"A wise man ought to realize that health is his most valuable possession." -Hippocrates
In order to lead a life beyond mere contentment, I first need to address some physical health issues. It’s hard to be exceptionally excited about life when you feel crappy. I usually keep these things to myself… no need to bum other people out with my ailments. If I complained about them, I’d be complaining… pretty much always. But in order to fully understand the mammoth I’m attempting to tackle, you will need to know the scope of the situation (not to be confused with The Situation) that I’ve got on my hands. Over the past 5 years, I have been lucky enough to acquire several minor health problems: hypothyroidism, IBS, and severe reactions to antibiotics. These enjoyable (note the sarcasm) things have been added to the other minor health issues that I have had all my life: asthma, allergies (intensely to dogs, cats, and the outdoors as a whole) and eczema.
A few of these problems individually or together, might not be so bad. But together… they kick my butt on a daily basis. Some of them have typical medical solutions (for example: asthma – inhaler). But most of them have led my doctor to say something along the lines of: “I’m sorry you are experiencing chronic pain. We don’t really know why that is happening. Take these pills and hopefully the pain will stop.” I’m not gonna lie, the pain usually does stop with said pills… for a while. But I’m tired of the pills. If I’m on this many pills as a young adult, imagine my life as an elderly person. I want to avoid those super handy pill sorters with the days of the week written on them if I can.
So in a world where we expect doctors to fix everything with magic pills, with names 17 letters long, are there any other options? It turns out there are.
Experi-month #1: Practice Naturopathic Health
Is it a coincidence that my body has new illnesses and problems that develop every few years? Lately, I’m beginning to think it’s not. Maybe it’s my body’s way of screaming at the top of it’s lungs to freakin’ do something different. So here I go.
Naturopathic (or Holistic) Health is essentially taking into account the whole person when practicing medicine (including psychologically, physically, socially, mentally, etc.). In other words, don’t just look at the physical body but look at the person as a whole unit (whole = holistic… get it?). As a psyc major, I find this particularly intriguing. My current general practitioner (GP) has never asked about anything going on in my life or mind. It has never been taken into account. But I think the mind is extremely powerful. Even if this whole experi-month turns out to be a giant placebo, I’d be fine with that.
There is also another big aspect to holistic health that is often overlooked. It’s the idea that patients (i.e. me) have to take responsibility for maintaining their well-being. So this is saying that I’m making choices (for example, diet) that are making my body scream obscenities. I have no one to blame but myself. This will be a struggle for me. As a human, I like to blame my issues on things outside of myself. So this should be fun… and by that I mean insanely difficult.
The part I like best about this holistic thing is that the doctors try to find the underlying cause of the condition… not just treat the symptoms and move on. So while it is great to avoid the pain, isn’t there an evolutionary reason that pain exists? Like maybe to tell your body to stop doing something. Fire hurts when we touch it because if we didn’t move our hands from flames, our skin would burn off. Pain is a signal to change something. Move your flippin’ hand from the fire. In this instance, I don’t know what to change. I’ve tried dozens of things… but none seem to work. I eat fairly healthily, drink tons of water, run at least 4 times a week, load up on fiber, etc. Theses changes haven’t hurt, I’m sure. But they haven’t removed the conditions.
Because I have lost my faith in modern medical treatment methods, I am diving head-first into the world of Naturopathic Medicine for one month. I want to make it clear that I do not think all modern medicine is bad or evil. It just hasn’t worked for me. My body rejects what is has to offer 90% of the time. Like most western-thinkers, I am somewhat skeptical of alternative medicine. It makes me think of acupuncture, aromatherapy and people chanting and meditating… all things that I find hard to take seriously But I’m putting my reservations aside and hoping (praying) that it helps my physical self surpass contentment.
