I AM A WELLNESS SEEKER
It was 5 years ago when I finally confirmed that I had Diabetes and Hypertension. Along with those chronic diseases, I also had hypercholesterolemia and fatty liver.
Probably, I had all those chronic diseases long before that but I avoided blood tests or even simply taking my blood pressure because I was afraid to confirm that I had them. I was definitely in denial. To me, not knowing was like not having.
I thought that for as long as I was feeling OK, I could postpone tests. I thought that for as long as I lived a “healthy” lifestyle, I would be just fine.
So, what prompted me to have the tests taken that fateful day 5 years ago?
It was because my Dad suddenly passed away from a heart attack, which was a complication of his Diabetes and a year after that my Mom also passed away from complications of her own chronic diseases. By the way, she had a number of them: Hypertension, renal failure, hypothyroidism, and chronic depression.
After they both died, my fear of death overpowered the fear of knowing…at that moment, I just had to know if I had inherited their chronic diseases that could potentially kill me.
As a practicing Doctor, I knew how inheritance of genes or GENETICS played a big role in the development of a chronic diseases. In fact, back then, I thought that GENETICS was the destiny. That for anyone with the genes for it, chronic disease would come sooner or later. One could delay onset of chronic diseases but there would be no escaping it.
This was why I was so afraid to get the tests. As a daughter of parents with both the Diabetes and Hypertension genes, I knew I was going to get them.
I also knew that the obvious recourse after confirmation that I had Chronic Diseases would be to take medications for them. Modern Medicine has a treatment regimen for every disease which includes pharmaceutical medications for every symptom. I learned that well in Medical School.
Shortly after that, I unwillingly started myself on medications. This is for lack of any better alternative. My metabolic blood test results were on the high side and I had to address them right away. If not, I would risk getting a heart attack, a stroke, and/or damage to my blood vessels and organs.
I took a blood pressure-lowering medication, specifically, a calcium channel blocker for my hypertension, a cholesterol-lowering medication, specifically statin, for my high cholesterol as daily maintenance. I did not start any medication for my Diabetes for reason I will explain later. Instead I tried some diet modifications.
I said I started the medications unwillingly because though I knew they would immediately lower my high blood pressure and my high cholesterol, I did not like the side effects that would come with them and certainly did not want to take them as maintenance medications for life.
Why not?
Pharmaceutical medications will serve to relieve or alleviate the SYMPTOMS of the disease, as in this case, will lower my blood pressure and cholesterol, but WILL NOT CURE the disease itself. Medications do not address the root cause of WHY my blood pressure or cholesterol levels are high in the first place.
They also have an array of side effects and complications associated with them.
Common Side effects to be expected from Calcium channel blockers include headache, swelling of ankles or feet, dizziness and light headedness, drowsiness, tired feeling, nausea, stomach pain and flushing, etc.
Common Side effects to be expected from Statins include headache, dizziness, feeling sick, feeling unusually tired and physically weak, digestive problems, muscle pain and damage, liver damage, sleep problems, low platelet count, increase in blood sugar, neurological side effects, etc.
And what about the common Side effects to be expected from the most common Blood sugar lowering medication, specifically Metformin?
They include physical weakness, diarrhea, flatulence muscle pain, upper respiratory tract infections, low blood sugar, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, chest discomfort, chills, dizziness, bloating, constipation, heart burn, etc.
As an active person who loves running, I was afraid of the physical weakness that is associated with Metformin and this is why I turned to diet modification.
Anyone who knew these side effects would probably be as unwilling as I was.
How can anyone be so willing to live with such side effects for life? Who on earth would be willing to develop complications from taking medications which can be worse than the primary disease itself?
A good analogy I can think of is this…
I think of our bodies like the roof of a house and chronic disease as like the holes that cause leaks in the roof. I think of the medications as like “sealants” that can stop the leak in the short term…offering temporary solution.
Unfortunately, the “sealants” in this case are destructive on their own which potentially cause more corrosion, ultimately, the holes (chronic diseases) will just keep getting larger, and the roof (our bodies) would eventually be completely corroded and destroyed beyond repair.
I have seen this happen to both my parents.
They both took all their maintenance medications with good compliance. Medications are costly and a lot of their lifetime savings went into them. There was alleviation of symptoms but no cure. As years went on, they just got more medications added to their regimen. And then they started experiencing complications from both their primary diseases and the side effects of taking them daily for decades.
It was particularly bad for my Mom who had to live with renal dialysis for more than 7 years before her body finally gave up. Her primary chronic disease was hypertension which led to destruction of her kidneys. The rest of her chronic diseases developed as complications while she was undergoing renal dialysis twice weekly. She was on 18 different pills daily and was so weak and lifeless in the last years of her life.
Please don’t get me wrong. I am an advocate of using pharmaceutical medications to address SEVERE symptoms of chronic diseases and to prevent death and disability. I would prescribe them to my patients when they are required for ACUTE conditions and for SEVERE symptoms of CHRONIC CONDITIONS. I would advise anyone taking them at this moment to continue taking them.
IMPORTANT WORDS OF CAUTION: DO NOT STOP YOUR MAINTENANCE MEDICATIONS until you have found an alternative that has already normalized your condition. Closely Monitor your condition and work closely with your attending physician.
What I was not and still not an advocate for is solely relying on them as CURE and for them to be taken as daily maintenance FOR LIFE and without fixing the LIFESTYLE FACTORS.
Maintenance medications are not crutches you can rely on to heal you without adapting a healthy lifestyle.
I knew that the alternative was along the path of lifestyle changes and this was the key to the unlock the CURE.
But what lifestyle? Apparently, the “healthy” lifestyle I had been living was not the right one to prevent my chronic diseases.
My quest for a better alternative was how I began my journey as a WELLNESS SEEKER.
I turned to books, seminars and information on the internet to find the answers.
That was how I came across Dr. Mark Hyman, a world renowned author, wellness advocate, and functional medicine practitioner who said:
Genetics loads the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger!
Some genes predispose you to chronic diseases but predisposition is not predestined.
To develop a chronic disease, 2 switches must be turned on. The first switch is the GENE (GENETICS) but the second switch is LIFESTYLE (EPIGENETICS).
It was also providential that in July of 2016, I was introduced to a transformative wellness project by the sisters of my husband, Mia and Vicky.
That was where I learned much about the LIFESTYLE (EPIGENETICS) that would support the CURE from chronic diseases. If lifestyle pulled the trigger to shoot you with chronic disease, then you must learn to address your lifestyle so that the trigger never gets pulled.
The wellness project, led me to an ocean of RIGHT information about the most important contributory lifestyle factors:
Nutrition
Exercise
Sleep
Exposure to stress, anxiety, and pollution
Supplementation.
Ironically, despite having a medical degree, many of the information about EPIGENETICS were new to me. As a Doctor trained in Western Medicine in the 80’s and early 90’s, I consider myself an expert in diagnosis and prescribing treatment involving medications but knew very little about teaching my patients NOT TO NEED MEDICATIONS through lifestyle changes.
So, just what is a WELLNESS SEEKER, you may ask?
A Wellness Seeker is defined as someone who is an INQUIRER of ways to HEAL OF CHRONIC DISEASES, or PUT OFF CHRONIC DISEASES to live a long, happy, energy-filled productive life. I love thinking that I am one.
What are Chronic Diseases?
Chronic Diseases or Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are diseases of long duration and are a result of a combination of GENETIC and LIFESTYLE factors.
The information I have gathered in the 5 years of being a WELLNESS SEEKER has been GOLD. Not only have I applied them to my own chronic diseases and reversed them the natural way, but I have also been sharing them to my family, patients and friends with AWESOME results.
As a WELLNESS SEEKER , I have learned to take OWNERSHIP of my own health and wellness and I am always in constant search for the right information as more scientific advances are seeing light.
Nowadays, it makes me very happy that more and more Doctors have become open minded to the concept of complementary Medicine. Many of them would encourage you to work on your EPIGENETICS together with taking Medications.
How great is it to know that ANYONE who decides to step up and TAKE OWNERSHIP of their own health and become a WELLNESS SEEKER, will have that power to have a future that is FREE OF chronic diseases.
You can save yourself and your loved ones, save your children, their children’s children, and the future generations of your family from chronic diseases!
And it starts with TAKING OWNERSHIP OF YOUR OWN HEALTH!
Be Safe and Well,
P.S.
Want to know some quick tips to get to better health?
We would love to send our newsletter direct to your INBOX.
Please click on the yellow SUBSCRIBE BUTTON below to always be one of the first to receive it.
[button_1 text=”Subscribe” text_size=”32″ text_color=”#000000″ text_bold=”Y” text_letter_spacing=”0″ subtext_panel=”N” text_shadow_panel=”Y” text_shadow_vertical=”1″ text_shadow_horizontal=”0″ text_shadow_color=”#ffff00″ text_shadow_blur=”0″ styling_width=”40″ styling_height=”30″ styling_border_color=”#000000″ styling_border_size=”1″ styling_border_radius=”6″ styling_border_opacity=”100″ styling_shine=”Y” styling_gradient_start_color=”#ffff00″ styling_gradient_end_color=”#ffa035″ drop_shadow_panel=”Y” drop_shadow_vertical=”1″ drop_shadow_horizontal=”0″ drop_shadow_blur=”1″ drop_shadow_spread=”0″ drop_shadow_color=”#000000″ drop_shadow_opacity=”50″ inset_shadow_panel=”Y” inset_shadow_vertical=”0″ inset_shadow_horizontal=”0″ inset_shadow_blur=”0″ inset_shadow_spread=”1″ inset_shadow_color=”#ffff00″ inset_shadow_opacity=”50″ align=”center” href=”#mailmunch-pop-950034″/]
