Many of us are now quite aware that modern medicine needs to go through a paradigm shift in its approach to preventing and treating chronic disease. In fact, many feel that the cracks in the system are already exposed and there is a slight pulse of a discernible shift to practicing medicine in the correct way.
Until we make these necessary changes, it has become imperative that you revisit the way you deal with your health. It is no longer a safe bet to just see your doctor for all that ails you, and follow through with the recommendations. We need to pivot a bit, learn about the correct way to manage our health, looking at so many different options and work out a plan since we now need to be our own health advocate.
Modern medicine has made some great advancements over the past 100 years. So many of us have had our lives saved by their excellent care for many acute conditions, and we have all benefited by the use of their amazing diagnostic screening tools.
But let’s take a deeper look into the best way to both manage our health and prevent disease only using modern medicine when we absolutely have to.
Let me start out by sharing an actual case history of a patient of mine. I chose this particular case because this is the typical scenario I see in patients. If these patients had a better plan for navigating their health rather than being led down the path of their somewhat misguided doctors they might have had a much healthier outcome.
This 74-year-old patient told me that he was on and off various forms of anti-anxiety medicines for the last 30 years. Some of these medications were so addicting that he needed to be slowly weaned off the medicines to try something new. To date, he was on an extremely strong anti-anxiety medicine used primarily for drug addicts whose nerves are on edge.
Despite all the anti-anxiety meds for decades he takes another medication at bedtime to help him fall asleep.
Sometimes he experiences acid reflux so for the past 20 years he has been on acid reflux medicine.
He was diagnosed with ADHD and has been on a strong medication for that which is like taking speed, making his heart beat fast, even though he has had a strong history of anxiety. He was hoping I could help him get off that medication.
As a result his blood pressure became high, so they prescribed a blood pressure medication.
And the ADHD medicine also made him feel like he was speeding all day, which burnt out his adrenal glands and reproductive glands. As a result his testosterone went low, so he had been getting injections with testosterone on a regular basis.
As his liver got upset from all these medications going through it, he became prediabetic, so instead of waiting to see if diabetes would develop, he was automatically put on metformin, just in case.
His cholesterol began to go up so he was put on a statin, which is a cholesterol-lowering drug. After two years he had such bad side effects that they took him off it and put him on a new cholesterol medicine made for people who can’t tolerate the side effects of the statins.
He took antibiotics for his acne as a young boy for two years and received over 20 flu shots during his lifetime.
He has done everything his doctors have asked, but doesn’t feel well most of the time and has noticed his health is going downhill despite his doctors’ best efforts.
Again, many people have case histories similar to this where a drug is prescribed for each and every symptom they experience throughout their lives, and sometimes more drugs need to be given to alleviate the side effects of the drugs they are already on. So let’s examine an alternative approach, one that might be less toxic and get closer to the root of the problem.
The first thing I tell the patients is that our bodies go out of balance in 6 stages as we work our way towards a disease we can name. Throughout our whole lives, imbalances will arise — but in these very early stages there are no diseases yet as such, so the best thing then is to try to identify the underlying causes of these imbalances and reverse them, so they don’t turn into a disease.
And whenever you are told you have a problem, always ask why, what is causing it, and fix the underlying reasons for the problem, rather than just masking it with heavy duty medications. For example, in this case, if someone has high cholesterol, then jump in immediately and figure out why it is going high — usually it comes from weakness in the liver and/or gall bladder, the thyroid gland or for so many other reasons. So 1) fix any and all imbalances you find, 2) clean up their diet, and 3) teach them the spring and fall cleanses. Then watch the cholesterol go down as you fix the reasons creating the problem in the first place.
A good rule of thumb to remember is to always start out using the less invasive treatments, such as changes in the diet, or herbal remedies to treat your imbalances. There are so many great herbs and natural approaches for issues such as acid reflux, high cholesterol, insomnia and nervous anxiety. If nothing is helping, THEN you can go for the heavy duty meds. Keep in mind that any pharmaceutical comes riddled with side effects and is toxic to the liver. We are not typically a country that resorts first to herbs, but instead thinks of taking synthetic drugs for allergies, insomnia, nerves, and so on. I think we need to shift to a mode where we try the least toxic remedies first.
When I see case histories such as this I feel that the doctors don’t realize the harm they are inflicting by prescribing so many medications, giving them out as if there is no consequences that arise from taking them.
We are grateful for antibiotics. Probably everyone of us has had our lives saved by them whereas our counterparts back in the 1700 and 1800’s would have died from infections which we are now well protected from. Having said that, is it a good idea to put anyone on two years of antibiotics just to treat acne? There are so many wonderful herbal approaches to address acne, which are not only less harmful but they get to the root cause of the issue, such as the liver, the blood, the fat cells and sweat, all of which need to be purified. And don’t forget the diet! Lots of deep fried foods, chocolates, bad oils and bad sugar will definitely cause acne, so you need to learn how to choose the best foods in each of the food groups.
This is why I highly educate my patients. I like to give them a perspective on what each of their symptoms means, and the best way to treat it. For example, they need to understand that if they are pre diabetic, this is a signal that the liver is in distress and needs help. So first figure out all the foods, beverages and pharmaceuticals which might have hurt the liver over a lifetime, stop eating, drinking and taking those things and then change up the diet. Then begin healing the liver with the herbs which clean and rejuvenate it, and you’ll be amazed at how easily the pre diabetes goes away.
The diagnostic tests the doctors perform are invaluable. I always encourage the patients to get blood work and whatever other tests the doctors recommend to a) see how far down the path towards pathology you have gone, and b) if there is a name of a disease that can be given to your symptoms. If there is no disease, doctors don’t usually treat you. But this is where we jump in, roll up our sleeves, and fix the underlying reasons for the imbalances so no disease will develop in the future.
I have so many patients who have obvious symptoms of demyelinating diseases, such as MS and others, who exhibit signs of nerve tingling and pain, numbness in the extremities and many other troubling neurological symptoms, but when the MRI shows no signs of demyelinating diseases or MS, the patient is told nothing is wrong with them and they’re left to go home to their disturbing symptoms.
In these types of cases, there are numerous reasons that the myelin sheath is being attacked, it’s just that no holes have been burnt in it which are obvious on MRI, so the doctors mistakenly think you’re OK. In these cases, we have to identify all the reasons the myelin sheath is being burnt, have the patient stop doing those things and then use the herbs to heal the nerve tissue and myelin sheath so that MS doesn’t develop in the future.
And this is how it is with many of the diseases. It is much easier to prevent them than to let them fester too long, causing a serious disease, and then try to pull yourself out of that kind of a health quagmire. All the serious diseases took a long time to develop. Don’t waste precious time if you are experiencing symptoms of anything. Ask an Ayurvedic doctor how to fix the underlying causes of those symptoms before you get a dreaded disease. Don’t let the doctors fool you into thinking that you’re OK just because there’s no diagnosable disease yet.
And don’t underestimate the healing power of herbs, spices, and foods, especially when combined with a good daily routine, going to bed early, getting out in the sunshine and learning how to do proper Ayurvedic cleansing every spring and fall. By shifting gears you will set yourself on a path of true healing, which is better to do now than waiting for that paradigm shift to occur, which could be several decades in the making.