Hello HAPSters!

Hello HAPS community!

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Krista Rompolski, and I’m addicted to Anatomy and Physiology (just kidding). I am a first year professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA and am currently starting my third semester of teaching A&P to freshman nursing students. I was introduced to HAPS via a thrilling email from the chair of my department. He asked if I would like to go to Las Vegas for a week in May (he could have stopped there) to attend the Human Anatomy and Physiology society annual conference. Since registering, I’ve grown increasingly excited about the potential of HAPS to reach teachers of A&P, Pathophysiology and other health related courses at all levels of teaching. I am grateful to have a community to bounce ideas off of, share research, and an overall appreciation and fascination for the glorious machine that is the human body.

What has interested me most in my years of studying, teaching and simply living is the potential for disturbance or disease to develop, and how resilient the body is in the presence of chaos. What is even more fascinating is the countless approaches to treating the same conditions, whether chronic pain, infection, injury, or terminal diseases. I have spent a great deal of time exploring and taking personal advantage of alternative medicine at times in my life when I felt conventional/allopathic medicine was leading me nowhere, or at times to even poorer outcomes. There seems to be a great divide in the medical community over the benefits of alternative/complementary medicine versus risks, with some physicians adamantly skeptical or even opposed to alternative treatments, while others may even integrate them into their own practices. Patients are finding it increasingly difficult to know where to go for help and who to trust, since physicians are often under severe time constraints to truly listen to their patients or keep up to date on clinical research findings (which are susceptible to selective reporting).

My goal for this blog series is to share my experiences with complementary medicine, some of which I have been a long-time customer, and others that are new to me. I will share as much detail as I can about the theories behind these treatments so that you can form your own opinions about their potential benefits versus risks in physiology. I will do my best to present non-biased information, with as clear scientific explanations as possible.

I hope you all enjoy the journey, and learn a few things along the way!

Krista