Recently, I have been absolutely fascinated with the subject of treatments that seem logical, but don’t necessarily work, or at least don’t work as well as another treatment that may seem completely illogical.
Let me remind you, I am not a doctor or a nutritionist. I am simply a mom, a daughter, a sister and friend to people who are struggling with their health every day. I have had my own health struggles as well. My purpose for writing this article is simply to open your mind to possibilities, and to share what I feel is useful information for people who may be suffering with any of these conditions. I often forget that there are many people today who are hearing about alternative approaches to health conditions for the very first time. It’s even funny to me that using nutrition to heal your body is considered alternative. It would seem more appropriate to call a man-made drug therapy approach “alternative”. But I digress…
“Lorenzo’s Oil”
The first time I was introduced to this concept of an illogical approach to treatment working was while watching the movie, “Lorenzo’s Oil”, starring Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte. The young man in the movie, is diagnosed with Adrenoleukodystrophy, which is a disorder which results in the accumulation of very-long chain fatty acids in tissues throughout the body. The doctors told her the logical thing to do was to limit fats in her sons diet, but when she went against that recommendation and actually gave him an oil that was a combination of two specific long chain fatty acids, one of them being olive oil, he showed improvement. Normally someone would die within two years of this diagnosis, but Lorenzo lived to be 30 years old, thanks to an illogical approach to his condition, and one brave and determined set of parents.
ADD/ADHD
For anyone whose kids are not having issues with ADD/ADHD, you might assume that the “medication” these kids are put on is a medication that would slow them down or mellow them out, right? They’re frequently all over the place, so it seems logical, to give them a sedative. But the drugs that are given to kids with ADD/ADHD is actually the equivalent of SPEED. These drugs accelerate their minds, and causes the manifestation of the “problem behavior” to minimize. Most kids with ADD/ADHD are quite brilliant. It’s like having a high perforance engine in a luxury car, but giving it cheap gas. However, if you’re shocked that kids are given speed, join the club. I have been told by experts that improving nutrition and eliminating junk food, fast food, chemicals, dyes, etc can accomplish similar results. But this is not an article on how to help ADD/ADHD. This is however, an article about a treatment that seems illogical at first glance – such as giving speed to a hyperactive child – working, when a logical treatment, such as giving that same child a sedative, would not work.
Reflux / GERD
People who are suffering from reflux or GERD are plagued by what seems like too much acid. So the logical solution is to put them on acid blockers, right? Wrong! Because of a lack of nutrition, stress and/or the body not getting enough acidic foods in the diet, the acid pumps in the stomach are not so much over-producing acid as they are malfunctioning. Instead of a steady stream, or the regular functioning, they are putting off surges of acid which is actually just a manifestation of the acid pumps not having what they need to do their job properly. Acid blockers make the problem worse, and you are even less able to digest your food. This means fewer nutrients are actually being absorbed by your body to feed your organs, cells, etc. But again, this article is about what does work. A friend of mine and I began researching natural ways to deal with this, and we found that taking a teaspoon of vinegar, yes vinegar, a couple times a week, eating apples, and using fish oil and resveratrol supplements completely healed her stomach. She had been on an acid blocker for years and had felt terrible, and her hair had started getting really thin. Now she rarely has issues with reflux at all and feels great!
Kidney Stones
Dr. Stephen Chaney, a professor of nutrition at UNC-Chapel Hill told me once that Eastern North Carolina (where I live) is the “kidney stone belt.” A good friend of mine suffers with them frequently. Often what can cause kidney stones is drinking water that has calcium in it. There is more than one form of calcium by the way. There are forms that our body can absorb and forms it can’t. The calcium in our water in this area, is a kind that is not absorbable by our bodies and so it ends up collecting in our kidneys and forming stones. It might seem logical to reduce a person’s calcium intake if they were suffering with kidney stones, but actually, they need MORE calcium, as long as it’s a kind that the body can easily absorb and put to work. The bad calcium causes the good calcium to be leeched from bones and teeth. (A good water filter is also highly recommended!)
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
In the last several years, I have known several people who were diagnosed with MS. One of the first was a friend of mine from church. She was a young mother in her 30’s, and she actually died not from the MS, but from an experimental drug that she had agreed to try. Her immune system was so severely depressed, that a dormant virus that lives in all of us rose up and destroyed her brain. This made a HUGE impact on me, not only because her life ended way too soon, but she left three little girls behind. I felt that she had been given false hope, and had merely been a human guinea pig for the pharmaceutical industry. Shortly thereafter, I lost another friend, but whether it was the condition itself or the meds, I do not know. However, my cousin had a friend who was also diagnosed with MS and she referred him to her Shaklee lady. This man is using one pharmaceutical, Avonex, but also using Shaklee nutrition to manage this condition. He is doing SO WELL, that his doctors gave him a free MRI, because they could not explain why he was doing so well. This young man believes, and I believe the difference is the supplements that he’s using to “feed” his immune system. I have heard others who were bed-ridden and wheel chair bound tell of remarkable recoveries using pretty much the same regimen he has used.
MS is an autoimmune disease. This means the immune system appears to be attacking it’s own body as if it were an outside invader. Many MS treatments these days are immune suppressant pharmaceuticals, because it seems logical that if the immune system is hurting the body, it should be suppressed, right? No! When you feed the immune system with the nutrition that strengthens it, rather than rising up and hurting the body more, it is better able to regulate itself, and symptoms are greatly minimized.
I find this absolutely fascinating!
First of all, it only shows me once again that although man’s wisdom is remarkable, it’s still very limited in regards to God’s amazing creation of the human body. I am also in awe of the lengths we will go to fix what’s wrong with this incredible creation with a man-made solution, when simply giving the body what it was DESIGNED TO USE AS FUEL IN THE FIRST PLACE, reducing stress, and eliminating toxins will solve many of our health problems.
Again, as I said in the beginning of this article. I am searching for answers like many others. I am not the final authority on ANYTHING. But I hope these examples will broaden your thinking on what may truly work, versus what seems to be logical.
Healthy By Design 