How holistic medicine changed my life!
The main reason that I believe so whole-heartedly in holistic medicine is very simple - I have seen it work in my life!
Since I was a young child I have always had issues with my health. I struggled with allergies, asthma, eczema, and illness as a child. I always used an inhaler, took allergy shots, was on 3 different allergy medications, and took many vaccines. My parents were always searching for different lotions, soaps, and different ways to fix my eczema and other problems, but it seemed to be a long struggle that I could never get a hold of. When I became of the age to begin my periods, I had EXTREME issues, I mean, the worst pain in my life. It was horrific. I couldn’t stay in class, or at my jobs when I got older. I would throw up, get dizzy and almost black out, and would be in such excruciating pain that all I could do is cry, use a heating pad, and take lots of Advil, Tylenol, and other pain killers that hardly worked. I would lay on the floor at the super intendants office, I would pace around my house bent over. It was just not something that I wish upon anyone. I always worried if I would be able to have children because of it as well. As I got older, I also struggled with constipation, UTIs, a reoccurring eye infection in the same eye, hypoglycemia, and extreme anxiety.
Once we left California and moved to Michigan, I was getting older and decided that once my mom left I wanted to get off all my allergy and asthma medications. I did it by myself, and as time went on the majority of my allergies went away and so did my asthma. I also stopped getting the allergy shots. I was able to play the clarinet, color-guard, volleyball, bowling, and soccer in high school, and never had to use an inhaler. I still struggled with eczema on and off through the years though.
I had been to many doctors for my PMS issues, and was always told they would not look into it, I just needed to get on birth control and see if that fixed the issue. My dad was pretty into natural medicine while I was a teenager, and still is today. So, he did not want me to go on birth control at 14-15 years old and I really did not want to either. I wanted to find the real reason for this issue, not just guess at trying random medications. I did end up trying out some birth controls in my later teens, but nothing worked. Eventually I asked my current NP that I see now who knows what I had went through, and she decided to order ultra sounds and more tests to figure out a bit more about my condition. After getting the ultra sounds, we determined that I had pelvic congestion syndrome. There was not much that could be done about it that we had figured out so far. The only other issue was that my thyroid was a bit low, but not enough medically to require any medications at the time. It was nice to know that something was going on, but that I didn’t have endometriosis.
The other issues I never really went to a doctor about besides getting many antibiotics for the infections I would get, especially the one in my eye. After my first pregnancy, my period issues were mainly resolved. I still had some cramps but it was nothing like before. I no longer had to push myself to get to work and pray I could make it through the first few days of it. Apparently my grandmother also had this same issue, and hers got better after the birth of her first child as well, very interesting. She went to the catholic school and told stories of how she would pass out and wake up in the nun’s house because of the pain it caused her. Later on she went to Dr. Brownstein who claims there was no reason for the suffering, and how it was a hormone imbalance. Neither of us got to truly figure out what the deeper issue was, since it balanced itself out after our first births, but knowing what I know now it would be interesting to apply some of these natural healing techniques (especially muscle testing), and see what the deeper issue was. My dad did take us to get muscle testing done in high school, but with that specific issue I had never been able to resolve it fully.
Later on in life, when my anxiety was ruining my every day life I also was seeking a way to heal from it. I had tried a few different natural healing techniques, but as hard as I would try to help my own mind, the struggle was seriously real. I eventually caved, and got onto prozac a couple different times and would get off it and then back on. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, and the struggles we deal with are meant to teach us something. Once I got on prozac the last time, I started feeling much relief. I knew it wasn’t necessarily healing the reason behind my anxiety, but it was giving me a cushion to work off of. I used it as a tool to aid me in my healing. I knew I didn’t want to be on it long term, but I got to a point where I felt I didn’t have a choice but to see what happened. I released myself from the guilt I felt for falling on a medication like this, and used it to my advantage. While I was on it, I began doing tapping, affirmations, journaling, and becoming aware of my thoughts and choosing to see life differently. I tried to do this before, but whatever dis-ease I was having in my body was so extreme I just wasn’t able to do it. Over time, all of the holistic techniques I was using began to work. I used psychological kinesiology to reprogram my subconscious mind & really began to see results in my every day life. I also added in many vitamins and minerals, as well as a flower remedy. I am now happy to say I am decreasing my dosage to 10 mg a day of prozac, and plan to get off of it eventually.
When I had given birth to my second child, I also had a milk supply issue that I went to see my naturopath about. She found out that I was having issues with my thyroid and put me on two supplements as well as iodine. Within 48 hours my milk supply issue was fixed, and back up to full production! I also began taking probiotics for my recurring infections and gut health, and now I can say I never get UTIs anymore. I still sometimes get an eye infection, but it is way less than it used to be. I also began taking psyllium husk which had completely fixed my constipation issue. Another thing I did was muscle test myself during my last pregnancy and found out I was lacking magnesium and that’s why I had insomnia and extreme crawling skin/restless leg syndrome. My OB (I love him), but I was told there was nothing I could do about it, but once I started taking the magnesium, it was fixed about 90%. Completely blew me away. I have also had many back issues the past 5 years, and I have two holistic chiropractors and a massage therapist who have almost fixed that as well.
It’s really eye opening when you realize that western medicine focuses on treating the symptoms, and functional (holistic) medicine focuses on the understanding that there is disease and imbalance in the body because of a certain underlying reason and that the body is using symptoms as a calling for help. With holistic medicine, we are able to determine the root cause of the dis-ease, and what the body needs to heal itself. I also understand that there are great benefits to western medicine as well, but my main approach is to use holistic medicine as maintenance in up keeping one’s wellness, and also using it to fix as many issues as possible without using a chemical that is only masking the symptoms.
I have been able to apply this practice to my children as well. I took my girls to my one chiropractor for cranial sacral therapy. She did muscle testing on them as well. We found out Estelle has a gluten allergy that I can fix, after taking her off gluten her symptoms completely went away so far. She was always congested, has a runny nose, and red bags under her eyes and I couldn’t figure it out. My doctor also found out Colette had large amount of mast cells and histamines, which we can fix as well. It is so refreshing and makes me feel so good that I can have the knowledge and ability to control and fix my children’s issues because of muscle testing and a holistic approach.
I have seen this work with MANY other people as well, and I have made this now my goal to learn about all the modalities that I can to help my own friends, family, and the community. I have also really been into using nutrition to balance the body and stay well. That in itself had made a huge difference in our lives and overall health. It also helped me to understand why I would feel like I had low blood sugar. Knowledge really is power & understanding the reasoning behind why certain things are bad or what they really do to our bodies and how disease comes about is a real game changer! I can’t wait to keep exploring this in my own life and bringing more and more knowledge to you.
As always, thanks for following along. Let me know if you can relate to any of this or if you have any questions. Take care my friends!
Xo Amber
