BY RACHEL LELAND
What else?
By the numbers
In their own words
Earl F. Hendrikz, D.C., the founder and executive director of Clear Lake Integrative Medicine, said gaps in chronic care fuel patients to seek holistic or integrative care outside the limits of mainstream medicine. “A lot of patients don’t get presented with alternatives,” Hendrikz said. “They go to the MD, and he says, ‘Well, you can start injections, or you can have surgery, or you live with it.’” Hendrikz has an integrative practice in partnership with a nurse practitioner to provide “multidisciplinary care,” combining rehabilitation, manual therapy and stem cell injections. In Texas, for a person who is not a doctor to provide injectable medicine, they must be a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant who has been given prescriptive authority, said Texas Medical Board President Dr. Sherif Z. Zaafran.
CDC data shows women ages 18-44 report the highest rates of chronic fatigue, a symptom frequently linked to chronic health conditions.
“People are somewhat mistrustful of [standard medicine] ... and I think people are [trying] to nd their own ways of healing.” JENNIFER THORPE MCCOVERY, C.N.M., W.H.N.P., OWNER OF L’MAISON LUXE MED SPA AND WELLNESS
Ages
18-44 45-64 65+
Total
20% 25% 15% 10% 5%
0 Both sexes
Men
Women
SOURCE: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION COMMUNITY IMPACT
“We don’t stop physicians from prescribing therapy that is not FDA-approved, but we do require … consent for what we call complementary and alternative
Galveston and Harris counties are faring slightly better than the average county in Texas for Population Health and Well-being, and slightly better than the average county in the nation.
therapy [to] be actually done so that a patient … is clear from a transparency standpoint.” DR. SHERIF Z. ZAAFRAN, TEXAS MEDICAL BOARD
Galveston County Harris County
Least healthy in US
Healthiest in US
State average
National average
SOURCE: COUNTY HEALTH RANKINGS COMMUNITY IMPACT
THE MOST
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