Why Orthodox, Complementary Or Alternative Medicine?
Introduction: How I got involved in the health industry
I am an avid investigator of the health industry and like to take the new products, theories and diets that I encounter through their paces. I soon found that I had entered a fascinating and controversial field. Who takes the time to really figure out how and why we get sick and exactly what is required to remedy the situation? No single medical discipline or product range can claim to have all the answers in one bag.
Over the last twenty years I have seen theories and products come and go. I speak to hundreds of people as a health researcher, a writer; a radio personality and a product developer. The best information always comes from the people who consume health products and medications under the guidance of a diversity of therapists. No specially contrived laboratory results can speak as plainly as they do about the benefits and pitfalls of a so-called panacea.
Simplicity and integrity have given way to expensive and complicated products with a questionable safety factor. We have recently had HRT and cholesterol theories blow up in our faces. Obesity and diabetes are spreading around the developed world, with opportunists trying to sell patent cures without determining the cause of the problem. Overindulgence, bad nutrition and gross stupidity are not diseases! It is encouraging to hear news from my radio listeners who have cleaned up their act and now enjoy a new lifestyle.
The road back to health is sometimes a long journey but there is plenty of help and support along the way, from a diversity of therapists and medications. Prevention is certainly better than cure. I can’t remember getting a cold for the past decade but few people are going to believe that the common cold is both preventable and curable. As a health researcher, I have an open mind, yet one can never believe anything until it has been tried and tested over a long period of time. My journey through the health industry is both fascinating and rewarding and I continue to meet wonderful and inspiring people along the way.
Different people, different effects
Not everybody conforms to a list of symptoms that can be treated by patent medications selected from a catalogue. If you are manifesting an illness that has been caused by the way you eat, think or behave, it’s time to wake up. As a health researcher, I see the good, the bad and the ugly side of medicine. The dilemma of “orthodox” or “alternative” medical options is very confusing to both the patient and the doctor.
All medicine has a purpose. There is no good or bad medicine. The treatment that cures the ailment is the good medicine, regardless of it being an anti-biotic, a food supplement, a glass of water or some herbal remedy. The drug or herbal prescription that causes more harm than good is either a bad medicine or it has been incorrectly selected. However, there are both good and bad patients. Why do placebo and drug-based comparisons sometimes deliver equally effective results? Why do identical drugs or food supplements have such diverse effects on people?
Hippocrates, the father of “modern” medicine
Perhaps Hippocrates, our Father of medicine, had the answer:” It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has”. His most famous saying: “let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food” seems to fall on many a deaf ear because orthodox medical students only devote a few brief months to studying the role of food in medicine.
Alternative practitioners who claim to know better often play the game of hit and miss because many of the diets they impose on patients seem to backfire. This is because not all patients have identical constitutions or blood types. A single recommended diet used to treat an ailment like Candida or high cholesterol cannot suit each of the four blood types because they have conflicting properties. Within each of the blood types, we find two variants, based on the antigens that are active in the saliva. This makes up eight groups: each with a different eating, lifestyle and supplementation regimen. Eight! Well, that is a lot easier than hundreds, for a start.
We try not to put every patient into the same box. By making a study of these eight boxes, we can have a one in eight chance to find the correct diet or treatment as opposed to the odds of a few hundred. What really makes my blood boil are the patients who are unaware of their blood type, despite the string of operations they have had, especially when they continue to eat incorrectly, load up on toxins and expect modern medicine to keep them alive!
Our health secrets lie hidden in our blood
The best clue doctors can be given about their patients is to know their blood types. This will place them into four basic categories of: A, B, AB and O, regardless of being positive, negative, etc. These four blood types help to shed some light on the patient’s food tolerances,behaviour, exercise and emotional strategies. Even a choice of remedy may differ for each of these groups.
For instance, blood type O reacts very badly to St John’s Wort, the herbal alternative to Prozac. However, for blood type A it works very well. Most of the research was done in Germany and most Germans are blood type A! Blood type O benefits from hard, physical activity to relieve stress and an addiction to wheat gives rise to severe mental conditions, including manic depression because blood type O does not tolerate wheat. Studying the blood types gives one a fascinating insight into many secrets about patients and disease patterns.
You will discover that the B’s are more prone to viral and bacterial diseases that emerge and become chronic in later life. The O’s have thinner and more acidic blood, but their immune systems are on the ball. So much so, that O’s are more vulnerable to auto-immune disorders. They have weaker thyroids and do not tolerate carbohydrates as well as blood type A.
The A type individual who embarks on an Atkin’s diet that loads up on meat and fats and omits the carbohydrates is a candidate for heart problems. They cannot tolerate beef or lamb, either! Most therapists who test for food sensitivities will find that blood type B has a problem with chicken. The mysterious syndrome X gets worse when people are encouraged to eat less meat and more grains, although blood type A is better suited to this way of eating. O type vegetarians who replace meat and eggs with lentils, wheat and mealie meal will make matters worse for themselves, especially if they do not secrete soya-friendly antigens in their saliva and digestive system. But there are plenty of alternative foods that can be eaten!
A special word to patients who are not making any progress
All patients should try to prevent their own health problems instead of causing them. Do not heap this responsibility onto an unsuspecting doctor and lie to him about all the healthy food you eat. Furthermore, your health and medication status cannot be correctly monitored if you do not follow the recommendations given to you. If you are chronically ill it reflects on your lack of health consciousness in the long run.
A lifetime of bad eating habits takes its toll and it makes no sense to demand expensive medications to take your blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol down and your libido up! Some medications work against each other and your constitution becomes a toxic cesspool with a congested liver and blocked bowels. Rather open up your ears and your mind and then clean out your bowels and your liver.
The only way to improve your health is to get a better consciousness of health. You can start right now by eating what really suits you and by cutting out the obviously bad and toxic foods. Everybody is told to drink more water and to take some regular exercise. How about you? Clean up your act and next time you visit your practitioner you will make a better impression. Doctors are there to help you to get better. You work together as a team and sympathy is not what you came there for.
Honesty and discipline will have far more effect in dealing with the root causes of many of the self-inflicted degenerative diseases like diabetes, arthritis, heart problems and obesity. Ask for help with food supplements and a workable eating plan that will really suit you. Review the effects that your prescription medications are having on you. Spend some time doing your own research. Ultimately, you are in charge of your own mind and body. Keep them clean, happy and healthy.