My healing
strategy is to avoid medication as much as possible. I went off birth control
last summer and can’t remember the last time I swallowed ibuprofen. My mom
taught me that vigorous cardio helps with cramps; an old Doctors' Book of Home Remedies commercial taught me how to control
a toothache by icing my hand; I taught myself that getting more sleep and disengaging
from toxic people will help with tension headaches; and I’ve kept my Hashimoto’s
Disease in check with dietary modifications and exercise.
I’ve been known
to reverse sore-throat symptoms with pinot grigio.
Last month, a suffering
co-worker told me about her hernia diagnosis. The doctors would only treat it with
painkillers, which weren’t doing much. The distress in her voice was all it
took to get me on the case. She’s sewn up holes in my clothes before – in a
Senegalese restaurant.
After 20 minutes
of online research, I prepared a list with tips on how to naturally treat
hernias, emailed it to her, and followed up on the phone. The prize piece of
advice involved elevating the head end of her bed with bricks. She declined my
offer to grab the bricks for her.
When I sashayed
toward her on a subway platform one morning last week, she looked as radiant as
my future in this field. I won’t hang up a shingle until I’m able to
cure the flu.
I'm also not a huge fan of modern Western medicine. I feel like we're just so overmedicated. I read the book "You Can Heal Your Life" and it talks a lot about affirmations as healing tools. Next time I have an ache or a pain I'm heading straight to you.
ReplyDeleteStopping by from SITS
It's so awesome that you've taken to more holistic alternatives to medication. Apart from living a more active lifestyle, I wish I could quit ibuprofen.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree that I want to eat in a healthy manner and not take medication unless it is really necessary. But,oh, Roving Retorter, I hate to say it, but my trust in holistic-style medicine is limited. If antibiotics had not become available to the general public in 1945, a lot more of us would be dead right now, or at the very least deaf (from ear infections, which can destroy a baby's hearing). As for vaccinations, I am incredibly grateful to live in an era when they are available--every time my child got a vaccination I remembered that my mother's little brother died of whooping cough in an era before many vaccinations were created. I'm stunned by how many mothers refuse to get vaccinations for their children in the present era--amazing how short the human memory can be.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. I'll do drugs when it's really necessary. I'm just lucky enough (so far) to not really need them often.
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