Regarding an article from CNN Health:  http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/09/worms.health/index.html?npt=NP1

Usually we hear stories about people who come from the third world countries to get some cutting edge medical treatment that is not offered anywhere near their countries. We don’t often get to hear about the stories of the patients who get caught up in the western medical run-around, and have to find treatment in third world countries . . .

Okay, a 29 year old man has ulcerative colitis, means that he has swelling and inflammation in his colon, causing 10 to 15 bloody bowel movements a day. He gets to the point where he can’t work.

Even though the swelling is your body saying, screaming actually, that “something is wrong!”, the standard treatment offered by a trained medical doctor is to give a product that will “reduce the swelling”.  They are not trained on causes, they will only hope that it won’t randomly “flair up”.

After the steroids stop working well enough, the doctor’s next recommendation was to admit this patient and give him a round of cyclosporine, which is a immunosuppressant.

To emphasize, swelling is a function of the immune system. Swelling occurs as a response to something wrong, like a sprained ankle, in attempt to repair itself.  The blood vessels dilate and allows the immune system to send things to repair the damage. When there is swelling, the body has taken some steps to heal itself.

With this patient, the doctor has recommended an immunosuppressant, which will reduce the swelling and make the patient feel better. But the immune system will be suppressed; the immune system won’t be strong. It would be like turning off the water in the entire house to stop a leaking faucet. Sure, the leak will be fixed, and you could probably get by with buckets of water, but if there’s a fire, you’ll be in big trouble! Side effects of immusuppressants: cancer

And if the immunosuppressant doesn’t work for this 29 year old man, the next step would possibly be a colostomy bag.

So he hears that parasitic worms can treat ulcerative colitis. So off to Thailand he goes, against his doctor’s advice and his condition is greatly improved.

For the full story: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/09/worms.health/index.html?npt=NP1

Working as a pharmacist and twisting bottle caps for these years, as well as being on the computer too much, well my wrist is old beyond it’s years. It’s sore, tired, spent. Sometimes it gets so sore that I wear a wrist brace which holds it in place and makes it feel better. When I bend my wrist forward there is a lump and when it’s at its worst it’s sore and hurts and I can’t touch it. And when I have to keep using my wrist at work, despite the pain, I try and ease the pressure off of my wrist and I can feel other muscles compensating and being strained, such as my upper arm, shoulder and back.

I’ve never gone to a doctor for this. In fact, I rarely go to doctors. I’ve always been that way and now even more because I don’t really think that they are trained to do much for it. In fact, in my early twenties I started getting this weird itch behind my neck. Then it was slowly spreading. I was headed towards a weekend white water rafting trip, so I figured, hoped actually, that it would go away. During the first day of rafting it kept getting worse. This was way before my days as a pharmacist, so I had no idea what I was dealing with. I went to the drug store and got some hydrocortisone cream and some for cream for poison ivy. I went to sleep that night in a tent, hopeful it would be gone by the time I woke up so I could enjoy the last day of rafting. Not quite. When I woke up I this itchy rash had spread to everywhere, including my face and the palms of my hands. I finally went to the emergency room where they said it was an allergic reaction and gave me an epinephrine shot as well as diphenhydramine and prednisone. Turns out that this cheap new laundry detergent I was using was the culprit.

So that’s my thing. I never rush to the doctors. Even though my father was a medical doctor and a surgeon, and I’ve been around it all my life. As a pharmacist, I understand how drugs make a patient feel better, and I understand that doctors and pharmacists are not trained in much more than drugs and surgery. Although I obviously should have gone to see a doctor earlier back then when I had my rash, I can’t imagine the doctors having much more to offer me for my wrist. So generally I ice it, I ease off of it when it starts getting sore, or keep it in the brace to protect it.

So a few weeks ago I did a triple whammy of alternative health on it.

First I met Dr. Stewart Edrich who is a chiropractor but also uses a wide range of techniques to diagnose as well as treat his patients. He truly uses a holistic approach when dealing with patients. He does muscle testing to I went to his office to meet him and see what he’s about so he could participate in one of our monthly mixers as a featured practitioner. He showed me a combination of Chinese Medicine and advanced vibrational energy medicine by pushing on different pressure points in my hands and arm. www.holistichealthsolutions. com

Then later that evening I went to Peter’s mixer in West Hollywood. Art San, “The Pain Eraser” released muscles along my hand, arms, shoulder and back.  Art has worked on me many times in the past, and he releases tight muscles which can often give more relief than many people realize. www.thepaineraser.net. And then Reiki practitioner Ben King performed some Reiki on my wrist, and I could feel the energy and heat coming out of it. He even leaned back afterwards slightly exhausted from the passing energy. http://www.basicsofhealth.net/

Since then my wrist has been so much stronger. Before it would feel better, but I would also feel like I needed to be careful with it, and when I pushed it too hard it would return to being injured. Now I feel like it can get better and stronger than it has in a long, long time.  I’m not sure which of the three was the most helpful, or if it was a combination that was key. But I know that it’s feels like it’s getting stronger and on the path to healing. I know there are many other ways to treat conditions than doctors and drugs.