In today’s edition of The Daily Campus (University of Connecticut) there is an article about the viability of naturopathic medicine. Apparently, people might be starting to come around to the idea that putting the cart before the horse might not be the best idea.
Perhaps you’ve seen the ads for the drug Requip, which lists certain side effects such as compulsive gambling or sexual behavior. Other drugs, like
one for rheumatoid arthritis, promise to end your symptoms (which aren’t really that bad, are they?) by letting you know that as a trade off, your depressed immune system leaves you susceptible to tuberculosis and cancer. I’ll take my aching knees and restless legs, thanks. The article does make note of the fact that with allopathic (traditional) medicine, a physician addresses the symptoms of your condition by giving you a drug (synthetically manufactured) that basically poisons your body into thinking it is okay.
That’s not to say that all allopathic treatments and drugs are bad. Without these drugs, many of us would not be here today (myself included). My point is that we cannot be focusing on our symptoms, but rather need to address the cause of our illness (symptoms, by their very definition, are an alarm meant to indicate something is wrong. If we hit snooze on the alarm, how are we to gauge what the rest of the clock is doing? Do we know if the clock is still running?). Case in point: beginning while I was in high school, I would have episodes where my heart would begin to palpitate and race. My father diagnosed me as drinking too much coffee and burning the candle at both ends (both of which were true). I went off to college, where the episodes increased in frequency. A doctor, assuming I was just a nervous, Type A personality (which I was) who consumed too much coffee and burned the candle at both ends (which I did), diagnosed me as having Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I was put on anxiolytics. End of story, no? The drugs made me feel happier than a clam about everything, but they did nothing about the episodes and actually helped end a relationship. Fast forward four years, where I end up in the ER with a heart rate of 145 that has not abated (even after taking Xanax, just in case it was a panic attack) for an hour. Diagnosis: supraventricular tachycardia. Had someone looked for the cause (an idiosyncracy in the electrical impulses of my heart) rather than the symptoms (anxiety and an elevated heart rate), I could have saved myself (and my relationship) a lot of time.
Our bodies have become disease-ridden due to our diets and lifestyles. Did cancer exist 1,000 years ago? Probably not. A modern creation, it is resultant of our plasticized life, where we eat burgers that can congeal blood in a matter of minutes (I know a guy who went to donate plasma after eating at Culver’s and was denied), exercise only our way from a building to a car to a desk, and stuff foreign, factory-made chemicals into our system (though I do smoke, my one real vice, so I know I shouldn’t talk about that). Our first step is to realize that if it is fake, it should not be going into our bodies.
Our second step is to realize that our being is three parts: body, mind, and soul. This is reflected in Judeo-Christianity, so a good chunk of the American population should be familiar with this triad. We need to reconcile these three parts of ourselves before we can ever expect to be healed. Drugs can treat the symptoms, but you can only ignore an alarm clock on snooze for so long. Why not wake up refreshed and healthy (instead of only pretending to be?)
I know it sounds a lot harder (and a lot less fun) than it seems, the physical part especially. One simple rule: if it doesn’t occur in nature, don’t eat it (I sneak wine into my diet with this clause–grapes occur in nature, no?). My great example is the Diet Coke I used to drink with such fervor. Like many diet sodas, it contains aspartame (once listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent), which is now known to cause cancer and memory loss. Buy a juicer; make fruits and veggies into smoothies that will fill you up (and taste yummy as an added bonus!).
To rejuvenate the balance of the mind, try exercising it. You’d be surprised at how little we do this! Watch Jeopardy! or another trivia show. Do a crossword puzzle. Re-memorize your multiplication tables. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.
To reconnect with your soul, find some faith. Whether that be in a Judeo-Christian church, at a coven meeting, or in your own home, find something to believe in. Believe in yourself. Try meditation. If you need a place to start, read a book (I know Llewellyn has some great body/mind/spirit titles, including chakra work, Reiki, and Ayurvedic balancing). Find time each and every day to simply stop all thoughts and reconnect with who and what you are, and be comfortable in that.
Let’s start healing our chickens, before they start laying some really bad eggs.
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