Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 8, 1 ʻAukake 2000 — Building a local wellness center with complementary medicine [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Building a local wellness center with complementary medicine

B y Caitriona Kearns CHIR0PRACT0R J0N HO grew up in the same neighborhood where he now has an office, on Kīlauea Avenue opposite Kāhala Mall. After 18 years in practice on the mainland, he accepted his father's suggestion that it was time for him to eome home to Hawai'i. He left a lucrative personal injury business because, he said, it bored him and instead decided to put his energy into a new holistic approach for Hawai'i. Ho said his practice today is about complementary and alternative care. "I use holistic principles to help people. I run a wellness practice of sorts. It is preventive health care, taking people and improving their health, and letting them restore themselves naturally. When I talk about holistic principles, I mean going back to nature," he said. "We are integrating elinieal nutrition, diet, Ufestyles and other changes. We try to get healthy people off medications by enhancing their wellness, letting them return to a natural state, whieh is a healthy state." Two years ago, the Offi.ce of Hawaiian Affairs' Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan

Fund gave Ho a business loan to help set up his new practice. "I developed newsletters and distributed them as inserts in the Honolulu Advertiser and Star-Bulletin, whieh got huge coverage, and they really worked," Ho said. Most

of his business now, comes from referrals. 'The idea is to get my patients well as soon as possible," he said. "Onee they are well, they go out and tell someone else." Half of Ho's practice is elderly. And he has many Hawaiian patients including some who travel from Kaua'i to see him.

The challenge he faces in caring for the Hawaiian community is complicated by the complexity of the diseases he sees. "Hawaiians have three big illnesses: Diabetes, kidney failure and heart disease," he said. "All three of those illnesses affect muhiple systems in the body. They are real long-term cases and you can't just work on them a little bit. The whole idea of wellness is to promote the good healthy parts of the body and as the body gets stronger and stronger, the disease gets weaker and weaker, enhancing heahh in the whole body. It's too early to tell yet whether I ean help in these cases. Hopefully, I ean." Ho's main goal is to teach people what holism is about and help them develop holistic strategies they ean use in their daily lives. He gives workshops on holistic principles and is considering starting a cooking class using natural ingredients. Ho said, "Eating real food is a real challenge for people. Going to the market is easy. However, knowing how to put a meal together, make it look good and taste good, is the key." Holistic practices, wellness and healing

are the foundation of Ho's practice. "What is niee about Hawai'i is we use a lot of Eastem principles, and people are accepting of Eastern and Western influences," he said. The new practice in Hawai'i is paying off for Ho, however, he knows he must keep his practice simple to succeed. "What I don't want to do is sacrifice the quality of care," Ho said. "I wouldn't want to get way off track. I like the hometown, very intimate, high 'touch' type care that I give. It is hard to reproduce." ■

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'I run a wellness practice of sorts. It is preventive health care, taking people and improving tneir health and letting them restore themselves naturally.'

Dr. Jon Ho finds that the loeal clientele is accepting of his blend of Eastern and Western principles in his practice.