BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Alternative Medicine It's Possible to Help Yourself Heal

This week I had two big examples of just what it takes to improve a deadly health problem. About 3 years ago, my father, who is otherwise in good health for someone 84 years old, was told he had a cancer of the blood. This cancer is caused by the bone marrow no longer producing the platelets to clot the blood. The usual progression is low energy, bruising all over the body and eventually needing weekly blood transfusions.

My mom has always been very proactive when it comes to health. She asks me to research any and all health issues that come up and they try to do whatever they need to to over come things naturally.

My dad started eating iron rich foods and drinking blueberry juice every day and eating blueberries, a superfood full of antioxidants. Everything we could come up with to build up blood was what my dad started doing.

Over the next 3 years he went from going to the blood oncologist every 3 months to check blood counts to going every 6 months to being told his blood counts were near normal. The doctors are amazed! He is like the poster child for this blood disorder and they've never actually seen anyone get better from it.

So, have the doctors been writing him up in medical journals? Have they even asked him if he's doing anything to cause such unheard of improvements? No, they have not. They just continue to be amazed at his getting better.

Also, a friend of mine, a very nice lady who is 76 years old, suffered a heart attack about 2 years ago. Did she give up and take to her bed? No, she decided to join a seniors exercise class 5 days a week. This past week, her cardiologist told her she has health the damage to her heart with exercise! She now only has to go back to see him every year, instead of every 3 months.

So what's the moral here? One is that usually the doctors don't tell you anything you can do to help yourself. If, as in the case of my dad, there is no magic pill to pop, they tell you to go home and live with it. If you do help yourself, they don't bother to ask what your'e doing so they can pass it on to others. They just think you are a "miracle".

My mom actually lowered her cholesterol from 250 to 190, using only cinnamon. For the first time in 35 years, her cholesterol was normal. Her doctor DID ask what she was doing and she told him she was eating cinnamon but he didn't bother to comment on it-lol.

The two individuals I'm writing about are elderly and they managed to make a real difference in their health. Just think, if you are younger what you could do to improve any health condition you have?

Whatever health problem you might be facing, research ways to improve it yourself though health improvements. Anything natural you can do can be added to whatever the doctor is suggesting too and certainly won't hurt you.

These are very inspiring stories! Thanks so much for sharing. I told my mom about the cinnamon thing and she is trying it too.

Joan, I couldn't agree with you more. On my Stomach Issues site I really try and steer people in the direction of listening to their bodies signs and signals. Pharmaceuticals are not the answer to health. Dr. Oz says that food acts as medications in the body. A bow to Dr. Oz! I wish other doctors would join him and spread the wisdom!

Shay

I've visited the stomach issues site and I'm really glad you try to empower people to do what they can to heal themselves. I think too that sometimes people get "wedded" to an idea about their health, they begin to identify with the illness or disease, they think about it, they focus on it, they talk about symptoms, etc and the more they do this, the more real it becomes to them and they can't imagine health anymore.

I had something go haywire in my nervous system some time ago. I started researching it and it hit me how easy it would be to pick up the cloak of "someone with a disease of the nervous system" and wear that cloak and become that person. I decided, "No, I'd rather not!"

I was cleared by a neurologist and moved on, focusing on health. I think anyone can focus on the empowering thought "what can I do to make this better?," then create a plan and follow it, refusing to focus on any alternatives.

There is so much out there that people can do no matter what illness or disease they face. Building health in general will give the illness less of a toe hold in the body and allow the body to heal itself.

Joan, that's a great insight. I totally agree. Years ago, a doctor told me I had an ulcer, gave me medicine that depressed me and a diet that made living seem useless anyway (milk toast--Gross!), so I decided to forget about it. And, later on, with IBS, I didn't like the medicine either and figured out that fiber supplements kept the symptoms under control just as well.

Now, I need to fix my allergies!

Self-help healing is the most powerful and has the most life-long effects, as far as I'm concerned. We all know ourselves better than anybody : )

My husband had high blood pressure and high cholesterol and we started him on a better diet and we walked after dinner each night with the kids. When the weather was bad, he got a gym membership and went to work out.

Those things really worked for him and he doesn't need to take medications now, like the dr wanted him to. The doctor did recommend the diet and exercise but I think most of his patients don't ever do those things. They'd rather just have the pills. The dr seemed a little surprised that my husband was able to do it naturally.

Yes, your food is your medicine. The human body is capable of healing itself if you feed it the way nature intended. I have felt strongly about this subject for many years.

As a former 300 pound borderline diabetic with high blood pressure, i used a diet high in veggies and fruit to reverse my medical situation. A high intake of high antioxidant superfoods really works!

There is no disease known to man that can not be healed from within. Between correct nourishment and a healing mindset it can and is being accomplished throughout the world. My family has done it for generations.

This is a great thread! My mom was really into researching all of our families ailments and then using natural means to treat them and I've followed in her footsteps.

Now that I have kids of my own, I do my best to keep us all healthy with organic foods and using organic products, eating a nutritional diet and getting the kids out for exercise.

I really feel that as a mother this is one of the most important things I can teach my children. They are extremely healthy, never even get colds.