NATURAL MEDICINE CLINIC SET AT THEBES

THEBES, Ill. -- A free, natural medicine clinic will be offered at the Thebes First Baptist Church.

Beulah Land Natural Medicine Clinic, staffed by Dr. Ross Hauser and his wife, Marion Hauser, a registered dietitian, will be held Feb. 10. Patients will be seen by appointment only. To schedule an appointment call (618) 764-2323.

The clinic is offered as an outreach ministry of the Thebes First Baptist and Harrison Street Bible Church in Oak Park, Ill., Ross Hauser said.

The clinic will focus on treatment of chronic pain and illnesses, including headaches, back pain, sports injuries and high blood pressure, Hauser said, through the use of nutrition, vitamins and minerals and other methods.

"We do all the assessments and we do some injection techniques for chronic pain," he said. "We use vitamins, herbs, minerals, amino acids, natural methods to treat and heal diseases."

The clinics have been offered every three months or so for the last year and a half in Thebes, Hauser said.

"The hope is to have a full-time natural medicine clinic where everything would be free," he said. The Harrison Street Bible Church owns a school building in Thebes which it hopes to eventually convert into a clinic, he said.

Natural medicine is gaining in popularity over traditional medicine, which puts more emphasis on surgical procedures and medication, he said.

"There are more people visiting natural medicine practitioners, doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, than seeing traditional doctors," Hauser said. "One-third to one-half of the population take vitamins for good nutrition. So it's really an approach that's gaining in popularity in healing and treating chronic disease."

Natural medicine practitioners look for the cause underlying chronic diseases such as migraines and high blood pressure, he said, and try to treat the cause as well as the symptoms.

"Migraine headaches are not a Motrin deficiency," he said.

Ideally, Hauser said, natural medicine works hand in hand with traditional medicine, especially in situations where more intensive intervention such as surgery is needed.

"If somebody has poor nutrition, they're going to heal a lot slower. We try to work on that," he said. "If somebody has high blood pressure, the question is why did the arteries block up in the first place."