HOUGHTON, Michigan (March 26, 2014) – Health care providers at Aspirus Houghton Clinic offer patients a holistic approach to wellness that includes acupuncture as a complementary therapy to many health conditions.
Family Nurse Practitioner Joan Suits is professionally trained in medical acupuncture, an alternative procedure used to alleviate conditions including women’s health issues, musculo-skeletal conditions and injuries, stress and anxiety, immune function, and digestive problems. For many patients, acupuncture has proven an effective tool in kicking the smoking habit.
Acupuncture involves inserting needles into the skin at specific points to stimulate the body’s natural ability to heal. Electrical stimulation may be used to further enhance the effects.
“According to Chinese medicine it is believed that acupuncture involves normalizing the energy flow in the body,” Suits said. “It works with the body. It activates the body’s own healing mechanisms to heal itself.”
Suits provides both body and ear, or auricular, acupuncture. A majority of her patients are chronic back pain sufferers, caused by an existing health condition, such as sciatica, or an accident. For many patients, acupuncture is the light at the end of the tunnel.
“I’ve had patients walk out of here in tears because it’s the first time they haven’t been in pain,” she said. “That is always gratifying.”
In addition to providing acupuncture and total family care for patients of all ages, Suits specializes in comprehensive diabetes care. Personalized care includes diabetes education, diagnosis, treatment, management and support services.
Patients also have access to medication checks, A1C blood sugar monitoring, foot checks, and blood sugar reviews.
“Early diagnosis and treatment helps to prevent complications such as nerve damage, loss of vision, loss of kidney function, heart disease, stroke and heart attack,” Suits said. “Oftentimes patients can’t feel the onset of pain because of nerve damage.”
Suits takes an individualized approach to diabetes management, providing the tools patients need to live a full, healthy life. As an extension of the Laurium clinic’s diabetes management program and foot clinic, patients have access to full-service care.
“I do a lot of their initial education – explaining what the disease is and what can happen if we don’t treat it now,” Suits said. “We talk about treatment options, too. That includes things they can do on their own and lifestyle changes they can make to help manage their diabetes.”
According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes affects 25.8 million children and adults in the United States. The earlier the condition is detected and treated, the better the outcomes.
“What I like to tell my patients is, ‘There’s always a strategy so we can always make the best of where you are now,’” she said.