Seeking Health

If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This applies especially to health. However, holistic health is not about avoiding doctors; it is about not needing to go to doctors. The idea is to be well. Each of us is ultimately responsible for our own wellness, and we should consider all options in our search for better health. We get out of our bodies what we put into them; our bodies will respond to efforts to improve our health.

We need to be smart medical consumers and learn to manage our doctors as well as we manage our employees. (After all, that’s what your doctor is – your employee.) So how do we do this?

First we need to ask a lot of questions, but don’t consent to anything until you have complete understanding of it. You go to the doctor and say, “Look, I’ve got this pain in my side and I can’t figure out what it is.” And she says, “Well we need to do some imaging.” Okay, well, what kind of imaging? She might say a CT scan, but if you investigate CT scans, you may decide that’s way too much radiation and you’ll probably be better off with an MRI. What you really want to do is gather information. If you don’t know the answers to some of these questions, go home, do some research, and then decide what you’re going to do.

That doesn’t mean you should dillydally for another nine months – you may be on a fairly tight schedule of needing to figure out what’s wrong or what to do about it – but you don’t just do what you’re told. In truth, it’s very rare that you wouldn’t have a few months or weeks to make a decision.

So, if your doctor does find something to worry about – high blood pressure, a lump, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, arthritis, you say, “Great, I’d like to have any images and any other information that you can give me so that I’m really clear on what’s going on with me.” Take notes and then say, “Thank you very much. Now please tell me what you think I ought to do and I’m going to take really careful notes. Also, please understand when you’re telling me what you want me to do, I would like some outcomes and expectations in absolute rather than relative terms. I want you to tell me the straight story. I’m going to check this out with some other people who may have different tools in their toolbox, get a second opinion , and then I’m going to make up my mind about what to do.” And that’s when you get in contact with someone like me, another GP or specialist and get some other points of view. And then make your best decision about what you think is right for you. Don’t get herded into some type of procedure without looking into it first.

It’s important to remember that the vast majority of illness can be prevented, healed and reversed by making changes in your diet and lifestyle, sometimes supported by nutritional therapy, herbal medicine and other natural therapies. There is a natural alternative to every drug and in most cases this includes prescription drugs as well.

Note that it may be necessary to take a recommended drug or have an operation or procedure in order to buy yourself enough time to address the root cause of your symptoms by making changes to your diet and lifestyle. But the long term goal should always be to reduce or eliminate medications as soon as your body heals and corrects the imbalances caused by incorrect diet and lifestyle. Remember that no cell in the human body is made from a drug. Not one. They are made from what you eat. And what you eat, or won’t eat is entirely in your control.

And if your doctor is not prepared to support you in your decisions, then you need to fire your doctor and find one who is. Doctors are very smart people, but I think that many times they’re admitting the wrong people to medical school. They’re bringing people into the profession who are very bright and technically very proficient, but they don’t have the right idea about what medical practice should be about: preventing, stopping and reversing disease. So they go to work every day and get used to the idea that everybody gets worse, everybody has to have more drugs, more procedures. This is all they know, all they’re taught at medical school and by the drug companies, and they convince themselves that this is what’s best for their patients.

So, take back your control in your own health. Don’t hand it over to someone else, especially someone else whose idea of health care is medication, operations or other medical procedures that will treat your symptoms without getting to the root cause of your problem. However, please bear in mind that self-sufficient health care is not about refusing needed medical care; it’s about putting yourself in a position to not need medical care.

“No illness which can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means.” (Moses Maimonides, 12th century physician)

“One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.” (Sir William Osler, MD)