For over a decade, Maria (not her real name) doctored three chronic conditions with specialists until a dramatic adverse reaction from taking a new drug shocked her into the realization that prescription drugs were not improving her health. This became a turning point, causing Maria to explore more effective pathways than conventional medicine to enrich her health.
Maria, an energetic entrepreneur in good health, had owned and managed a gym where with 16 employees she taught gymnastics to thousands of students for a number of years. She had successfully balanced her business, marriage and parenting three children. In 1986 during pregnancy with her fourth child, her business was audited over a three-month period that caused great stress. Her health remained good through her pregnancy but three months after giving birth, Maria experienced an erosion of her health. The first symptom of allergies came during ragweed season. She could not breathe. She used Selvane and other over-the-counter medications. Maria declared:
This initial attack started a three-year process of trying to discover on my own what was causing the allergic reactions. After finding no relief, I went to an allergist and had the scratch test to identify the culprits. I was allergic to everything so I started allergy shots weekly at first and then monthly. The allergist assured me that I could become immunized to these things within three years but I took allergy shots for seven years.
Soon after the onset of allergic reactions, Maria started suffering from migraine headaches once or twice every month without connection to the menstrual cycle. At first, the headaches were not severe, but subsequently they ranged from bad to devastating. She explained:
Sometimes during a migraine, I would throw-up and lose my eyesight. I consulted a specialist who prescribed many different kinds of drugs. Nothing helped very much so he kept experimenting with all the latest drug updates.
The third chronic problem to erode her quality of life was a skin rash. Maria had never had skin problems before. She consulted a skin specialist who initially prescribed Acutane but Maria refused any more after one month because it had so many nasty side effects (drying her skin, mouth, eyes and joints). Tetracycline was prescribed along with many other types of antibiotics over a prolonged time period but they did nothing to clear her skin problems.
In 1998, her migraine specialist prescribed a new drug that caused an asthma attack, severely restricting Maria’s capacity to breathe. This adverse drug reaction triggered an avalanche of events that propelled Maria toward exploring alternative therapies. Maria was already getting allergy shots, taking an allergy medicine and Tetracycline for her skin rash. Not being able to breathe got her attention and prompted a return trip to her allergist. The allergist was upset with her for taking another medication that reacted with his treatment regimen. None of the three specialists ever communicated with one another or asked if she might be taking other medications. While Maria was reasonably knowledgeable, she had relied upon her medical experts for all the literature she had read about these maladies and how to treat them.
The allergist retested Maria’s response to a second scratch test after seven years of treatment. She was as allergic to those same things as she had been before! This event exposed the limits of doctoring symptoms and propelled her to explore a wider set of choices and to become an active steward of her own health. Maria recalled:
I left the doctor’s office dazed and disappointed with my misplaced trust in these treatments. As I was returning to the gym, I passed a chiropractic office adjoining my business. I pondered whether my many problems might be due to damaging my neck/spinal column from gymnastic stunts. I walked in, had an x-ray and filled out the most thorough 4-page intake I had ever seen! After examining the intake material and X-ray, he said, “You do not need my chiropractic skills because your spine is fine but you have Dysbiosis, a digestive tract disorder that is causing your symptoms. Your prolonged use of antibiotics has caused an imbalance of bacteria in your digestive tract, causing allergies, skin rash and other problems. This can be fixed but you must get off all your prescriptions and change your diet.” I was asked to adopt a new diet with no wheat, no soda pop, and limited dairy and to take several herbs. Within four months, all my allergies and migraine headaches were gone. This caused me to totally commit to natural health. However, three more years would pass before my skin would clear up with a more alkaline diet I adopted a year later.
Maria’s family moved to an adjoining state where she decided to manage a health food store where she could learn more about natural health. Maria recalled:
I met a man who was totally into diet. He helped me learn that my body was very acidic and that foods should be selected and balanced in terms of alkalinity/acidity. I wanted to learn more about the chemistry of foods to improve my skin and enrich my health. He requested that I commit to the discipline and only eat within strict guidelines. I agreed to the regimen. He taught me to select foods by these criteria and to start out the day with a glass of water with squeezed lemon juice, pure honey and organic natural vinegar (with the mother in it). I learned how to lower my acidic levels with different types of foods. This new set of guidelines cleared up my skin, helped me grow great fingernails and significantly enriched my level of health
Food continues to be Maria’s primary strategy for maintaining health now that her health has returned fully. As she expressed it:
Good health does not primarily depend on a pharmaceutical pill or even natural supplements but on food itself.
She regards food as the most important key to health. Maria lives out the ancient wisdom as taught by the Greek physician, Hipprocrates who asserted, “Let food be your medicine.”Maria’s exploration of pathways for enriching health with complementary and alternative therapies is not unusual. An adverse drug reaction was her turning point but for others, the turning point may be to avoid the intrusive and toxic therapies of conventional medicine or the failure of the conventional medical therapies to treat chronic illness effectively. For others, it is the positive appeal of promoting health, becoming more engaged in one’s own health and/or the gentler methods of alternative therapies.
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