PUSHED TO THE SIDE?
Mary (not her real name) came in to our offices last week with multiple complaints. She had already been the normal route of going from specialist to specialist. She had tried just about every drug known to mankind… antidepressants, pain pills, acid reflux meds, synthetic hormones (birth control at the age of 51!) and many more and STILL had so many complaints. Every time she told her doctor of a new or old complaint… she was prescribed yet another pill to “do away with the symptom”.
Not one doctor had ever asked her about her diet. Not one doctor ever did a test to determine “WHY” she had the symptoms she had. In many cases they listened only to the symptoms and then prescribed pain meds or psychiatric drugs to basically shut her up.
One doctor had actually been rather bright and done one test that DID give a strong clue to her overall health… she had an autoimmune problem with her thyroid… clearly stated on the test results… I asked her to bring the test results to me… well, there’s another whole story! The doctor never gave her a copy. His office did call her and tell her everything was totally ok and she’d live to be 100! I still insisted on seeing the test…so she called her doctor and had him fax it over… lo and behold… right there on the test result… high antibodies! Showing strong indication of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis! If she lived to 100 with that going on she’d be miserable!
I’ve had two other clients bring me their “regular” blood tests (of course only after asking for copies from the doctor’s office… unfortunately even though you pay for it you never get to see it for yourself unless you push) and I saw in the results a very very clear sign of some levels high and some low of key points (I don’t want to turn this into a chemistry lesson so I’ll hold off giving you all the specifics)… that show a type of anemia caused from lack of B12 and folic acid. But the doctor in each case said… “you’re perfectly ok”… yet the clients were dead tired.
Ok… so this sounds like I’m getting ready to take off on doctors… and I’ll really try to refrain from doing so. But the fact of the matter is this… some doctors simply must not even look at test results… maybe they’re relying on someone in their own office to do it for them. Doesn’t really matter. YOU are the one who gets pushed to the side and not handled right. And certainly you need to understand this is not always the case… some doctors are right in there pitching with their clients and doing the best they can. But sadly there is becoming a large majority who simply are not paying attention to YOU.
One client came to see us who had been on every anti-depressant known (she’s since gotten herself off all of them!), stomach problems galore, aches and pains, numerous different diagnoses and specialists… still having all the problems… I did a simple quick test in the office… looked at her and asked her if she’d ever been out of the country (I even named the specific country)… she was stunned and said, “yes, how did you know”… simply she had yeast and parasites. We put her onto the correct regimen to handle and in three weeks she felt much much better. She’s not out of the woods yet but at least a CAUSE has been found that no one had bothered to test or look for.
Medical errors, which cause as many as 195,000 deaths a year, are “an unmitigated epidemic”. Americans spend for health care 60% more than Europeans, for mediocre results. More people die each year in the United States from medical errors than from highway accidents, breast cancer or AIDS, a federal advisory panel reported a few months ago. (and that’s only the ones that are kept track of and reported!).
At least 1.5 million Americans are sickened, injured or killed each year by errors in prescribing, dispensing and taking medications, the influential Institute of Medicine concluded in a major report released July 2006. The report said the actual numbers are probably much higher.
Mistakes in giving drugs are so prevalent in hospitals that, on average, a patient will be subjected to a medication error each day he or she occupies a hospital bed, the report by a panel of experts said.
The report found errors to be not only harmful and widespread, but very costly as well. The extra expense of treating drug-related injuries occurring in hospitals alone was estimated conservatively to be $3.5 billion a year. Who do you think pays for this? You do… higher insurance rates, higher health costs.
As far as I’m concerned these stunningly high rates of medical errors — resulting in deaths, permanent disability and unnecessary suffering — are simply unacceptable in a medical system that promises first to ‘do no harm’.
Everyone knows someone who’s had a bad experience in health care! But what have any of you done to actually stop this? I know… trust me… I completely understand.
When my mom died a few years ago I wrote a scathing newsletter about the atrocities that she suffered as she went “down hill” on over 30 different medications. She lived in a different state than I. Her doctors told her… no… I’m sorry… they “threatened” her… that if she went to natural solutions they would quit working with her. Let me tell you something… the power of “refusing help” is strong! She panicked and did as they told her. She died. I don’t need to elaborate.
Recently in the news a young man was ordered by the courts to stop natural solutions to his cancer and “court ordered” him to the hospital for “medical” solutions that were against his own wishes and his parents. The good news is another higher court stopped that ruling and is allowing him time to do his own thing. Whether the young man is right or wrong… it simply doesn’t matter. It is his God given right to choose what he wants to do with his health. He tried Chemotherapy and felt worse. It did nothing for the cancer. What he’s doing naturally … well… at least he feels better. My postulates are with him on a full recovery. The fact of the matter is no doctor here in the United States can say they “cure” cancer…. yet it is widely known that in other countries people are cured daily of cancer and many other in-curable diseases. For all our freedoms here in America… our health is not a “free state”… it is ruled and pre-decided by the government (FDA), pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and the all-powerful AMA (American Medical Association).
Ok… so what CAN you do?
1. Be informed! Insist on copies of all tests. Communicate to your doctor on what other doctors may have told you to do (what meds you are on, etc.). Doctors know very little about natural solutions and may actually be intimidated by your use of other means to handle your health. That’s ok. Eventually they’ll come around. Those of us in the natural holistic field don’t know all that a “doctor” knows and they don’t know what we know… so it DOES take working together.
2. Go Shopping! Make the doctor sit and talk to you. If he or she is unwilling… find another doctor. Remember… you pay them… they certainly don’t pay you… you are the consumer… you wouldn’t put up with someone at the local department store treating you the way some doctors treat you! Shop till you find one that will support you and care about you. Don’t ever be intimidated!
3. Back it up! Whatever your doctor has you do… back it up naturally with correct supplements or diet to ensure the problem doesn’t repeat or to get to the real CAUSE of the problem… Don’t just settle for “symptom handling”… Always go for the CAUSE.
4. Natural is not always SAFE! Hard to believe I said that… but it’s true. Self-”medicating” yourself naturally can get you in a ton of trouble and you can create more imbalances that you started out with. I’ve seen ladies come in who are buying “progesterone” creams over the counter because their massage therapist said it was good… or the lady at the health food store said it was great and worked for her. Well, that’s all fine. But if you don’t dose it properly you can under-use it and end up thinking it doesn’t work or you can over-dose and create further problems. Or you can create a further imbalance if other hormones are also needed. You can take too much of just about anything… and if you take something longer than you need to it will simply not be working like it should.
We’ve all had the situation where we started a program or new supplement and felt great on it and then after a few months it “just didn’t work anymore”. It’s NOT that the supplements stopped working… The truth is your body changed and so you simply don’t need the same things anymore… That’s what’s supposed to happen!
But what did you do? Well, of course you stopped taking those supplements. Probably stopped taking anything altogether! That was the wrong answer… the right answer would have been to come in and get tested properly for what your particular body needs at that time.
I hope I’ve helped you out… I hope I’ve enlightened you enough for you to take correct action for your health and the health of your loved ones.
The solution to a health problem is not to treat the symptoms only. That’s kind of like having the engine light turn on inside your car and you running to the mechanic and telling him to turn that darn light off! Well… he can certainly pull the plug and turn the light off… but the reason for it turning on in the first place is still there… and eventually… your car will simply stop running. So don’t be surprised when that happens to your body if you’ve been busy “turning the symptoms off”!
