminous and poisonous, you die. If the exposure is less voluminous and poisonous, with treatment you may be able to limit systemic damage. Given a minor exposure or time limited cumulative trauma, you may be able to fend off acute effects and there may be very limited organ dysfunction or change in tissues.

Regarding abnormal tissue changes, only a limited number of histopathology data types demonstrate that body tissues actually incorporate toxins into their matrices (e.g., lungs and fiber/silica/coal disease, or liver and metals). Otherwise, there is no medical evidence that the liver, brain, nerves, lungs or other tissues store the chemicals to which they are exposed, so as to make the chemicals available to be released via  appropriate agents. There is some literature support for the slow release of circulating toxins from dental amalgams.  As such, replacing old filling has resulted in neuropsychological benefits in numerous patients. However, there is no evidence that microscopic amounts of material or chemicals are bound in otherwise inactive cell vacuoles or entrapped in tissue pockets accessible by blood flow that may extract the offending agents if treated with some attractant or binding agent or if we are induced into excessive sweating or diuresis (excessive urination).

Flush yourself regularly to regulate your bowels for a healthy feeling. However, you cannot fully “detoxify” yourself via products that you consume, in which you soak or apply to your feet, or by induction of excessive perspiration or urination with or without complementary agents (e.g., niacin).

So, watch what you eat, drink, breath and absorb into your system in any manner via consumption, work and via the ambient atmosphere related to where you have chosen to live.

Pain care with medicinal agents is a common practice of western medicine. The following are common medicinal approaches. Test your familiarity with these three significant alternatives in medicinal pain management product families. Guess the product families: A, B, and C.

A – Employed as an analgesic for thousands of years, it was used in the U.S. as well, particularly for neuropathic pain, until approximately 70 years ago. Modern research has demonstrated a scientific basis for the efficacy of synthetic and natural derivatives in pain management based on traditional chemical receptor pathways, both centrally (at the brain) and peripherally (hands, feet). Vaporization of the products allows delivery of the active chemicals at healthier temperatures. However, the development of vaporization technology has been hampered in its development by law. Additional positive health effects have been recognized regarding depression, anxiety, spasticity, tremor, nausea and anorexia to name a few. Excessive euphoria, controlled by behavioral dosing adjustments, is the recognized adverse reaction.

B – A family of products with a common plant ancestry. There are numerous formulations, for immediate and delayed effects, with numerous routes of administration. Used for moderate to severe acute and chronic pain. The range of products allows for ever evolving bioequivalent dose escalation as needed, of course with increased risk of adverse effects. The common side effects seen with these products are sedation, respiratory depression, nausea, and constipation and itching. They may cause pulmonary edema, coma, cardiac and/or respiratory failure.

C – A broad group of products having similar functional characteristics and tolerability. There is little difference in clinical efficacy among these products at equivalent dosing. These are used for treatment of acute or chronic conditions where pain and inflammation are present. The primary adverse effects are the tendency to irritate the gastrointestinal tract (nausea, ulceration, and diarrhea) and their toxicity to the kidneys. They also increase the risk for aggravating hypertension and inducing heart attack in long term, high dose product users.

As an educated consumer, you should know about your product options and their effectiveness and side effects. Read beyond this brief article and increase your familiarity with these three significant choices and numerous others in the armories of alternatives in pain management.

A – cannabanoids , B – opiates, C – NSAIDs.