Ramesh Kumar, MD, trained at Harvard Medical School in Medical Acupuncture is a Board Certified Physician, passionate about a Holistic Approach to Healing.
Integrative Patient Care: Combining Evidence Based Medical Acupuncture with Modern Medicine to improve Healing and Outcomes.
I have been a Physician helping cancer patients and running a successful practice in Florida for over 18 years.
As more advanced technologies became available, what was being forgotten by many of us in the Medical Profession was the ability to listen to patients and help their pain and suffering. The only solution that we could come up with was more potent medications at higher doses many times associated with unpleasant side-effects.
A reasonable solution appeared impossible, until an email arrived from Harvard Medical School
asking me if I would be interested in enrolling in a training program on Medical Acupuncture for Physicians. The process was highly selective, time-consuming and expensive. My first response was to consider it as "junk" mail and put it in the trash box. I placed it aside and after much thought decided to take the plunge.
The training was eye opening. It was like learning a new language. It was exciting, watching the amazing results that could be achieved by the precise placement of these tiny needles to maximize pain control and help a host of medical conditions. Very often, the patients felt better nearly immediately.
Bringing this into my medical practice, an early example of success related to one of my patients. Her name is MJ, an 85-year-old woman with breast cancer spread to multiple areas. She is one of the bravest and resilient patients that I have ever taken care of. She is in pain, level 10/10, on palliative chemotherapy and radiation. She comes into the office in a wheelchair with a small bucket in her lap ready to vomit at any time. She was on adequate amounts of medication, despite which the pain and nausea persisted. The conventional options to try next: increase the dose of drugs or switch drugs. Both of these had bleak consequences, unable to truly help the patient in a meaningful way.
I asked her permission to try acupuncture. I find two areas on her abdomen that required attention. A small acupuncture needle in the foot and another in the elbow is all it takes to relieve her pain from a level 10 to a level 1. It takes 10 minutes for her to feel a sense of overwhelming relief from her nausea. She and her caretaker begin to cry, feeling a sense of joy she didn’t anticipate in her doctor’s visit. I share in the intensity of their joy, tears welling in my eyes, knowing I was completing the work I had always intended to do in alleviating suffering and improving quality of life. She pushes the wheelchair away, puts the bucket aside and is able to walk out on her own. No pain, no nausea. Her Medical Oncologist is as surprised as anyone else at the changes that were created by just two needles.
This was the turning point when I realized the immense capability that Acupuncture could offer our patients.
Upon reflection, I contrasted the "magic" of using needles with what modern technology has evolved into today and the consequences of each.
Most practitioners of modern medicine have a deep mistrust of “Alternative Medicine”, (as I was for over the past 20 years) and believe that everything should stand the test of “randomized, placebo controlled, peer reviewed blah blah blah. Personalized care, genomic medicine, pharmacogenomics, etc. have a huge place in our ability to come up with solutions for the welfare of humanity.
But, I realized, that it can only go so far.
On the other hand, practitioners of “Alternative Medicine” are in the camp of those paranoid of modern medicine. Blaming what ails us on big pharma, the bad insurance companies, our broken healthcare system, ACA etc. The rise of Naturopathy, the Antivaxer movement, Homeopathy, etc depends on Ancient wisdom combined with what many call “pseudoscience”.
But, this too, can only take the patient so far.
Lost in this battle between these two areas is Better Patient Care, i.e.: What helps my patient who has come to me for help no matter where that knowledge comes from as long as we know that it works.
As I learned from my experience discussed above, the secret is to create a powerful combination of modern medicine with ancient wisdom.
Several prominent academic medical centers around the country are recognizing the value of Integrative Medicine and have incorporated Acupuncture in their patient care management.
I am happy to see that more and more skeptical physicians and patients are beginning to open their minds on the benefits of Acupuncture and joining the revolution to improve patient care.
Looking back, I am glad that I did not trash the email from Harvard Medical School. The feedback that I get from my patients after their Acupuncture sessions and the amazing results that they experience is truly rewarding.
We are dedicated to helping improve the Physical, Lifestyle and Emotional needs of Patients as well as Alleviate their Pain and Suffering by combining the best of Modern Medicine and Science based Medical Acupuncture.
Acupuncture, Moxibustion, Electro-Acupuncture, Laser Acupuncture.
