Today I am going to talk about supplements. My father was spending a large amount monthly on herbal supplements in the 70s, so I have been around the colourful bottles a lot. Both conventional doctors that we had until I was about 17 had conventional and homeopathic training, so we had quite a bit of advantageous knowledge to draw from.
There is, allegedly, no benefit to be derived from taking supplements. Studies have indicated that people suffer from the same rates of illnesses towards the end of life whether they take supplements or not, so I look on supplements as a quality of life solution. Basically, conventional medicine is for short term, and surgical purposes, and herbal medicine is for the sort of medium to long term ailment that doctors now like to ignore. I am not just talking from a personal perspective, several friends have also noted the change in attitude to general health from doctors. My wealthier friend says that he was told by our mutual GP that he was considered worthwhile because he paid more tax.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. You should regard your doctor as someone who provides medical solutions, and forget the idea that your doctor cares about your health. Your health is your responsibility, so you should take it seriously. I once had a chat with a young man who wanted his doctor to intervene with a small overhang of fat at his waistband. I advised him to get a life.
Nevertheless, having seen the difference in treatment between me, my mother, random young men with self-inflicted injuries, (he won the medicine lottery) it is becoming apparent that with a lot of problems, you are on your own. All these adverts and bits of advice saying to see your doctor about this or that are met with a blank stare if you actually try to talk to your GP about them. I have reported symptoms of an impending or actual heart attack for a couple of decades of overwork and self neglect, and in that time only one doctor out of about 7 or 8 even bothered to have me checked out. They will probably wait to post mortem me, and then say oooooooh look she had six heart attacks!
So, currently, as I am visibly slow when walking, have serious breathlessness and fatigue, headaches and a chest problem, I am trying to resolve it myself. I have changed my diet to rid myself of toxin sitting around in my bowel, I am taking around fifteen times the recommended dose of Vitamin C, which I know is fine because I do not have the runs. I look better, the chest problem has marginally improved, and my clothes are already starting to get big. So far, so good. I have procured some heart and lung support in the form of Forskohli, and I will be proceeding with some thyroid support in the form of seaweed. All of this takes knowledge. It is wise to check on dosages, and it is also wise to make sure you know what is really wrong with you.
If it were not for the raw foodies, I would still be taking massive iron supplements on the advice of my doctor, and as you will see if you check, iron overdoses are particularly bad for you. As it turned out after some raw foodism, I was just not absorbing the iron, and it was only when taking less traditionally iron rich foods, that the anaemia problem was cleared up.
My theory is that pharmaceutical knowledge imparted to medical doctors is not coupled with any genuine understanding of basic nutrition, or the effects of combining too much of one thing with another. Hence my initial statement that conventional medicine is for short term, or surgical remedy, whilst you should really investigate everything else before you resort to chemical solutions. My faith in the authority of the doctor started to erode once I discovered that they were not all as committed and well informed as my first conventional/homeopathic doctors.
An awful lot of conventional medical practioners are in it for the money, and at the end of the day, they are just people. In the same way that you get a second opinion if someone tries to charge you too much for fixing your roof or car, you should try to get your own second opinion of what your doctor is saying where possible.
This new idea that has crept in, that even Twisty has been guilty of in the past, that medicine trumps wellbeing and alternative solutions, is completely at odds with the truth. Many alternative solutions have been tried and tested over hundreds, and in some cases thousands of years.
The fact that no pharmaceutical company has paid to research it, because they don’t see it making them any money, is entirely meaningless. If it makes you feel good, you try it, unless you are stupid enough to think that every problem fits into a tick box, prepared by someone with little to no knowledge of you, your lifestyle, your unreported symptoms.
It is also the case with the issue of detox – many doctors claim that this does not exist, and your liver and kidney does this more effectively than eating properly. Your organs can quite easily be compromised by your poor habits, in which case they certainly do not. Your doctor is likely to be kept in this state of ignorance because without your poor diet and habits, you require less in the way of chemical medicine. Commerce trumps well being.
Medicine has its place, but having argued with many a consultant that I actually worked with about its relationship with health, I am now in agreement with them that it is entirely separate. (they were also unaware that it was separate until I challenged them, incidentally!) Conventional medicine is a solution, it is not the solution. Health is a separate thing, and it is nothing to do with your doctor, and everything to do with you.
3 Comments
great article
Insightful piece
Excellent write-up