News
Opinion
ENLARGE
When you’re dealing with a chronic disease, you’re guaranteed two things: 1) the need for maintenance medication and 2) no shortage of nonmedical people telling you what you should do.
As some readers may remember, I’ve had ulcerative colitis for several years now. I’m lucky in that I have a relatively mild case of the disease, although it still means that I have to pop maintenance meds every day to keep it that way. Add to that a genetic predisposition to hypertension and high cholesterol, and I have a pretty well-stocked medicine cabinet.
I’ve tried just about everything, of course, including so-called alternative and complementary medicine. My best friend in Dallas urged me to give her acupuncturist a try, as her husband’s elevated liver enzymes apparently stabilized after a single session. The acupuncturist, a Chinese medical doctor trained in her native country, had a reassuring bedside manner, and I must have spent a couple thousand dollars over the course of two years trying to target the various ailments that confounded me, from the aforementioned conditions to chronic allergies. Those of you familiar with acupuncture know that the treatment isn’t painful at all. Once Dr. Zhang had inserted all those needles to the various “chi” points around my body and left me alone in the dark room listening to soothing Chinese string music, it was a mind-meltingly relaxing experience.
But it didn’t cure a thing.
Another time I visited a hypnotherapist, also recommended by my best friend. That time I wasn’t looking for magic cures for what ailed me. Rather, I sought a permanent cure to a longstanding habit I’d had since I was 9 years old: bruxism, or nightly teeth-grinding. For three visits over a period of as many weeks, I paid her $300. The grinding didn’t stop, but surprisingly, another bad habit I’ve also indulged in since I was nine temporarily ceased altogether: nail-biting. It only lasted about a month, but the fact it happened at all was nothing short of astonishing.
My next stop was an osteopathic physician (DO), also recommended by my best friend. (Hmmm. Perhaps that should have told me something.) According to Wikipedia.com’s entry for DOs, “Osteopathic physicians use all conventional methods of diagnosis and treatment but are trained to place additional emphasis on the achievement of normal body mechanics as central to maintaining good health.” I’d had a troubling episode related to my colitis and was concerned about a powerful steroid that my GI doctor had prescribed. Prednisone, considered a kind of “nuclear bomb” medication because it affects the entire immune system rather than targeting a specific area of the body, can be a nasty pill to pop, and people I knew who had taken it before warned me to stay away from it as much as possible.
Dr. Dennis immediately put me on a strict dietary regimen for two months that excluded all the good things in life, including alcohol, caffeine, all sugars (including honey and maple syrup), dairy, gluten, eggs, red meat, pork, soy, citrus, peanuts, chilis and nightshade veggies. She also gave me a list of supplements to take, including a probiotic in pill form. I dutifully followed the diet and took the pills and was ecstatic when the plan worked almost immediately. All of my symptoms subsided, and my body felt lighter and, well, cleaner.
The downside? The over-the-counter supplements — which weren’t covered by health insurance — ran me about $200 a month. More importantly, though, the diet, although a novelty at first, was difficult to maintain for the long term. It was time-consuming, very expensive and in many cases could be nutrient-deficient if I wasn’t very careful.
My last experiment with alternative medicine was a naturopath who also put me on a similar diet, this time for three months, and a handful of other pills. After two months and about $900 out of pocket, I saw no improvement and ran back to my regular GI doctor. He’s since put me on a slew of new medications and steroids milder than prednisone, and we’re hoping that these will do the trick in calming down my overactive immune system.
I haven’t entirely given up the hope that modern medicine — whether of the allopathic nature or of the more nebulous homeopathic kind — will eventually find just the right cocktail of ingredients to zap my body back into balance and well-being. In the meantime, though, I think I’ll stop listening to my best friend and other kind but unqualified folks who suggest everything from eliminating bread (doesn’t work, thank you) to colonic irrigation (um, yuk) to a raw food diet (seriously?).
People who suffer from chronic disease need sound medical advice and close monitoring by their regular physician and/or alternative medical provider. They don’t need “advice” from well-meaning friends and strangers (or health food and vitamin store clerks, for that matter) who are untrained in medicine, traditional or otherwise. We all appreciate the concern for our well-being. Really, we do. But we’ll stick with what our doctors and our bodies tell us. That’s probably our best hope for good health, both physical AND financial.
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Marjorie R. Asturias is a freelance writer and weekly FP columnist living in Grand Junction. Reach her at marjorie.asturias@gmail.com.
As some readers may remember, I’ve had ulcerative colitis for several years now. I’m lucky in that I have a relatively mild case of the disease, although it still means that I have to pop maintenance meds every day to keep it that way. Add to that a genetic predisposition to hypertension and high cholesterol, and I have a pretty well-stocked medicine cabinet.
I’ve tried just about everything, of course, including so-called alternative and complementary medicine. My best friend in Dallas urged me to give her acupuncturist a try, as her husband’s elevated liver enzymes apparently stabilized after a single session. The acupuncturist, a Chinese medical doctor trained in her native country, had a reassuring bedside manner, and I must have spent a couple thousand dollars over the course of two years trying to target the various ailments that confounded me, from the aforementioned conditions to chronic allergies. Those of you familiar with acupuncture know that the treatment isn’t painful at all. Once Dr. Zhang had inserted all those needles to the various “chi” points around my body and left me alone in the dark room listening to soothing Chinese string music, it was a mind-meltingly relaxing experience.
But it didn’t cure a thing.
Another time I visited a hypnotherapist, also recommended by my best friend. That time I wasn’t looking for magic cures for what ailed me. Rather, I sought a permanent cure to a longstanding habit I’d had since I was 9 years old: bruxism, or nightly teeth-grinding. For three visits over a period of as many weeks, I paid her $300. The grinding didn’t stop, but surprisingly, another bad habit I’ve also indulged in since I was nine temporarily ceased altogether: nail-biting. It only lasted about a month, but the fact it happened at all was nothing short of astonishing.
My next stop was an osteopathic physician (DO), also recommended by my best friend. (Hmmm. Perhaps that should have told me something.) According to Wikipedia.com’s entry for DOs, “Osteopathic physicians use all conventional methods of diagnosis and treatment but are trained to place additional emphasis on the achievement of normal body mechanics as central to maintaining good health.” I’d had a troubling episode related to my colitis and was concerned about a powerful steroid that my GI doctor had prescribed. Prednisone, considered a kind of “nuclear bomb” medication because it affects the entire immune system rather than targeting a specific area of the body, can be a nasty pill to pop, and people I knew who had taken it before warned me to stay away from it as much as possible.
Dr. Dennis immediately put me on a strict dietary regimen for two months that excluded all the good things in life, including alcohol, caffeine, all sugars (including honey and maple syrup), dairy, gluten, eggs, red meat, pork, soy, citrus, peanuts, chilis and nightshade veggies. She also gave me a list of supplements to take, including a probiotic in pill form. I dutifully followed the diet and took the pills and was ecstatic when the plan worked almost immediately. All of my symptoms subsided, and my body felt lighter and, well, cleaner.
The downside? The over-the-counter supplements — which weren’t covered by health insurance — ran me about $200 a month. More importantly, though, the diet, although a novelty at first, was difficult to maintain for the long term. It was time-consuming, very expensive and in many cases could be nutrient-deficient if I wasn’t very careful.
My last experiment with alternative medicine was a naturopath who also put me on a similar diet, this time for three months, and a handful of other pills. After two months and about $900 out of pocket, I saw no improvement and ran back to my regular GI doctor. He’s since put me on a slew of new medications and steroids milder than prednisone, and we’re hoping that these will do the trick in calming down my overactive immune system.
I haven’t entirely given up the hope that modern medicine — whether of the allopathic nature or of the more nebulous homeopathic kind — will eventually find just the right cocktail of ingredients to zap my body back into balance and well-being. In the meantime, though, I think I’ll stop listening to my best friend and other kind but unqualified folks who suggest everything from eliminating bread (doesn’t work, thank you) to colonic irrigation (um, yuk) to a raw food diet (seriously?).
People who suffer from chronic disease need sound medical advice and close monitoring by their regular physician and/or alternative medical provider. They don’t need “advice” from well-meaning friends and strangers (or health food and vitamin store clerks, for that matter) who are untrained in medicine, traditional or otherwise. We all appreciate the concern for our well-being. Really, we do. But we’ll stick with what our doctors and our bodies tell us. That’s probably our best hope for good health, both physical AND financial.
------------------------------
Marjorie R. Asturias is a freelance writer and weekly FP columnist living in Grand Junction. Reach her at marjorie.asturias@gmail.com.
