Alternative medicine or therapies can be good, can be bad

If you are so afraid of mainstream medicine and your experiences with physicians has been so uncomfortable, you may ignore that area of expertise. I have been to doctors who totally misdiagnosed my condition. It is to say the least upsetting.

But you have to remember that the members of the alternative medicine group can be just as inefficient. If it seems that the alternative practitioner is only trying to sell his or her miracle cure -- run.

Use your common sense. That is what led you to alternative therapies in the first place. There is room in the medical community for both standard and alternative healing.

In a research study in New Zealand, a gentleman approached numerous health food stores.

He told staff members he had just joined a fitness club and had been informed he had high blood pressure. If asked, he told the employee his blood pressure was 160/120.

He then asked staff for recommendations to lower his blood pressure.

Only one store assistant advised the man on diet and lifestyle and recommended his blood pressure be checked by a general practitioner.

One of the most common recommendations was garlic. One thing garlic does is thin the blood which is why you must talk with any doctor who is giving you a prescription about taking garlic. If your blood pressure is 160/120 your doctor would either give you a pressure lowering prescription like metoprolol or maybe just a blood thinner.

The most effective method of dealing with high blood pressure is diet and exercise - which is long term. But you need some help in the interim to reduce the risk of stroke.

You need your own pressure reading machine and there are many small units available on line or at your local stores. You need to monitor your blood pressure everyday morning and night for a couple of weeks at least. That will tell you if what you are doing is helping or NOT. Even if you get a prescription, it may not be the right dosage for you. My daughter's first blood pressure prescription was too strong and she was on the verge of collapse within 2 days of starting it.

The advantage of having a medical professional evaluate you and your blood pressure is the years of training that lead to decisions on what should be taken and what should be done.

The clerk at a health food store is not a medical professional. Have you noticed that the clerks in health food stores are generally young and thin? The information they give you is from owners and suppliers.

Along this line, I read that the Catholic church has banned Reiki as superstitious nonsense. I know a couple of people who get paid for their Reiki therapies. They do make the pain go away. Is this good or bad? If the patient had a physician examine the painful area, that physician might diagnose an appendix problem. If the Reiki practitioner or any other method of pain relief was used, the pain might go away temporarily but the appendix might also burst -- causing death.

All medical therapies can be helpful and they can certainly work together. Don't let your fear of one or the other come between you and optimum health.

I question the mass writing of scripts. They treat a symptom. They all have side effects. They do not cure. It is up to you to cure the condition by reshaping the body with diet and exercise, with healthy sleep, and with stress control.

Just a note on those facial exercises. I have been doing them and am taking a day off today. My chin is sore just like my arms would be after push ups. Day of healing.

until next time - smile
Sharon
Answers for Your Health/Heart Healthy Foods

Antioxidants, Smoking and Alzheimer's

The driving force behind natural medicine or alternative medicine is the important key that every individual part of the body flows together in the whole body. If you stub your toe, it has an effect on the entire body. Minimal perhaps but none the less there it is. If you cut your finger -- same thing.

Modern mainstream medicine looks only at the toe or the finger. Your doctor will give you an antibiotic to kill germs, put on a band aid and call it good.

Meanwhile, the whole body has ramped up to kill any infection in the finger and heal the wound from the inside out --- not the outside in.

I found this article on smoking that indicates cigarettes contribute to Alzheimer's. However, I copied this excerpt from the article which I think points to the real cause. I am not saying that smoking is a good thing - far from it. However I do think that we should look a little deeper.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/102374.html

She continued, "Another mechanism could be through oxidative stress, which can damage cells in the blood vessels and lead to hardening of the arteries. Smokers experience greater oxidative stress than nonsmokers, and increased oxidative stress is also seen in Alzheimer's disease."

Oxidative stress occurs when a person's body has too many waste products, also known as radicals, produced by chemical reactions,.

Dr. Breteler said that "antioxidants in the diet can eliminate free radicals, and studies have shown that smokers have fewer antioxidants in their diets than nonsmokers."

Alzheimer's is on the rise just like diabetes. Why-- why not-- pollution, bad diet, lack of exercise all contribute. I am happy for the researchers that have identified the gene that indicates a greater chance of getting Alzheimer's. However, the average person certainly does not have the funds to get tested for this gene and if he did - so what. If everyone of your ancestors died of cancer, what would you do? Would you spend your time thinking about getting cancer? Would you modify your diet to increase your health? Would you enjoy every day that you have?

At the end of the discussion, the final answer is the final answer -- we all die. It is the living that is important. And it is that daily living that contributes to how painfully we die - in most cases. Accidents do happen.

Most of us are too busy getting through the day to worry about dieing. Do you worry that the sun will come up in the morning, of course not. If you haven't yet stopped smoking, then do the next best thing - increase your intake of antioxidants. Modify your diet to give more support to your body and mind. Increase your exercise to increase the blood flow and encourage the release of toxins.

If you have stopped smoking or never started or never have been around anyone who does smoke, just in case you have that gene, get your antioxidant levels up as well.

Picked up this joke this morning.

Incompatible

Listening to a young Yuppie couple argue as they waited for their prescriptions at least helped me pass the time. When their meds were finally ready, they paid and walked away. The druggist stood there and shook his head.

I asked, "What's with them ?"

He sighed and replied, "They're incompatible. He's on Xanax and she's on Prozac....."

until next time smile
Sharono
(c) Answers For Your Health