Table of contents
Share Post
With a Master’s Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Pacific College of Health and Science, and internship programs at Nanjing and Chengdu University Of Chinese Medicine, Frank Caruso has provided premier-level acupuncture in Cleveland since 2005. His clinical background includes 20 years in private practice, 7 years with the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Integrative Medicine, while also serving Veterans through the VA.
Through the years, Frank primarily treated pain disorders of the low back, neck and shoulder, along with feet neuropathy, and acute sports injuries. While Frank also sees other conditions, such as anxiety, migraines, arthritis, menstrual disorders and infertility, his 20+ years experience has been disproportionately in the area of pain management. In the west, it is not uncommon to see large portions of the patients struggling with what Frank sees as a consequence of over treatment, such as excessive use of oral prednisone and cortisone injections, off-label prescriptions of a variety of drugs to treat unremitting pain like anticonvulsants, antidepressants and muscle relaxers, all of which may help temporarily, but carry heavy side effects and create addiction, and in the end the condition worsens simply because the underlying issue was never fully addressed. And why would it not be fully addressed? Because many pain conditions are not fully understood. A common phrase uttered by patients is, “They just want to put a bandaid on it.”
Along with the above-mentioned treatment regimens, many patients have undergone extensive visits to chiropractic, physical therapy, and other “natural health” practitioners and yet continue to suffer from chronic pain. Frank has come to see that oftentimes, it is not despite the many treatments patients have had and they aren’t improving, but rather it is because of this merry go round of disparate treatment approaches. Frank’s goal is to provide the patient at this stage of their journey, not with a new diagnosis, but rather a deeper understanding of their condition.
Take low back pain for example, diagnoses such bulging disc or sciatica, pinched nerve, arthritis, or an out-of-alignment spine are never the “cause”, but rather a consequence of a combination of factors, all of which have led to such diagnoses. In this example, Frank first takes an occupational therapy approach, discussing with patients the possible mechanisms by which their low back pain likely originated, e.g. improper bending, always lifting with the low back and not the hips and quads, excessive chair slouching, and a combination of all of these movements. One’s low back issue can be made worse through excessive stretching therapies. Patients comment all the time that although stretching makes the back feel better for maybe 5 minutes, the pain consistently returns with a vengeance. Thus it is absolutely necessary for the patient to understand the why and not the what. Meaning, we have to answer the question as to why poor lumbar movements and ill-advised stretching may lead to the what: facet hypertrophy, or nerve-root impingement, or spondylosis, or any of the other 100+ possible ICD-10 diagnoses a patient will get labeled with. The standard approach is that patients are diagnosed, prescribed a drug, given a handout with stretches either by the doctor or a PT, and then sent on their way. It is not surprising that another common phrase heard by Frank from his patients is, “You are my last hope.”
Frank consistently follows the regime of patient education—getting them to make the postural modifications in their life, followed then by a targeted treatment protocol using acupuncture needling at all essential body-part locations, and when called for specific exercises to help the patient on the path to taking control of their pain.
For Frank’s educational background please click here
We’re at a time in healthcare where pharmaceutical intervention is at an all-time high; we pay more for it than ever yet outcome trends continue to decline. The mind-set that drugs, invasive procedures and costly diagnostics are the path to wellbeing has worn thin on the patient. They know that more medications are not the answer. Meanwhile, the alternative medicine field is peppered with those with little or no medical training offering dubious therapies. Many patients come to me because they know instinctively that somehow their body, with the right prompting, can begin to heal and self correct. (In biomedicine it’s called homeostasis.) I meet many patients in this state of wanting something more, something different. Yet as an alternative medicine practitioner it is vital that my patients know that, one, I have extensive training and am thoroughly credentialed, and two, they trust that I am not out to take financial advantage of their desperate state.