Alternative Medicine: Treating the Problem, Not Just the Symptoms

In my mid-20s I began to suffer from acute gastric distress. It became so bad that sleep was impossible without a large dose of antacid, the effects of which always wore off around two or three in the morning. I had to keep a bottle of antacid at my bedside just to make it through the night. I also kept a bottle in my office and another in my car, the symptoms cropped up so often, and at the most inconvenient times and places.

The first ulcer was diagnosed when I was 25, and the second at 27, and after a course of treatment, including medication, I got some relief - but only some, and only for short periods of time. The gastric upset always came back. Even drastically changing my eating habits only provided temporary relief over most of the next ten years.

A few months after my 37^th birthday, I found myself working in China. I immersed myself in the language culture, and among other things, took up the practice of Qi Gong (pronounced chee gong), the Chinese practice of meditation and exercise, based on the principal of proper flow of qi or energy.

During one exercise period, I mentioned to my instructor the problem I had with gastritis, and all the things I had done to unsuccessfully cure it. Her view was that I also needed to apply meditative techniques to allow my body not just to get relief from pain and discomfort, but to heal itself. She prescribed exercises in meditation and relaxation to allow my body's processes to rid themselves of stress; visualization techniques to locate and remove that portion of discomfort that is mental rather than physiological - which turned out to be a large percentage.

One exercise involved lying down on a flat surface, on my back with arms spread out and palms down and in contact with the floor. The objective was to relax totally, focus on the area of discomfort, then to mentally move it into my arms, down to my hands, and through my fingers into the floor. I was skeptical at first, but it worked. Not only did it relieve my gastric distress, but helped me relieve the ache in my knees from cartilage damage I'd suffered in my early 30s as well.

My favorite exercise was the one that she had me start each day with. After taking my shower, I was to stand, erect but relaxed, with the warm water striking the back of my neck at the base of my skull. For 5 to 10 minutes, I was to do nothing but gently focus on the wall in front of me until I felt totally relaxed. After doing this exercise a week, I not only felt relaxed, but invigorated for the whole day. Even more surprising, the occasional migraines that had plagued me since my teens ceased. I have been migraine free since starting Qi Gong exercises.

These have not been the only benefits from this alternative therapy. My family, on both maternal and paternal sides, has a history of high blood pressure. Despite the fact that I weigh 220 pounds, I have for nearly 30 years, since starting Qi Gong, had an average blood pressure of 117/70. My highest recorded pressure during this period was 135/86 when I had a low grade infection, which went down as soon as the infection cleared up. I've even had a measured blood pressure as low as 90/60.

Alternative medical treatment has done for me what Western medicine was unable to do - it has given me a pain-free, active life. The only Western medicine I take is a 20 mg pill to lower my cholesterol, and that is just to keep my doctor happy. Through diet and exercise alone I had brought my cholesterol down from near 300 to around 210, and the pill has allowed me to get it into the 'accepted' range and keep it there.

For years, Western medicine treated my symptoms and provided me with temporary relief. Alternative medicine, actually alternative therapy, has given me nearly three decades of pain-free relief.

References:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11739043

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/backgrounds/energymed.htm

http://www.ncbi.hlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9820257

http://www.qi-journal.com/Qigong.asp?-token.Searchid=QigongFAQ

http://www.nqa.org/qiqong.html