Our medical community members, while working hard and rallying all available resources to test and produce a vaccine and other drug treatments for the coronavirus, can still only recommend that anyone infected go home, and if very sick, go to the nearest emergency room. At this stage, modern medicine is at a loss to provide any hope for prevention or treatment other than the prudent sanitary practices widely discussed, and social distancing.
Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI)
The Center for Disease Control’s website (cdc.gov) clearly states on their COVIS-19 Situation Summary page, “At this time, there is no vaccine to protect against COVID-19 and no medications approved to treat it. Nonpharmaceutical interventions will be the most important response strategy to try to delay the spread of the virus and reduce the impact of disease.” In a link from that term, it goes on to say, “Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI’s) are actions, apart from getting vaccinated and taking medicine, that people and communities can take to help slow the spread of illnesses like pandemic influenza (flu). NPI’s are also known as community mitigation strategies…… Because a pandemic flu virus is new, the human population has little or no immunity against it. This allows the virus to spread quickly from person to person worldwide. NPIs are among the best ways of controlling pandemic flu when vaccines are not yet available.”
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
We in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) or health care, are in my opinion, the most effective NPI currently available for our world. Most of our methods have been available for many decades, but in the absence of pharmacological alternatives non-allopathic approaches now rise to prominence by default.
The chiropractic adjustment alone is powerful prevention and treatment, as witnessed in the U.S. during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. It is not the only one. There are also other known well-documented solutions and preventative strategies which are supported by research, that can lessen the severity and shorten the duration of a viral infection – and which could make enough of a difference to be lifesaving.
These solutions and strategies that we in the alternative health care world are talking about and employing, empower our patients and communities, and are part of a constructive approach that is far more proactive than a hide-and-hope strategy.
We present evidence-based solutions to this pandemic, can speak facts to fear, and are a source of reassurance, empowerment, and positive action for our circles of influence. In this spirit, our purpose aligns with that of our medical colleagues.
We will rise to fill the important gap left by medicine at this time (which alternative solutions have filled since before modern medicines ever existed), and we will continue to serve.
Dr. Paula Rhodes
Blue Ridge Wellness & Grant Chiropractic