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Take Two |
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"Take Two and Call Me in the Morning..." |
Today's conscientious health care providers are terribly stressed by the rules, regulations, restrictions, paperwork and increasing flow of patients in their offices. Few of even the most dedicated clinicians have the time to stop and focus on you as much as you or they would like. Decent, caring practitioners must see as many patients as possible each day to earn a modest, not lavish living. This means, of course, you get to see less and less of the practitioner. A few minutes of talk, a few lab tests, a couple of prescriptions, and, "Let me know how you're doing in a few weeks" seems to be the experience of many of us. Usually, it is the system, not the doctor, that is responsible for "speeding up the clock". Broad spectrum antibiotics, like penicillin, became the answer to a modern practitioner's prayer, because the were able to knock out so many disease conditions. All that was necessary was a minute or two to write or call in a prescription. What a timesaver! Now, this has come back to bite us where it hurts, because many organisms once susceptible to antibiotics have become resistant. MRSA infections are creating havoc in hospitals as a result of the indiscriminate dispensing of drugs. There are also a whole host of new conditions for which no drug has been shown to be particularly effective. Thus many people with "fibromyalgia" or "chronic fatigue syndrome" go undiagnosed, untreated, and are forced to "learn to live with it". In alternative practice, we often find remnants of old disease conditions where the germs causing it are not gone, just reduced in strength and numbers. But they are lurking in your body, ready to rise up when your resistance is compromised- your Immune System capability is low. In fact, if I were a Big Drug Company, I would be advertising something to improve Immune System capability. They haven't caught onto this yet, still concentrating on antidepressants, anti-arthritics and pills for stomach problems or restless legs, but it won't be long before they jump on the Immunity bandwagon, too. Alternative practitioners are also finding changes in the body caused by the chemicals in the drugs. I suppose you would lump many of these under the heading of "Side Effects". The next time you hear a commercial for a new drug, listen to the list of side effects rattled off by the pleasant-voiced salesperson/actor giving the commercial. There are so many and you hear them so frequently, that most of us simply tune them out. But your body does not! Over the years, these things mount up, setting you up as "easy pickings" for disease as you grow older. For alternative treatment to be genuinely effective, you must find someone who has both the time and the skills to go over your history carefully and thoroughly. Or, you can learn to care for yourself, using information such as this site provides as a resource to help improve your own health. |
