Take Care of Your Health With or Without Health Care

Filling out a survey on available insurance for artists (ha, not very much!) - I realized that over the years, despite having heaven knows how much hard earned money on health insurance - I have mostly taken care of myself. Some of this happened because I lived alone and the times I would have gone to the doctor I felt too lousy to GO (with rare exceptions), and then there was the co-pay, on top of my monthly fee! So I started with a funny old book about a country doctor's old-fashioned remedies, and went on from there to learn about whatever my physical weaknesses were. Sinus headaches - contact allergies, allergies in general, occasional stomach trouble and so on. (Yours will vary.) But by boning up on these ailments, and doing some research, I have been able to manage these conditions pretty well over the years.

I had more contact with my allergist than any other doctor, and I learned a bit from her, but really, most of what I did, I learned about myself. I have told myself countless times, if I can't go to the best, I can at least read their BOOKS. So I have read books about women's health, allergies, fatigue and so on. By reading about natural menopause, I had myself on black cohosh to relieve the symptoms and I was getting it from the 99 Cent Store to boot! I also have been taking calcium supplements for 30 + years, ever since I had a dairy allergy and was put on an avoidance diet. My mother asked me at the time if I had been told to take calcium supplements and I replied, "No." She was surprised and I started to take calcium. So now all these years later my bones are like rocks. (I had a heel scan.) I also was introduced to vitamin supplements when I just got out of college and was recovering from pneumonia. I felt awful, and a co-worker suggested I read the health guru of the time, Adele Davis. Now, she was wrong about liver supplements, due to toxins, but right about a lot else. That got me on my vitamin-taking regimen, which I have been following ever since. And my skin/hair show the difference. They give supplements to dogs and cattle, why not US?

Along with this, I became interested in herbal medicine, as I had been given an herbal tea when I went to Europe for the first time. I got asthma from the featherbed, which they didn't have in the US then, and the local MD, not knowing what was in my US medicine, gave me a Brust tea. It cleared up my congestion as well as the antibiotics which I had had prescribed in the USA, and seemed to me to be a lot less drastic a measure. When I could no longer get it from Europe, I looked up the ingredients, in Latin on the tin, and went on to concoct my own mixture for the same purposes. And never had to take antibiotics for my asthmatic bronchitis again! (Years later I discovered a further simplification when I realized that the combination of Chinese 5 Spice mixture and cooking thyme worked just as well! ) I also did research in herbs and have used herbal mixtures for my nerves, as diuretics, to sleep and so on.

As a result, I have not had to resort to antibiotics, and saved their effects for real emergencies. My mother had been trained as a nurse before penicillin, and at that time, the best defense was a good immune system. What with drug resistant strains, we are there again. Antibiotics don't work against viruses, anyway, so don't use them for the common cold! But treat the symptoms and beef yourself up. Eat well-balanced meals and take your supplements!

Recently, I have also discovered the whole area of adrenal exhaustion. and adaptiveness. I have been taking ginseng for years for energy and vitality, but I discovered other adaptiveness like astralagus. When I first used the formulation Energy Plus, I felt a real rush. Later a health store employee told me that that was a sign of adrenal exhaustion, and that after a month or so, I would have recovered. Now I continue to take ginseng, and add astralagus and other energy supplements when I need to rev up. I also try not to depend as much on caffeine, which exhausts the adrenals....My sister in Europe is gung ho for Chinese medicine, and I have been investigating that as well. I have used some Chinese herbs during flu season, which seem to have helped. And you know, I just don't get that same old bone numbing fatigue I used to get.

Doctors can give good advice and bad. Nowadays you have to be a well-informed consumer of medicine. Again, I know that from my own experience. I had a persistent urinary infection and even went so far as to have a liver test. Ugh. The doctor wanted to put me on antibiotics FOREVER, which I resisted. When I read up on women's health and found a more natural way. Turns out that the antibiotic route works for MEN, whereas females are different!

Of course, turn to your doctor as a medical professional for serious ailments. But do your homework, too! It's like talking to the mechanic at the garage, you will get much better service if you know how to chat about carburetors and so on. Knowledge is power. Outside of accidents, most of us have conditions that we can learn to manage. But these conditions, like diabetes and high cholesterol and high blood pressure, if left untreated, can cause tremendous damage to the system! (I had a cousin who died far too young from his juvenile diabetes.) Think of yourself again as a car that has to be maintained. Of course, with a lot of miles on you, the maintenance gets more complex. After all, you are a classic now! But you do have your owners manual, don't you? And you are keeping up with the latest in cleaning out sludge in the pipes, and so on? You do look up any medication that you have been prescribed, and read all the material the pharmacy gives you? You do take note of what could be adverse symptoms? (I had to go off a medication recently, due to manifestations of a fairly rare side effect ... which could be fatal if left undetected!)

Learn about what you can do at home to forestall more drastic medical interventions. I know a woman who overused antibiotics and it threw off her whole system with candida yeast. For the longest time, she could eat practically nothing and only drink WATER. So, medicines can be less than beneficial. (Ditto herbs, although they are generally much weaker.) It's your body, you LIVE there. So, your opinion of what to do with it is the most important one. Be knowledgeable. Be proactive. Stay well.