Reverse Osteoporosis at 80 years old??

Today, I’d like to share with you one of my favorite, unbelievable stories of health restoration.

For privacy purposes, I’ll call her Pat. Pat came to me in the late 1990’s complaining of mid and lower back pain and more importantly for her, a curved and degenerating spine that caused her blouses to look badly as they hung off her back. She had been diagnosed with scoliosis and osteoporosis 40 years earlier. She was 80 years old.

I was taught, at this age, we could help her with quality of life and slow down the degenerative process using acupuncture, but I didn’t think we could really do anything to reverse the bone loss and curvature of her spine that had started 40 years earlier. I was honest with her, and she was okay with this; her hope was to be able to get back outside and spend time in her garden without having pain or needing pain medication. She was having a problem bending due to the pain from her back, and she wasn’t comfortable taking medications every time this happened. Her solution was to just not go in her garden anymore.

After an extensive health history evaluation, a treatment plan of action was outlined. The program made sense to her and since there were no negative side-effects to worry about, she decided to give it a try.

With time and consistency and making some changes to her nutrition, Pat was feeling better using acupuncture and massage. She was initially seen 3 times a week for 2 weeks, then 2 times per week for 2 weeks, then weekly for several weeks, and then 2 times per month for several months. Eventually her maintenance plan was monthly visits.

Over the course of the 1st month, her pain continued to reduce, and she was able to get back in her garden every day! With time, her blouses started to look better, and this made such a big difference for her self-esteem!

Then, on one of her monthly visits, she came bouncing in with a big smile on her face holding an envelope.

She excitedly exclaimed to me “ My osteoporosis has reversed! My medical doctor tested me and said it’s now only osteopenia! I can’t believe it! Thank you so much! This is the only thing I’ve done differently!”

If I had not seen it myself, I would not have believed it. Really? We were able to reverse osteoporosis in an 80 year old? This surprised me as much as it did her! Wow! This medicine is unbelievable, and the body’s ability to heal, mend and repair is amazing! Who would have thought this possible? Certainly not me! But here it was, right in front of me - in black and white, in the test results! “No way!” I thought to myself, I wasn’t even working on trying to reverse that, I was just focusing on treating the imbalance diagnosis Chinese Medicine provided. Her body did the rest of the work.

Now that was early in my career, but I never forgot that day she came in with those test results.

Since then, I’ve seen many types of health conditions, both chronic and acute, difficult, and some not so complicated. Regardless of the case, I always keep Pat in mind - you never know what the body will do to rebuild and repair itself when given the right environment. You never know and I never say “never”. I like to go for the miracle, and say “why not”? Maybe it’s not probable, but I believe it’s always better for the "heart and soul" to have hope!