Western Medicine, Water, and Hope!

It's been two months since I arrived in the USA from India. Most of my time has been in the suburbs of Wilmington, Delaware. It's funny I was realizing the other day how "normal" it seems to me here now. How I've adapted.

I watched the movie Kundun last night which is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It depicts the Dalai Lama's early years and flight from Tibet during the Chinese Invasion. It makes me sad to realize the USA's lip service to world democracy when they obviously use such terms to support their own agenda's such as oil, while ignoring such violations of humanity as those in Tibet.

The movie brought back images of what it is like to travel in the "third" world where most people have little clutter in their lives. Few cars. Few belongings. Sparse, small houses and abodes. The material wealth and waste we have in the US is amazing. Astonishing. Wonderful. Grotesque. It's interesting how little relationship there is between happiness and material things. I've seen what we would consider impoverished little kids gleefully playing with a used plastic bottle as a soccer balls in the streets of Gangtok.

I no longer think twice before hopping in the car, and driving in that isolated box down the road. I easily spend $15-20 here in a moment. I could live up to 4 days on that in India. I watched Ben Cohen's explanation of the Federal Budget last night. It struck me how easy it would be to feed the world. A family in India could live on $1000/year. I've been making smoothies in a blender. This morning I wondered how far the resources I use for my morning juice would go in the third world?

Meanwhile I've seen more of the inside of the American Medical system than ever before. Insurance. Specialists. Run arounds. I tried insurance once and found it a waste of time. I was in the middle of dental work with a root canal or two halfway done, when my employer signed me up for dental insurance. I went to the new dentist covered by my insurance. They insisted on a consultation and told me that I needed to have a crown put on my tooth that was prepared for a crown... and that it needed to be done soon! Then offered me an appointment three weeks later. I quit the insurance and went back to paying my own way at my previous dentist. In San Francisco, the handful of times I thought I needed western medicine, I was able to go to sliding scale clinics. Over the years, I've learned quite a bit about healing from other sources like Reiki and shamanism. I've learned that healing happens when we set the intention to heal. Then we find a ritual to help with that intention. The ritual could be western medicine or Reiki or anything that promotes our belief/intention and health. I've learned that it is important to find resources that support and help you in your goal. It's important to be proactive in your healthcare. If you have a condition that one modality cannot heal, go to another that has solutions. Find someone who has healed from the condition you have. Find out what they did.

If people put as much intention into their health and healing as they do in manifesting cars and homes and material bric brac, they would be very healthy indeed! Yet, for some reason we tend to want to skimp on our health. We look for cheap doctors and cheap food! Rather than nurturing doctors and food!

I'm aghast at the proliferation of drug advertisements. There was one on the trailer at the movie theater the other day! Strange in a society that is in the midst of anti-drug wars for recreational drugs. Strange people don't see the connection between use of medical drugs and recreational drugs. The same quick fix mentality. And funny how some drugs like caffeine, alcohol, sugar, salt, and cigarettes are arbitrarily accepted as OK. Drugs are big business. Drug salesman bombard physicians daily with new products.

It's no wonder that when one of my dear friends was nauseous, already on 10 medications, that her doctor prescribed another drug. No examination. No weight measure. No diet questions. No interest in exploring the possibility that her side effects were caused by one of her other medications. The new drug would destroy the stomach's ability to produce digestive acid. No doubt in another few months, some sort of artificial stomach acid would be prescribed! Meanwhile, one specialist sends her to another. The greater tragedy I see is that the doctors don't really focus on increasing the health of the body. I read about herbs that actually help the body improve itself. Micro nutrients that help build tissue. I experience ancient sciences of yoga and acupuncture that focus on improving the body. Western medicine is largely a system of patches upon patches. Don't get me wrong, Western science has some excellent procedures for radical emergencies. But overall it's focus seems invasive and focused on lifelong dependency.

Some friends of mine offer workshops on eye health and vision. When eyeglasses were first developed, they were used as temporary measures. The doctor would work at reducing the strength of the correction with an eye for strengthening and improving the eye. Now we take eye glasses as permanent fixtures in our life... no thought of actually trying to improve eyesight. And medications are no better.

The good news is there is a growing movement of alternative choices. Integrative Medicine Programs are becoming common. The combine the best of Western Medicine for acute cases with the best of other modalities for degenerative conditions that western medicine doesn't have answers for. The good news is that more and more people are starting to take charge of their own bodies and care. A growing organic and supplement market is showing that people are looking into less invasive ways and lifestyle changes to actually improve their health and vitality.

In Gary Null's Ultimate Anti Aging Program, I read about a 90 year old man who is a marathon runner! When he was 80, he was arthritic, had a precancerous condition in his bowels, asthma, and chronic sinusitis! Simple lifestyle and diet changes turned his life around! And in Null's study of 256 people with a program for anti aging, those types of results were common! Someplace else I read (not sure whether it was in one of Andrew Weil's books, or Lemole's Healing Diet), that high cholesterol foods affect your arteries for 6-8 hours after eating them. If, for instance, you eat a bag of potato chips three times a day, your body is constantly compromised. So the good news, is if you simply cut out all the crap food, your body will naturally heal! Alot easier than getting some drug for the rest of your life!

And so I'm optimistic for myself and others. Long ago I set my intention to live a healthy active life until my 90s, and then to die quickly, easily, and peacefully. It makes me happy and confident when I read about and see other people finding ways to do such things. I wish more people would put such focus and intention into their own health, well being, and death. Your every thought and action is a prayer and ritual for creating your life!

In the last few weeks I've been researching water a bit. Long ago I started actually following the common advice of drinking a minimum of 8-10 glasses of water per day... something like 2-3 quarts/liters for a minimum. And more with exercise, sickness, and/or drying conditions. I have found myself in remarkable health compared to many of my peers. I have found that water revives me when I am tired. The common water recommendation seems to be based on how much water the body looses through fluids and evaporation. There are a few studies and many personal accounts that show that increased water intake heals or reduces such conditions as cancer. Strokes apparently tend to happen when blood is thick and less hydrated. There is the caveat that it is possible to over hydrate by drinking too much water with too few salts very quickly. I think that would be very hard to do... I mean I've often drank 1 liter at a time with no problem and occasionally close to 2 liters. In my travels I'm amazed at people I meet with dark stinky pee. I figure if I can get my pee close to clear during the day, I'm well hydrated. I'm amazed how much this water this can take with relative inactivity in a dry heated house. Water lubricates the body. That's very important for exercise! I think lots of people shrug off exercise with old age, when they really just need to eat and drink water. Hulda Crooks, a woman who started backpacking up mountains as a senior citizen discovered that on her first hike. She grew tired and weary and was thinking perhaps she was too old. She stopped and ate and drank, and found her energy renewed! How many countless others give up and give in to stories of old age. I've met people younger than me who already have chosen such dis-empowered realities. I've wondered at times why we seem to need so much water. I read of Aborigines walking around the desert and I doubt they drink that much. I think perhaps our needs are because we have more toxins to flush out of our body, and perhaps our mineral intake is lacking with all the synthetic salts and foods. Celtic sea salt for instance has nearly the same mineral content as blood. Processed salt is sodium chloride. I look at the studies. Most of all I look at my own experience. When I drink 3-6 liters/quarts per day, I feel good. When I don't I feel worse, I get more aches and pains. I find that when I exercise the affects of water show up very quickly. When I am hiking and take a rest every hour or two to snack and drink water, I can go on and on. When I don't, I get crabby, tired, and develop aches/pains/injuries. Water is such a simple and cheap thing to try, I am surprised more people don't try it!

Indian Health Medical Wisdom and Wellness

As I watch the changes of time affect myself, my friends, and my extended family, I keep thinking of the wisdom of other cultures that has been overlooked in the colonialism of westerners and their science.

India's tradition of yoga is an age old methodology of ways to maintain and improve the function of your physical body. How to take care of it with food and water. How to exercise it. It's like the owner's manual for a car, except yoga has been around alot longer. I am struck the the simple common sense and self care techniques presented in Secrets of Hatha Yoga. He addresses everything from proper hydration and chewing your food well, to how to relax and sleep well. Another book I have been enjoying is The Eight Human Talents: Restore the Balance and Serenity within You with Kundalini Yoga which has simple exercises listed according to chakras and also describes which organs and systems the exercise addresses. In her decades of practice she has seen students reverse conditions such as Hepatitis C and AIDS as well as depression.

Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medical science has been around since 3000BC. Along with herbal pharmaceuticals, they had techniques for surgery. There was even a kind of mudpack MRI used to diagnose internal disease! There is a wonder movie called Ayurveda: The Art of Being that gives an overview of this ancient medical science. It shows places in which Ayurveda has answers and solutions where Western Medicine does not.

After my Babadham pilgrimage I had a terrible cough that left me winded. I suspected it was exhaustion and nutrition related. A local friend took me to a ayurvedic doctor who gave me some herbs to take for a few days. I was skeptical.... I had envisioned a proper Ayurvedic evaluation determining my "type" and taking my pulse etc. Instead I was asked a few questions and given herbs. I took the herbs and figured I might go to the western doctor if need be. I avoided the western doctor because I feared antibiotics or an asthmatics inhaler, both of which I knew had harmful side effects. In spite of my doubt of the Ayurvedic prescription, within a day I was breathing better and within a week I felt nearly back to normal. Like with any medicine, there is always margin for errors and effectiveness, as well as good and bad practitioners.


In my travels in life, I am constantly amazed at how beneficial being proactive in your own life and health can be. I meet people my age and younger who give in to "old age". I've always sought to improve and strengthen my body. If I get knee pains or muscle pains, I seek to remedy the situation. Often I have found drinking more water alleviates such things. I remember a book by Hulda Crooks (Conquering life's mountains: A collection of writings), a woman who started hiking in her forties and started backpacking and climbing at age 75. She said of her first mountain ascent how she found herself exhausted part way up and started thinking she was perhaps too old. Instead of giving in to the thought, she took a short rest, drank some water, and ate. She was revived! She continued climbing into her 90s and died at the ripe age of 101. http://www.llu.edu/news/today/dec3/llu.htm

I think of quantum theory and how each thought we make is a prayer, an intention, and a form of self hypnosis. If you are thinking "how weak I are" you will surely find yourself less strong than if you are thinking "how strong I am".

I look at the elders in the Indian mountain tribes and wonder at their physical prowess as they carry large loads from their heads and trek up and down steep mountains with dexterity and balance. I wonder at the ability of older yoga practitioners to sit crosslegged and with more flexibility than I perhaps have ever had. And yet it's not about gymnastics, but rather being able to enjoy your body while you are in it!

I wonder a bit at the colonial attitude of Western Medicine and Science in discounting ancient sciences and traditions that have been around longer than it has. I oft think of the subjectivity of discounting something because you haven't developed the technology or wisdom to measure it. We are all entitled to our experiences whether or not they have been proven. Slowly things are changing and circling around. Years ago, herbs were mainstay. Then science and industrial entrepreneurs came in and extracted isolates from the herbs and discounted the herbs to corner the market. Now herbs are on a comeback as people find the nature has wisdom in keeping herbs complex... in ways that help prevent overdose, toxicity, and side effects that can occur with isolated compounds. Conveniently for capitalists, regulations help ensure their market. Who would buy a product for comforting their stomach if they could step outside their door and pick some mint? And on the flip side, some of the folklore was inappropriate, and the cultural context has dissipated. The witches were burned and the local natural healer in the village have been burned at the stake or lost in the winds of "progress" and movement.

In India those changes are still in their midst. I think it must be similar to the USA's patterns in the early 1900's as industrialization and "progress" disrupted the village communal life.

Perhaps it's time to stretch and take a break from sitting at this computer!!!