Talk about health

I've said it before and I'm sure to say it again, that one of the differences between conventional and alternative therapies is time. Time between starting and noticing a difference. For instance, if you have a pain and take an analgesic tablet, it should start to work once it gets into your blood stream Normally that could take something from 30 minutes to an hour. All being well, your pain will start to fade shortly after, although you might need to top it up with another dose of painkiller about four hours later.

On the other hand, let's say for the sake of discussion, you suffer from chronic pain and after swallowing tablets for a month or so, decide you want to try something else. Of course, you would check out my "Special Pain Report" to get the low-down on what therapies you could try!! (http://www.healthexplored.co.uk/eorder/shop.php ) Then, having done your homework, you start on the 'new' remedy.

This is where you'll see the major difference. It' s a good bet that you won't see an immediate improvement in the pain - it may take a few days. There are several reasons for this, the main one being that alternative remedies are very different from conventional drugs. They have many fewer side effects and tend to be less powerful. So their actions start low and build up as you continue with treatment.

This does NOT mean they don't work. Starting a holistic approach to your condition has a several pronged approach. It doesn't work on the simplistic principle of you have a pain, you take a painkiller, and that's all. Alternative therapies look at all of you and your surroundings. It tries to find a reason or reasons for you being in pain. Perhaps it is stress at work or home. Maybe the kind of work you do unbalances your muscles and causes strain. You might be worried or anxious about an aspect of family life. You may even be depressed. There are many things that cause pain, not all of them physical.

The result is that if you take your therapist's advice and work on the things you need to change to smooth out work and home life, together with any remedies the chance you'll get cured are much greater. The plan is that by changing several aspects of your life while taking gentle yet effective medicines you will be cured, once and for all.

Conventional medicine doesn't really care if you get better. It treats your symptoms one at a time and sends you on your way cluthcing a bag of powerful medicines. Take them and hope is the message. But it doesn't really give you the hope part. It's too busy to really care. You have to take that into your own hands.

So, my advice for what it's worth is by all means use conventional medicine for the short-term gains, but don't rely on it for a cure or long-term benefits. For that you need to explore other avenues. Alternative therapies.

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It's not easy to change what or how you eat. I don't mean moving to chopsticks from fork and knife, or eating standing up rather than sitting down. No, I mean which foods to eat and how to prepare them.

I thought about this after my daughter was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries a month or two ago. She hasn't got a full-blown version, but more of a borderline case. But, it explains some of her symptoms that we worried about.

It would have been simple to start her on a life time regime of tablet taking, but what knowledge I had led me towards investigating other ways of tackling it. Fortunately, there are several good books that explain all about the condition and ways of adjusting lifestyle to accommodate it so that tablet-taking fades from the foreground. Although tablets can be a useful addition.

In broad terms, the dietary changes are to limit carbohydrates and increase the amount of exercise. The idea is to control the insulin levels so that the weight gain and other symptoms are controlled. And, it's not a bad idea for the rest of us, too.

Anyway, given that the principle is a straightforward one, we all decided the best way to make it work is for all of us to go on the same diet. OK, so cut down the carbs. That's bread, potatoes, cakes and the rest. Easy, you say? Well, so did I until you try to do it. Toast for breakfast, potatoes with the evening meal. You can surely cut down on portion size or find an alternative such as sweet potatoes or pasta.

I agree it should be simple. But if you've gone through life eating the kinds of food your parents and friends eat it's not so easy. You have to rewind your brain and start again with your weekly shop. You start visiting parts of the supermarket you haven't been to before. And, you get to know your local health-food store better as you ask for the more unusual items.

Cooking and preparation times are all different, so you need to rearrange your routines around mealtimes. And you consider whether each ingredient is protein or carbohydrate. It's amazing how disrupting it can be, especially when you get to my advanced age!

But, by far the biggest problem is lunch. Just look around at the middle of the day. Sandwiches, bagels, wraps, cakes, biscuits, pizza, burgers - all manner of convenient and fast food to pick up for lunch. How can you get around that?

Even at home, a quick lunch tends towards the sandwich end of the spectrum. Something few people consider is the amount of carbohydrate in lunch. A nice sandwich and a latte, followed by a Danish doesn't sound a lot. But in carb and calorie terms it's a lot to take in a few short minutes.

Preparing a healthy lunch that is easily carried and will meet your nutritional needs takes time and thought, not to mention a suitable container and utensils to eat it with. And, just look at the sugar content of those drinks.

You see. It's not as easy as it looks. SO spare a thought for my daughter and the many like her who are trying to avoid what many of us take for granted.

Perhaps more of us should give the sandwich and drink for lunch a miss. Healthier options are out there but they take some finding!

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I'm sure you all remember that when you get any advice that is not from a conventional doctor, it always ends with the words, "be sure to ask your doctor before starting or changing treatments". It's the get-out clause for everything; as if your doctor knows all there is to know about your body, health, every form of treatment and all the good and bad things that can happen if you mix and match therapies from conventional to complementary and alternative.

But I have bad news. Most doctors hardly know enough about their own speciality, never mind any alternative treatment. So why ask them? It's all about blame. If it goes wrong, you can sue the doctor and perhaps get some money out of the system.

I've come to this because of a couple of recent events. My daughter graduated from university and came back home for the summer. She had a couple of relatively minor health concerns she wanted to ask the family doctor about, and she made an appointment. Her preferred GP couldn't see her for four weeks!!! Another doctor had appointments in a few days, so that had to do.

Armed with her list of questions, my daughter went for the appoinment as arranged. When she came out I asked how things had gone. I had hoped for some concern, sensible discussion, and possible ways forward from the doctor. But no. She apparently didn't really care; it wasn't urgent; go away and buy a couple of things from the pharmacy.

I was very disappointed and upset that the health service in the UK simply did not want to know. The practice that we have been with for more than 30 years didn't care that my daughter wanted a little help. I know it wasn't an emergency or life threatening. But giving some useful advice now could well save more serious problems in the future. And I'm told the average GP earns something approaching £100,000 a year.

Well, I for one, don't think they warrant such a return if that's any example of what they do.
And, as for asking your doctor before you start any treatment of any kind is just laughable. Let's face the facts. Your doctor knows little of complementary and alternative therapies. He or she certainly will not be able to help you. All they will do is to try to put you off everything except for some conventional treatment.

In other words you'll come away with a prescription for an expensive and poweful drug that has a long list of side effects, and will probably cause some other problem that needs yet another drug to control it.

The second thing was while I was reading an article on trying a herbal remdy to help you sleep. The author described a simple situation of insomnia and the herb that might help while compaing it with the problems associated with a conventional equivalent. The herb had few if any side effects while the latter had real problems with hangover drowsiness and addiction. He finished with the usual "ask your doctor first".

I almost shouted at the screen, "Why ask him?" It is clear that the herb is much safer than the prescription drug so why bother. Try the herb first and if it doesn't work, move on. Talk to the herbalist or health professional; get some other advice. Only go to the doctor if you think there might be some underlying cause for your problem, such as cancer. Then insist on answers.

If you want to try something new, read up about it yourself and if you think it might help, just get on with it. Telling your doctor really won't help you. But, remember that if you do this it is your responsibility if it doesn't go the way you hope. You can't sue yourself. But, at least you will go into it with your eyes wide open.

Asking your doctor is clearly there to avoid law suits flying to the authors. I understand that since I am an author too, and the last thing I want is to be sued. So everything I write is with the understanding that it is educational advice, not medical. The responsibility is yours to be informed and happy with what you choose to do about your health. You choose, you decide and you take the consequences. Ask your doctor if you want to; as if he cares!

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