Next week I hope to share a book review, but this week I wanted to take one more look at the medical profession, holistic profession, and God’s wisdom when making health choices.

Biblical Example

“And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the Physicians. And Asa slept (rested in death with) his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign.” (2 Chronicles 16:12-13)

So Asa developed some kind of disease in his feet, but notice that he suffered with it for two years before he died. I could not find what kind of disease this could have been. Some sources mentioned gout and renal failure, other sources mentioned that his legs were diseased.

What does the American medical system look like?

One thing I have noticed when I consult a doctor, instead of trying to get to the root of what is causing the problem, they want to prescribe a pill or supplement, injections, or surgery. For the past few years, I’ve had normal blood pressures, until January of this year. The instant the doctor noted my increased blood pressure she wanted to prescribe a medication with all kinds of side effects while I sat trying to talk my way out of it. I blamed white coat syndrome, stress, not enough sleep. And any one of those could have caused it, but after talking her into letting me try to reduce it myself with diet, exercise, and stress relief, I went home and begin experimenting on myself. What caused my blood pressure to go up, what caused it to go down…? [Note: She had me check my blood pressure three times a day for a week after I went home from that visit. It stayed up and she tried once more to put me on medication. I talked her into letting me continue to work on it and she said as long as I could keep it below 140/90, she would let me try. It has taken me awhile to get there.]

In the meantime, I had also talked her into not putting me on Cholesterol medication due to the side effects from that, and I promised to work on my diet and exercise programs.

Many years ago, I worked in Labor and Delivery. One day they pulled me to the medical floor. Because my area of experience was Labor and Delivery, I spent the day looking up the medications that I was giving to my assigned patients since I was unfamiliar with most of them. I found myself taking plastic medicine cups filled to the brim with medication at 8:00 am, 10:00 am, noon, and it started again after lunch with the administration of medication every two hours… not just a pill or two, but cup fulls.

My patients that day were sixty-year-olds and older, and when I started comparing the side effects to what they were admitted to the hospital for—they were the same. Now, me being young and having been taught to advocate for my patients, I approached one man’s doctor and tried to kindly express that the problems he had been admitted for were the same ones that the medications he was on would cause, especially when mixed together. The doctor was not happy with me at all and blew me off. I was so glad to get away from that death trap floor—umm, I mean medical floor, and back to my baby floor, but it taught me many lessons that I have carried with me over the years.

Lessons from a nurse:

• A doctor’s first instinct is to prescribe a medication instead of getting to the root cause of your problems.
• The pharmaceutical companies play a huge roll in what your doctor prescribes.
• Doctors get kick backs from the pharmaceutical companies for prescribing their medications.
• The offices get kick backs for giving out vaccines.
• Medications often interact with each other and many have side effects worse than the disease they are treating.
• Blood pressure medication can induce something called sick sinus syndrome which requires that you get a pace maker. (My mother ended up with a pacemaker for sick sinus syndrome.)
• Osteoporosis medication (Fosamax) can cause fractures of the big bones, like the femur, and also cause a condition called osteonecrosis of the jaw in which bone tissue of the jaw dies causing possible collapse of the jaw bone. (Lovely)
• There are many articles that report that steroid injections given for osteoarthritis of the knee can actually make it worse.
• Cholesterol medication can cause your hair to fall out and problems with memory. Blood pressure medications can affect memory as well.
• The Pharmaceutical companies established the range for lab results that would say your cholesterol is too high and therefore defined when you should be put on their medication. (Did you know that Cholesterol is produced in your liver and helps with immunity?)
• My Dad is 89-years-old and has never been on blood pressure medication. (He’s on cholesterol medication [Could it be because the bar is set too low by the pharmaceutical controlled lab values?] He’s also on medication for diabetes, but it is self-induced through consumption of too much sugar. So not everyone needs blood pressure medication as they age.
• It is my opinion that you can also cause yourself more problems by taking too many supplements. They can interact with each other and cause just as many problems as medication from the pharmacy.
• A doctor looks at you for five minutes and is usually in a hurry to move on to the next patient. Most of your problems need to be studied and experimented with to find answers.
• Someone has to care about your health, and the only someone who really cares about your health is YOU!
• And this last thing is the most important of all to know. God has made our bodies with incredible components that interact with each other and has a wonderful ability to heal itself over time and through right choices.

God has given us natural healing processes. He has instructed us on how to approach food. He has put in food everything that we need to keep our bodies healthy. Many people say our soil is depleted and the minerals and vitamins are no longer adequate to supply our bodies with nutrients, but in the garden, I’ve noticed, if my soil is depleted, nothing grows at all.

For myself, I think behavior modification is the best approach I can use for health restoration. The changes I need to make include:

• Believe the Bible – every word of it. If it says we can eat anything… then I can eat anything. (see 1 Timothy 4:3-5)
• If it says not to eat to excess with greed in my heart, than I should not overeat. (see Philippians 3:19, James 4:3, 1 Corinthians 6:13, Galatians 5:24)
• If it says that the kingdom of God is not about food and drink, but about peace and joy, then I should relax and pursue peace and joy— and health will follow. (see Romans 14:17)
• If it says not to worry about what you will eat or drink, then I shouldn’t be obsessed with thinking about food. (see Matthew 6:25-34)

I recently mentioned that I was trying Boswellia (Indian Frankincense) to see if it would help me naturally lower my blood pressure. Here are the results:

• Blood pressures the week prior to starting Boswellia: 158/90, 145/95, 156/91, 140/83, 134/80 (I had several in the 160’s/90’s)
• Blood pressures a week after starting Boswellia: 141/92, 128/87, 132/77, 128/85, 123/81

There seems to be some improvement, and it’s not like I don’t spike a blood pressure occasionally because this morning it was 148/97. But overall, it seems to be coming down. Although Boswellia has been known to help arthritis and inflammation, I’ve not seen results from that yet.

In today’s health system, I believe it pays to be your own doctor. Study, try safe things like food, and an occasional proven supplement, or essential oils in place of harmful medications. Seek peace, joy, rest, vacations, and time with God. Lean on Him and prayerfully ask for wisdom. Know your body. Pay attention to how it reacts. Eliminate as much medication as you can and use food for medicine. Make sure you eat the food in moderation. Don’t think you can’t say no to your doctor. It’s your body, God’s temple, and we are not accountable to the doctor but to God in how we treat it. Be willing to take responsibility if you try something and it is the wrong choice for you. Just correct yourself as needed.

***I will say that there are definitely some people that need certain medications to live (as in thyroid medication, some heart medications, ect.) and you cannot go cold turkey off of any kind of heart medication. If you are on several medications, seek out wisdom from God and consult your doctor if you are noticing side effects and would like to get off of them.

Pray for wisdom and try your best not to vacillate when others try to talk you out of the wisdom God has given you. (See James 1:5-6)

Have you found any tried and true remedies that are working for you? If so, please share. That’s how we learn and help each other. And believe me, I could definitely use some help right now. Especially with osteoarthritis of the knees and back issues.