Mount Pleasant Magazine March April 2019

north mount pleasant www.NorthMountPleasant.com | www.ParkWestNeighborhoods.com | www.BrickyardHomes.com NMP M odern medicine’s value is irrefutable; yet, limits exist to the provisions of Western health care. Mount Pleasant is home to two doctors who practice beyond the bounds of conventional health care. Dr. Erika Blank, an internal medicine specialist at Park West Primary Care, incorporates lifestyle medicine to combat chronic illness. Dr. Christopher Bunt, a family practitioner at Ben Sawyer Primary Care, employs medical acupuncture as a unique defense against chronic and acute pain. Both have provided groundbreaking treatments for Mount Pleasant residents. So what, exactly, are these two distinctive practices? “Lifestyle medicine is … treating, preventing and reversing chronic diseases with lifestyle behavioral change. This may entail dietary change, physical activity, getting enough sleep or reducing stress,” Dr. Blank said. “It just makes sense to try to treat or prevent these diseases before they happen.” Like Dr. Blank, Dr. Bunt provided an understanding of acupuncture: “Patients will say ‘I don’t want to be dependent on a pain medication that is going to make me drowsy or inhibit my ability to drive or affect my day-to- day involvement with my kids,’ for example. Acupuncture is an alternative that can provide significant aid for their pain in a real and often quick manner.” Drs. Blank and Bunt collectively are restoring proper eating and exercise to the forefront of health treatments for their patients, while offering unique solutions to their afflictions. They divert patients from pain medications like the prescription drugs that have led to the opioid epidemic. “The patients are there for chronic medical problems, and it always seems that there is some part of their lifestyle that they can improve on, discovering different avenues toward health instead of just refilling their prescription,” Dr. Blank said. Much like Dr. Blank’s desire to guide her patients in a more effective direction other than prescription consumption, Dr. Bunt discussed another value of medical acupuncture: “In traditional Western medicine, I would provide a script, and a patient would have to wait to see if the medication helped. With acupuncture, a patient tells me they’re in pain, and I am then able to perform the acupuncture immediately, and we will know – right on the spot – whether it helps!” Though Dr. Blank has been practicing in the Mount Pleasant area for only four months and Dr. Bunt has BY MITCHELL D. WATFORD Dynamic Practices Beyond Primary Care MUSC’s Dr. Blank and Dr. Bunt Dr. Erika Blank, right, discusses medical issues with a patient. Photos courtesy of Sarah Lynch, MUSC Health Primary Care.