By Guest Blogger on March 21, 2012

Top 10 Tips (I Wish I Had Known) for Evaluating Integrative and Holistic Health Care Providers

When I began my journey with a brain tumor at the age of 24, I knew nothing about cancer or how to choose quality integrative and holistic health care providers. After two awake brain surgeries in 1998 and 2011, four major integrative cancer care protocols and countless other therapies and providers, my experiences have taught me ways to navigate and make better choices. Some episodes and chapters have not been easy, yet I see challenges and crisis as opportunities to learn and grow.

I wish I had known more almost 14 years ago when I started this journey. At times I haven’t chosen quality health providers, but over the years, I learned to better assess, make choices and re-evaluate.

How can you evaluate an integrative and holistic health care provider? Consider using these tips to make the best decisions. Some providers who work with cancer patients do not need training for the disease type. That’s why these tips apply to a range of integrative and holistic health care providers useful for people with and without cancer.

1. Qualifications and Experience
Know who you are with and where they came from. What is their degree, certification, length of training, time in practice, number of patients treated, and most importantly, why did they choose their field?

2. Success
What have been their results with the number of patients they’ve treated? What is their definition of their treatment success and how does that compare with your definition? Make sure you are given accurate information from a provider with integrity. Be clear to avoid any confusion later.

3. Passion vs. Substance
What is the methodology and foundation for their practice? Providers sometimes express more passion about their work versus substance. This may cloud a therapeutic relationship, including a patient’s ability to know the value of the treatments.

4. Study Results & Evidence-Based Medicine
How many research studies evaluated treatments used by the provider? What are the results? Ask the provider and also look for published studies. Seek providers offering evidence-based medicine that combines research results with the provider’s clinical expertise as well as patient values and expectations. Know that while this applies to many high-tech integrative and holistic health providers, some low-touch therapies are not evaluated through studies for many reasons, including the cost of clinical trials.

5. Individualized & Patient-Centered Care
Do they treat patients as individuals and give customized care, or is it general knowledge and one-size fits all? Is their attitude “my way, or the highway”? Does the provider support and guide you to self-care and decision-making? Do they provide patient-centered care? Find providers with these essential holistic and integrative health care components.

6. Integrity, Consistency, & Reliability
Are they consistent in what they say and do, or do they continually suggest new experimental therapies without any positive study results? Do they walk their talk? Are they available outside of appointment times in case of an emergency?

7. Empowerment
Is the provider empowering and guiding you to find power and wisdom within, or do they want you to rely on them fully? True healers teach and inspire people to become their own healers.

8. Finances
Are the provider’s fees appropriate to their qualifications and services? Providers must earn a living, but many therapies are not covered by insurance and then paid out of pocket. Take the time upfront to ask questions about money so you can make a fully informed decision.

9. Boundaries
Is the provider appropriately leaving their private life outside of the treatment room? Appropriate boundaries between providers and patients must be established and maintained so that your needs are the focus of this therapeutic relationship.

10. Trust Yourself
Does the provider and treatment feel right to you? Trust your intuition and instinct! Moving on is better than staying with a provider and continuing a treatment that is not conducive to your health and healing.

Only choose and work with integrative and holistic health care providers that offer high quality service. Consider using these important tips now and in the future to help you advocate and make the best decisions for yourself. Cancer patients and caregivers also benefit from over 100 questions for evaluating integrative, holistic, and conventional cancer treatments and providers.

How will you better evaluate an integrative and holistic health care provider?

Jeannine Walston is co-founder and Executive Director of EmbodiWorks, a non-profit organization that provides integrative cancer care education and advocacy supporting whole person health and healing to reduce cancer risk, improve cancer related survival, and quality of life. Jeannine is a cancer survivor with extensive experience in cancer education and advocacy, health care policy, and both conventional and integrative cancer care through work in the U.S. Congress, government agencies, cancer non-profit organizations, and health care practices.

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By Neal Barnard, MD on February 1, 2010

Rush Limbaugh Should Be More Conservative

Meatless Monday is the perfect day to take a look at the connection between our health and diet. Read on to learn more about the state of America’s health and Neal Barnard, MD’s prescription for wellness.

Rush Limbaugh was rushed to a Hawaii hospital in late December, reportedly suffering from severe chest pains. The concern was a possible heart attack, but fortunately, tests showed no such problem.

This health scare should still be a wake-up call. As a doctor, I’m offering one bit of advice, not just to Rush, but to all Americans: We need to be more conservative. As conservative as possible, in fact.

With our diets, that is. Many Americans are far too liberal with their servings of meat, dairy products, eggs, and other less-than-healthy foods. And they are getting more so with each passing year. Per capita annual meat intake has risen roughly 70 pounds in the last century, and cheese intake has jumped by nearly 30 pounds in the same time period.

This huge load of cholesterol, fat, and calories has fueled epidemics of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems. And these diseases are taxing our health care system like never before. As a nation, we now spend $147 billion on obesity-related medical costs every year. During these tough economic times, we should be tightening our belts. But let’s face it: Our belts are rapidly moving in the opposite direction.

In our grandparents’ day, people knew the value of humble beans, vegetables, and fruits, often growing them in their own family gardens. These foods have essentially no cholesterol and very little saturated fat. It pays to give them renewed respect. Indeed, people who stick to an entirely plant-based diet, as part of an overall healthy lifestyle, can do more than just prevent heart disease; they can actually reverse it, as was demonstrated in the now-classic studies of Dean Ornish, M.D.

A plant-based diet can also help you slim down, improve diabetes and hypertension, and feel like yourself again. It can also fight some types of cancer. Fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants and other nutrients that boost the immune system. And fiber-rich vegan diets help quickly flush carcinogens and other toxins from the body.

The only good thing about a health scare is that it reminds us how important our diets and lifestyles are to our well-beings. It’s time to trade our cheeseburgers for veggie burgers, beef tacos for bean burritos, and remote controls for tennis shoes. Yes, that’s my prescription for Rush—but it’s also my prescription for us all.

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