This AND That

I recently had a conversation with a family member about “health issues” and we discussed peoples’ (over ?) reliance on doctors and medications for treating everything.

And it led me to think honestly about what I have found over 40 years with a serious, progressive, frequently disabling illness.

My view is that some traditional medicine, some holistic approaches along with healthy doses of positive attitude and luck, have worked together to maximize my outcomes.  No one thing alone has been a cure, but, seeking and trying some of each have worked together.

For years, I credited my positive attitude with keeping me healthy. That may have been true for a while, but after 10 years, that was not enough.  Despite trying numerous medications, I started declining and kept declining.  My attitude had not changed, but my health did.

Then, ultimately, finding the “right” medication made all the difference.  My current pharmaceutical treatment has not fixed everything, but by stopping the decline it allowed me to work on improving my diet, nutrition, meditation and cognitive therapy to maximize my status at this level.

I don’t believe that medication alone has “saved me”.

But I also don’t believe that emotional health and holistic treatments would work alone either.

I think that each has played a role and together they have created good results for me.

There may not be “magic bullets” for our health problems but finding good combinations of benefits from “this and that” may produce much of what we seek!

I encourage everyone to seek options, to safely and objectively try them and, in the end, choose the ones that work best for you.