Medical Concerns: My Love/Hate Relationship With Western Medicine

When I was a kid, my mother rushed me to the doctor every time I sniffled, which had me at the doctor at least a couple times a month. I was an only child, so my overall well being was of paramount importance. It was determined, by the time I was 7, that I had allergies and I began a 14-year treatment cycle of weekly allergy shots and over-the-counter medicines to reduce the symptoms. I was a regular fixture at my doctor’s office and everyone knew my name.

Flash forward to adulthood and I tend to avoid the doctor like the plague. I prefer to use natural remedies whenever possible anyway, but because of my choice to go back to school full time, I often haven’t been able to get health insurance very often in the last decade or so. This year, however, I do have health insurance and decided it would be a good time to head to the doctor and check things out under the hood.

I’ve been dealing a few minor aches and pains that come and go, but my main concern is that I get very short of breath whenever I’m walking up… hills, stairs, etc. Although I quit smoking over 6 years ago, I did smoke most of my adult life and I always worry about the ramifications that might have later in my life. Plus I’m getting a little older, wondering if I’m starting to enter peri-menopause, and have never had a mammogram.

The process of going to the doctor for a wellness checkup for the first time in 10 years is really overwhelming. My new doctor was great, spending about 30 minutes with me going over every minor issue I’ve noticed recently and suggesting treatment options that ranged from nutrition and exercise to medications. He also ordered a barrage of tests that I’m not finished getting done yet.

The end result are:

• I have an injured rotator cuff (shoulder) that will probably heal on its own over time. I was given naproxen (anti-inflammatory) to take as needed when it’s hurting me. Apparently I somehow obtained this injury because of how I position my arm while driving and reaching for my seatbelt. I think that makes me officially old… lol!
• I have plantar fasciitis in one foot, which is why my foot (and especially heel) hurt so much when I walk a lot. Turns out it wasn’t just me being whiney. He gave me some daily exercises to do and said I could use the naproxen for painful days with the foot also. He also told me to stay off the foot as much as possible until it heals.
• I’m overweight… by a lot. I knew this going in and I’ve been struggling to remedy it for a long time. The hard part about it is that I wasn’t always this size and I didn’t really change anything to get me to this point, so I don’t know what to do to fix it. I’ll probably talk a lot more about this going forward, as I figure things out. He did give me a perscription for weight watchers and a gym. Apparently my insurance will cover a few months of each, so I’ll have to look into that.
• I have the beginning stages of COPD… likely from smoking. This is the big one, and what I was most worried about hearing! My doctor ordered tests to determine that this is really the case, and although I’m not finished with all of them, the results I’ve gotten so far confirm this diagnosis. Apparently there is no cure and I will need to be on medicine for the rest of my life to slow down the progression of the disease.

This brings me to the point at which me and western medicine simply need to part ways… no cure?!?! It has been proven over and over again that our bodies are spectacular at regeneration and healing when we provide the right environment and nutrients for them to do so. I really don’t believe in the concept of “no cure” and I certainly don’t want to take some chemical substance daily, until I’m eventually forced to carry an oxygen tank around until I die unable to breathe.

I’m trying to live my bucket list life and there are activities, like scuba diving, on my list, that will require my lungs to be in good condition. I can’t just sit around waiting for them to deteriorate, no matter the rate at which they will do so. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate western medicine for devising the tests to help me determine what is going on and desperately needs my attention, but I am not interested in lifelong medication. Instead, I looked to what nutrition had to say. How can I best support my body, in order for my lungs to heal themselves properly?

Unfortunately, I don’t particularly like the obvious answer… no sugar… for a long time!

I’ve decided that for all of 2020, I will adopt a diet without sugar, including the elimination of natural sugars. This means basically meat (pasture raised), chicken (pasture raised), fish (wild caught) and healthy, organic green vegetables. It’s going to be an extreme challenge (even harder than the 60-day juice fast) because I really love sugar, especially in the form of baked goods, but also in fruit and sweet potatoes. These aren’t unhealthy foods, but apparently they provide nutrition for the fungus that may or may not cause COPD. I figure, the worst-case-scenario is that I end up a healthier version of me at the end of the year, but still have COPD. Best-case-scenario is that I eliminate the COPD, drop a lot of weight, and prime my body for self healing of other problems to come.

In addition, I will be looking into which supplements, if any, might also aid in this journey. I know I will not necessarily find all the nutrition I need in the foods I’m eating on such a restricted diet and want to make sure my body has everything it needs to be healthy.

I’m spending the next couple months researching and cleaning out the less-healthy foods (for my current situation) from the kitchen. I’m eating up the remainder of items like the grass-fed yogurt, honey and canned beans. My diet isn’t particularly bad right now, especially when I’m eating at home, but it apparently isn’t good for my condition. I will continue using up these foods without replacing them and work on adding new healthy green vegetables into my diet or finding new ways to prepare the ones we already eat.

I’m starting a new page on the blog called What Do I Do With This?, where I will look at all the vegetables and other foods I’m allowed to eat and find as many interesting, healthy ways to prepare them as possible, so I don’t get bored. Feel free to follow along and get some new ideas, or comment your own ideas on the posts to help me out.

Also, please check back using the tag Health-Fitness to watch my progress, hear how things are going, share your own stories, and provide much needed support as I continue on this journey. In the meantime, continue living your bucket life each and every day, because you never know when you might no longer have the opportunity to do some of the things on it.