Where I live in northern VT, there are many different practioners of
alternative medicine. Before my diagnosis of RA I regularly
visited and had acupuncture therapy with some help, ultimately however,
it wasn't effective, not for me. People who suffer pain from OA
seem to have very good results from acupuncture (please make sure your
therapist is licensed, uses fresh clean needles every time, etc.).
We have Chinese herbalists here, yup gave that a try before my dx,
there are some other holistic and other out there practioners.
My word of warning is stern. For those of us suffering
auto-immune diseases it is NOT an option for us to rely solely on
alternative medicine. Although helpful for some problems,
although they might relieve or help your symptoms, they won't alter the
course of your disease. Symptoms relief and remitting the disease
are two different things. You play with fire if you circumvent
traditional medicine here. It is akin to giving acupuncture
a shot for cancer instead of proven therapies. Note that I
said INSTEAD. Be aware that with the toxic and somewhat
obscure drugs we take, many herbalists will not understand what would
and would not interact with them. Some might even make things
worse.
Just a word of caution to those with more serious autoimmune
problems. We know this problem isn't one from wear and tear, it
is a problem deep in our immune system, it is a problem that is
terribly difficult and can be quite dangerous if one does not seek the
proper attention for it and follow drug regimes. Beware of
miracle 'cures' and therapies you see out there...if its too good to be
true, then it likely is. If you have had success in that your
symptoms have remitted...great for you...but that does not mean that
your disease is gone and you should always remember that.
Until the evidence is there that you are clinically in remission,
then the damage is still being done. Its not fun to
have to say phooey on things that could be hopeful....I just know
that with the false hopes also comes something more dangerous and hope
to show reveal some of the smoke and mirrors.
It is unfortunate that there are so many products out there that don't work, don't live up to quite what they promise, etc. Because the few products that do work get tarnished with the rest.This is the problem, those products can also do you great harm.
When coping with a serious disease such as an autoimmune disease, it is
better to leave therapy up to the professionals. You may seek
other things but not without the advice and consent of your physician
who after all gets paid the big bucks to know this stuff.
For rheumatologists, they go through a minimum of 8 years formal
education 2 years internship, 3 years residency before being allowed to
practice. I think its more like 12 years formal education because
this subspecialty requires much more academic work and it maybe
more. Then of course the normal 5 years internship and
residency...a little respect for those who are trying to help us goes a
long way.
Yeah, the company that I'm an Independant Distributor with, we always recommend that people consult with their doctor before trying our products, IF they are on prescriptions or have a medical condition. Pharmacists are the best people to talk to if you want to know if something will conflict with a prescription. Doctors might not be fully educated on the latest research into anti-oxidants, whey protein, natural anti-inflammatories, etc. - but they will know if a product or ingredient of a product will conflict with ones medical condition.Additionally, because autoimmune diseases are so vexing, patients may
have absorption problems or find themselves boosting an immune system
that needs to be tapped down, just like for people who have had organ
transplants. Part of the reason for anti-rejection drugs is to
keep the immune system under some sort of control, not an easy trick.
Autoimmune diseases act in a similar fashion, attacking cells, organs
ad tissues as if they were transplanted or foreign. So when
patients take immune system boosting drugs they might actually find
their symptoms worsen, rather than get better because their medications
have been keeping their immune systems subduded. This gets into
the submolecular structures and DNA, very heady stuff.
Autoimmune diseases are exceptionally complex and the
chemistry/physiology behind them even more complex. I am
exceptionally cautious about what goes in my mouth because I know that
what might seem to be good for others may indeed be harmful for me and
my overall therapy.
All that said, I am open to alternative therapies; however, those
therapies shouldn't ever replace traditional medicine, for some it
could be lethal even. I do believe there is a mind/body
connection not fully understood or its potential healing properties
fully explored. Thats a subject for another post however.
Auto-immune and metabolic disorders are chronic diseases that the root of problems can not be established and can not be cured in medical terms.
It is not about the no. of alternative medicine practioners and doctors one has seen, nor about the many drugs and many natural products one has tried. It is about appropriate herb or herbal formula.
In my experience as a sufferer of gout for over 30 years, I have had tried many alternative methods hopefully to strike the chord but to no avail.
All the hard work of endless findings in libraries to flip through eastern herbs, finally bored fruit whin I note the herb lingzhi (ganoderma lucidum). Why eastern herbs? Eastern herbs have history recorded and dated back many thousand years. I bought the herb from Chinese medical hall. I boiled and drank the herbal tea for a period of time. It did not help much but I did not give up the idea as I read how nutritional and medicinal values the herb has. Then coincidenatally, I met a tibetan friend who has a better knowledge told me that wild lingzhi are scare, about few would flourish in 10,000 dead trees. It actually has all its nutritional and medicinal properties whereas cultivated ones grow on unnatural conditions are plentiful. He explained as an analogy that natural diamonds are scare but laboratory made diamonds and artificial diamonds are many.
With this knowledge I started to take only wild lingzhi. For the last 15years I drink wild lingzhi tea and wild lingzhi herbal formula to control, manage pain, and reverse the severity gradually. Only with wild lingzhi I can choose not to take any single drugs. I drink wild lingzhi to build up my body system and its formula when I have an flare up. I have not experience any side effects, no frustration, I know my body and the chronic disease well.
To VTmtn girl -
You say you are very cautious about what you put in your mouth. Looking at the long list of meds you have at your signature - I beg to differ.
If she wants to mainline heroin, it really isn't your problem, is it?Dang it gets nasty in here sometimes.
Can't we all just get along? LOL
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