Healthy Me

What do medical doctors have against doctors some consider "alternative" (like chiropractors)? If it isn't the "stick a drug down their throat for the pharmaceutical company" routine, they don't think it's right or safe? I've seen it with my former Endocrinologist who wouldn't do anything but synthetic medication when there were natural treatments that had been around for 100 years that worked for people.

Today my daughter came home and told me that her best friend's pediatrician told her that chiropractors (who her best friend has been seeing for a pinched nerve) give strokes to children. I was thinking about taking my daughter to a chiropractor for her back pain (from a fall) so I looked it up. There is a big debate between chiropractors and neurologists about the risk of stroke with a chiropractic neck adjustment.

From what I found here:

“Even if neck adjustments cause strokes (and no one can say for sure that they do) the risk is low— 1 per 100,000 chiropractic patients who receive multiple adjustments,” says chiropractor William Lauretti, an assistant professor at New York Chiropractic College, and a spokesman for the American Chiropractic Association.

I've heard the possible side effects on those commercials for a pharmaceutical drug. They go on and on and your jaw just drops listening to them. Sometimes you wonder if the side effect is worse than what it's treating. So what is the bigger risk? I'd seriously like to know the answer to that.

How do you know who to trust? How can you give your blind trust to any medical professional? It doesn't matter if they're wearing lab coats - they don't always know what is best for you and you're left wondering if you can find a medical professional (mainstream or alternative) who you can literally trust your life to.

I caught today on Rachael Ray's show part of a segment about the 400-calorie fix for losing weight. No, it's not JUST 400 calories a day. It is 400 calorie meals four times a day. Big difference there. The segment said that women should only have about 1600 calories a day. That sounds about right I think.

We are living in a society where everything is super-sized so that may not seem like very much but seriously, portions are way too big anymore. Between all the pharmaceuticals in our system with side effects like weight gain, busy schedules that don't leave a lot of time for exercise, and large portions, it's no wonder obesity is as bad as it is in the U.S. A.

I'm sure many doctors wouldn't want to hear about the fact that the obesity that causes health problems for so many may be caused by the pharmaceutical drugs doctors prescribe to them but that's the way it goes. It's a vicious cycle. I'm not a doctor. I don't go to work in a lab coat with all this medical schooling behind me but my instincts tell me Big Pharma bottom line has too much influence on our doctor's treatment plans and I don't like that.

Since school started, I've had a couple respiratory infections and the flu. On Monday, I came down with a stomach bug - you know the symptoms: vomiting, chills, feeling miserable. By the worst of it, it hurt to inhale too. That was the most worrisome part to me. It was pretty miserable. My two oldest kids also had it but they just had vomiting and then they bounced back and were fine. I'm not sure why it hit me harder.

So "healthy me" hasn't been so healthy lately! At least it doesn't seem like it was H1N1, more like a seasonal flu. I'm taking vitamins, washing regularly...why do I keep getting sick? Maybe I should go to the doctor and get a check-up. Of course, that would mean having to find a doctor to begin with since I don't want to go back to the one I was using. I want a doctor who listens. I don't think because doctors wear lab coats that they're always right. My family doctor was more like a robot, only willing to go with the status quo instead of thinking for herself (and listening to what I was saying about how I felt).

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My husband and I completed our testing for glaucoma the way our eye doctor wanted us to. We have to go back in six months for a pressure test and then in another year to repeat all of the testing to see if anything has changed from the tests they just finished up with. That would be indicative of glaucoma but the chances are very small and the doctor didn't seem that concerned. We feel, and the doctor seems to think it is likely, that the way our optic nerve looks (similar to the start of glaucoma) is just the way we were made. Our son also has the same look to his optic nerve. Even though both mom and dad have it, which seems to indicate it is hereditary and not glaucoma, he will still be tested just to be sure.

The testing wasn't exactly pleasant. I tend to be a baby and do not like having my eyes dilated but all the touching of instruments to my eye, even though they used anesthetic, was creepy and I didn't like it. It also left my eye a little sore once their eye drops wore off. It was only for that day though so it was manageable. I guess I can put up with lab coats making my eyes feel creepy in a year if it means I won't have to do it again for a few years after that.