How Non-Compliance Is Keeping You ill by Dr. Mark Wiley

It's a common story. People suffer pain and illness for an extended period, see a doctor or healer for help, and expect the problem to disappear without any effort on their part.

Problem is, most health issues, especially chronic ones, tend to take time and patient-effort to correct. Some of you may disagree, as one of my patients, let's call her Laura, recently did. Here's how our conversation went.

"Dr. Wiley, my migraines and fibromyalgia are so bad, and what we are doing helped for the first few weeks. How come all my pain is back," she asked.

"Did you drink enough water today?" I inquired.

"No. It's seems that I don't really like room temperature water. I've been drinking cold soda."

"Did you take your herbs and set a sleeping and waking schedule, as we discussed?"

"Well, my work hours are long, so I can't seem to find regular sleep hours. And I keep forgetting to take the herbs three times a day. Don't you have a once a day pill?"

"If you don't drink ample pure, room temperature water, and if you don't take your herbs as directed, and if you don't change your diet as suggested, and if you don't set a proper sleep/wake cycle...you're body will be unable to correct it's imbalance. And your pain and suffering will never go away." I finished with this statement: "As a healer, it is my job to educate you about your health concerns. It is my job to instruct you as to how lifestyle modifications including diet, exercise, sleep, and work habits can affect your health for the better and worse. It is my job to do what I can manually to your body and energy to assist in the healing process. However," and this was the most important part, "it is your job to help yourself. Eighty-percent of the corrective effort and healing process is in your hands, and you are responsible on a daily basis, for doing what needs to be done to change your cycle of pain into a cycle of happiness."

Her reply: "I disagree with you, Dr. Wiley! How can you expect a patient who is in pain to be able to do what you ask? We come to you for help, and we expect you to make us better. It is your job, not ours."

Her last comment leads me to the point of today's article. Non-compliance is not only a big issue; for some it is also a symptom.

When you are dealing with hardcore powerful pharma drugs, generally your pain or health issue will go away as long as you take the meds. The pain or issue may return, but if you take another pill, it will again disappear. You would think that patient compliance for Western medicine is better than that of alternative modalities. But the FDA reports that billions of dollars per year are lost in the industry by patients not filling their prescriptions.

So for the drug industry, non-compliance means loss of income. You gotta feel bad for that poor multi-billion-dollar industry. But for those individuals who seek alternative methods of treatment for their health concerns, compliance holds a more central role.

For starters, most alternative medicine practitioners do not accept insurance. So hard-earned out of pocket cash is being spent on treatment, herbs, supplements, gym memberships, etc. What's more, most alternative practices view the body as a whole system, and as such bringing the body back to wellness, back to wholeness, requires a synergistic approach. And this approach includes hands-on treatments, be they massage, acupuncture, rolfing, and also lifestyle and activities in daily living modifications, as well as diet and herbal or supplemental requirements and the carrying out of mind and/or body exercises.

And this is the central theme of the choice of treatment and the treatment method. One would think the person choosing natural methods of correcting imbalances in the body is willing and ready to do what they need to carry out the wellness protocol. But this is not always the case.

I can't tell you how many hundreds of times patients say to me "I've tried everything, and no one can help me. I did acupuncture a few times and it didn't work, I changed my diet and it didn't work, etc." Yet after questioning I find that they only attended three acupuncture treatments when the course of treatment was a minimum of ten. And that they "watched" their diet and decided they could just eat what they wanted "within reason," when in fact the dietitian was clear that specific foods be avoided and others be added.

If a person is not willing or able to carry out the directed healing approach, then how can they expect to get better from that approach?

If a patient requires a strengthening of their core muscles (abdomen, hips, low back) and are told that they absolutely must refrain from drinking caffeine and consuming dairy products. . . . there is nothing in the world I or any healer can do to make this happen.

Thus, if chronic back pain is due to weak muscles, it is only the patient who can strengthen those muscles. If the headaches are caused by too much caffeine and dairy in the diet, it is only the patient who can remove those substances from her diet. Not going to the gym and having "just one" cup of coffee with milk every day is not ok. IT'S CAUSING YOUR PAIN AND MAKING YOU SICK!

In other words, many health problems are partly (and often mostly) self-induced. This means that people cause their own problems, or at least aggravate them or do things to prevent them from being corrected.

So I found it difficult to be sympathetic to Laura from our example above, refused to do what was asked of her, yet complained she was not seeing the results she expected. Especially since for the first few weeks she did mostly what was asked of her and found relief.

With this in mind, I have learned to now ask patients a new question when I do their initial examination: "Will you do what is asked of you to help yourself correct your problem?" If not, then non-compliance becomes one of the symptoms I try to correct--mostly through patient education.

In closing, I offer some advice to people seeking alternative and holistic therapies for their health concerns. If you are willing to try something different, then be as willing to take responsibility for your own health and wellness. When you are instructed to do certain things, do them. If you don't take the advice of the wellness practitioner, then how can you expect to get better? If you don't feel better, and you have not done what is asked of you, then don't blame the practitioner or the modality. You can only blame yourself for letting yourself down.

Nobody cares about your health and feelings of wellbeing more than you do. You have to live with your health issues every day. Therefore it is only you who can "fix" them. The acupuncturist, chiropractor, massage therapist, personal trainer and dietitian are only guides offering assessment and suggestions. It is only you who can put that knowledge into practice and make a difference in your life.