How does a medically trained PA stumble into holistic health and natural medicine? Not to get too philosophical by quoting Plato, but, “necessity is the mother of all invention.” In my case, necessity commanded my pursuit to better understand the complexity involved in the way the body heals itself.
In this information age, where there is so much information available, it can lead us to run down multiple rabbit trails that go on endlessly. Because of this, it has taken me a good decade (after my five years of medical training), to sort through it all and grasp a decent understanding of how the body was intended to work and why most of us don’t have bodies that behave that way.
So many people have just gotten used to a low degree of sickness and consider themselves healthy because they “aren’t on any meds” or they “only get sick 2-3 times a year.” This was most certainly the story of my life and that of my children. Sure, I got a cold every 3 months or so, had constant allergies, skin issues and many other “common diagnoses,” but I was considered “healthy,” right? I mean, I worked out multiple times a week, juiced sometimes, and I ran half marathons. I wasn’t overweight and I only took a few “no-big-deal” meds. Healthy, right?
The same was true for my husband- exercising regularly and eating well, he had persistent cholesterol issues. While trying to deal with this particular issue with my middle aged husband who had a family history of heart disease, I experienced my first doubt about both western medicine and holistic health approaches.
We first tried holistic measures- these failed. Of course, my source of information even in this arena was my medical colleagues, medical literature, and the internet (these sources had both too little and too much information available about this issue). Anyone else understand this? We attempted to use the recommended holistic approaches- we changed our diet and ate more leafy vegetables- (there was no talk about organic foods at this point), continued to exercise, and we added supplements.
What did the medical approach offer? We were offered the standard “evidence based medicine”, and “tested standard of care” drugs which led to more drugs, which led to more…. And before we knew it, my “healthy” 42 year old husband was on meds for cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and by now, my third child was showing signs of ADHD and we were being offered prescriptions for him as well.
My oldest child had already walked the path of the child of a new medical professional- he had multiple rounds of antibiotics in his first years of life, childhood asthma and allergies, and was on ADHD treatment by age five. Needless to say, I didn’t want a repeat of this unpleasant experience with my third child, and I was ready to have my husband off of his myriad of medications. We were clearly treating symptoms with medications at this point and it was sure to only get worse.
So, the “necessity <became the> mother of invention” in my life and we experienced our first “holistic” health success story. With the help of whole food vitamins, gut health support products and herbal products as well as essential oils, we were able to get my husband back to “healthy.” Actually, he was healthier than his starting point- his cholesterol was better than what he saw in his late twenties.
As you can imagine, the success propelled me to more research and we were able to avoid ADHD drugs for my younger son and I was able to support my own autoimmune issues naturally. I had tremendous success personally recovering from a condition that had plagued me for most of my teenage and adult life, finally gaining freedom from daily medicine.
The education I gained while studying the variety of root causes of ADHD led me to explore environmental medicine and discover the world of toxins. For my younger ADHD kiddo, we discovered mold allergies, food allergies and ultimately, Lyme disease were the culprit of his inattention and hyperactivity. (The poor kid wasn’t feeling good!).
Though it has been a struggle learning to heal from Lyme and taking on a whole new way of thinking, I am so thankful for the necessity that prompted my research because it has been a blessing to my family and many more people outside my own family. I have seen many people gain a sense of hope that things can possibly get better when they have their first moment of energy and sense of well-being in years. My hope and joy is to pass some of this information onto you through the pages of this blog and through individual health counseling. There is Hope for True Healing.
