Whooping Chickens

Friday, September 15, 2006

Down the rabbit hole…

The trouble with alternative medicine is …it’s alternative. It’s either/or. Not both.

Let me give you the backstory here. I’ve been battling a health problem (weirdly spiky liver numbers – and no, I'm not a drinker) so I went to a bunch of specialists, got a biopsy, filled a lot of blood vials, and then, just to cover my bases, I went to, well, an alternative practitioner.

He’s a medical doctor but he doesn’t prescribe pharmaceuticals. He works with diet and supplements.

Which sounds very nice and pleasant and why-not until there’s a ‘real’ health problem, like my liver attacking itself. So his plan is to de-tox me with a completely new diet (no wheat, no red meat, no dairy, no sugar) and build my insides back up.

Meanwhile, the traditional ‘western’ specialist wants me on immuno-suppressants (as if anyone in New York needed less resistance to diseases!) and prednisone (which is, btw, the strongest psychosis-inducing drug on the market. I kid you not.)

Two very different approaches. And of course, my actual life is at stake.

The trouble is, when a choice like this comes along, you have to go down the rabbit hole. I can’t do both therapies, I can’t do half of each, and I can’t listen to both sets of counsel because the underlying philosophies are completely different. Completely

In the traditional med view, I’m a victim of a dread thing, and I must take the medicine and stand by, like an invaded country. In eastern med, I’ve contributed to the lack of health and I have to participate in the restoration.

But it's not fast, and it's not fancy -- it's hard and it takes a long time. That's so not our get-it-to-me-overnight existence. So when my husband objects that I’m not listening to the big hospital specialist with the big practice, I understand where he’s coming from. But a little voice in my head says, “if eastern med didn’t work, wouldn’t China be the least populous country in the world?”

Oh my. This rabbit hole goes on and on.

2 Comments:

  • Love your perpective and sense of humor. Hope you feel better soon.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:05 AM  

  • I'm a firm believer of good health achieved best by diet. I've experienced it myself and seen it work for others. I think you've made a good choice. I wish you improved health soon and a lifetime of wellness.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:12 AM  

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