What Alternative Medicine Means to Me

I'm a first born, rule follower.  I have never had the desire to stand out.  I wanted to please my parents, my teachers, my elders.  I have always gone with the flow.  So the switch to alternative medicine and green living has not been an easy one for me.  I didn't do it to be different.  I don't like to be different.  It certainly wasn't remotely normal when we started down this path.  I just had two sick kids and lots of specialists that wanted to prescribe many, many medications which weren't working.  We needed a new plan but I was afraid to go against the doctors' recommendations.  They made me feel like a bad mom for not doing things their way.

The specialist I now use for both my kids, a pediatrician (MD) who uses alternative methods to treat children with immune issues, explained alternative medicine to me in this way.  God made the body.  He gave us everything we needed to be healthy and whole.  But we live in a broken world with toxins, diseases, and sickness.  Yet the body gives us clues when things are not working correctly.  Pain is an obvious signal.  Allergies, eczema, and asthma are also clues that the immune system needs support.  I use the clues the body is giving us to guide me in giving the body what it needs.

My mainstream doctor looked at allergies and wanted to do allergy shots. Eczema called for prescribed creams and asthma resulted in prescriptions for steroids, albuterol, and pulmicort.  However, our specialist said, "These things are clues."  He did allergy panels and we removed offending foods.  He did blood work and prescribed supplements to treat the vitamin and mineral deficiencies he found.  He encouraged me to keep their struggling bodies away from things that would burden them further like toxins and chemicals.  And then the allergies, eczema, and asthma went away.  Kids were MUCH happier.  Skin became smooth right away.  The asthma stopped right away.  It took awhile, however, before foods that had to be removed could be reintroduced.  A few allergies remain for one of my kids.  But it is nothing like before.  It seemed so logical, this alternative medicine, but people were very suspect and uncomfortable with it.

So I have been willing to be the weird one because it has brought so much health and healing for the kids.  And, because I do not love debates or controversy, I've kept our medical views largely private.  But it is a passion of mine to encourage the mom who is where I was.  So scared and overwhelmed with mounting copays, tons of prescriptions, and sick kids not getting better even though you are doing what the doctor recommends.  There may be a new idea here in the pages of this blog.  May be you'll find some answers and options in unexpected places.  Maybe alternative medicine isn't so crazy after all! 

This blog is for you so if you have questions, ask them!  If I don't know the answer, I'll try and put you in touch with someone that does.  I'd love to learn with you!

The picture above is my kids eating ice cream!  We went all the way to the Grand Canyon and that was the highlight for my daughter!  Such is the way with a child who has had dairy allergies in the past.

Fabulous Grain Free Granola Recipe and Why We Eat Mostly Paleo

My husband loves to have a bowl of cereal right before bed.  He has been doing this since he was a kid he says.  He doesn't like having all those carbs in his belly right before he goes to bed, however.  So he was really excited when I found this recipe for a grain free granola in a cookbook I bought for the kids, Eat Like a Dinosaur.  Everyone loves it that has tried it so far...my Father in Law even saying I should give it out as a gift this Christmas!  This is some tasty granola!

Here is the recipe with the modifications I've made:

Grain-Free Granola

1 1/2 Cups of sliced almond
1 1/2 Cups coconut flakes, chopped (I use this I purchase from Amazon)
1 Cup of walnuts or almonds (ground in the food processor)
1 Cup of macadamia nuts, finely chopped
1 Cup of dried cranberries
4 fresh medjool dates, chopped to the size of the cranberries
1/2 Cup coconut oil, melted and extra for greasing pan (sometimes I use butter instead)
1/3 Cup of raw honey
2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Combine almonds, coconut flakes, nuts, and fruit in a bowl.  Whisk together oil, honey, and cinnamon in another bowl.  Pour oil-honey mixture over nuts and fruit and mix.  Spread into a well greased glass baking dish.  Bake at 275 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to prevent burning.  Store in airtight container at room temperature.

And Why We Eat Paleo...

The Paleo Diet is gluten free, dairy free and full of whole foods.  Most of the food eaten is just meat,  vegetables, and fruit.  There are no artificial sweeteners, colors, or processed foods in the diet.  The diet is also very low carb and low sugar.

Something is obviously wrong in our world.  So many kids have all kinds of allergies, disorders, and cancer is so prevalent.  I believe this is due in large part to all the toxins in our environment, but the changes in our diet are at fault also.  So much of what people eat is processed junk.  People don't cook from scratch anymore.  So our guts are full of yeast and bacteria overgrowth, and food intolerances, allergies, and asthma are now common.  People just accept allergies and asthma as part of their lives.  Go to Disneyland (or anywhere else you see a random sample of our population) and people are obese, with big bellies.  And they have the accompanying health problems that go with their size...diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart problems.

I started serving Paleo food at home because I liked that it keeps blood sugar stable, helps keep inflammation down, and fights yeast overgrowth in the gut (because sugar and carbs feed yeast).  I also liked that it is free of many of the common food allergens.  I had never been gluten free but noticed that quickly after starting the diet, my belly became flatter as I stopped eating gluten.  I read Wheat Belly and better understood why.  It is written by a cardiologist who clearly explains how wheat has been altered to increase yields for farmers and, due to being altered, it is now causing all kinds of problems for people (celiac, IBS, allergies, obesity, etc.)  He says if you get out your grandma's old family pictures and look at the people, you will not see these "wheat bellies" that are so common today.  Very interesting stuff in this book.  Another good one is Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It.  Here is an interview with the author and an interesting article about why people have trouble losing weight.

The Paleo Diet is not perfect and I know there is no perfect diet.  My husband does some intense workouts several times a week and enjoys them very much.  He needs to supplement with some carbs before and after these workouts so he can have the energy needed for the long workouts.  We also aren't super strict about following it in its entirety.  I still happily serve potatoes (chips too) and some gluten free, carb heavy treats like GF homemade pizza, pancakes, and Mac N Cheese on occasion.  We just eat far fewer carbs than the average American and make most of our food from scratch.  And we also do some dairy and alcohol as we desire.  But we are really enjoying coconut and almond milk, hot dogs and hamburgers without buns, and looking for ways to eat more healthily.

My husband's cousin has started eating Paleo and was joined by some friends at work.  They've all lost weight but the exciting thing is that the people that have done before and after blood work are seeing big improvements in their triglycerides, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels!

I feel better than I ever have since starting this way of eating and I don't miss the bread at all!  The cravings for sugar, flour based treats, and bread are gone.  And I used to love the bread basket at restaurants.  It was seriously a highlight!  Speaking of restaurants, I don't really crave their food anymore either.  Me who LOVED treating myself by going out to dinner.  Now I am happier eating at home.  Never in a million years would I ever thought I'd be here...


Moneysaver:  I buy the ingredients for the granola at Trader Joe's.  Their nuts and dried fruits are so much more affordable than other stores.  I need to look into Costco too.

Our Beginning with Green Living

My second child was 4 months old, in the ER examination room, struggling to breathe.  My husband was in denial when they decided to admit her.  "I think they are short patients and drumming up business.  She doesn't need to be admitted," he told me.  I was so very sad.  I couldn't believe we were doing this again.  My firstborn's short life had been filled with hospital stays, lots of prescriptions, and many allergies.

At four months old my daughter's entire body was covered in bumps (eczema) and a few places were constantly scabbing over and bloody.  She refluxed constantly and was a very unhappy baby.  She had several loose bowel movements a day that poured out of her diaper and burned her bottom.  She had open sores on her bottom too.  I changed her sheets numerous times a day due to the diaper leaks.  Now she was being hospitalized with asthma. 

We already had a medical baseline allowance with our electric company because of the constant use of the nebulizer for my son (up to 7 times a day for both Pulmicort and Albuterol).  The doctor said it was a lifetime condition when she signed the baseline allowance form and checked the lifetime (no need to be renewed) box.  The medicines and mainstream medical approaches did nothing to help my son get better.  We just spent a lot of time with the nebulizer and he suffered the side affects from the medicines.  I had always listened to and followed the advice of my mainstream doctors so I had felt hopeless that their solution wasn't working.
Recently, however, I had been able to stop all my son's asthma meds by putting him on a diet free from his food intolerances and by giving him supplements to support his immune system.  A specialist had done blood tests to tell me what foods to eliminate and what supplements to give based on his allergy panel and blood work showing vitamin and mineral deficiencies.  I had also been starting to research how to make our home environment and food as non toxic as possible.  Finally something was helping my son get stronger and healthier!

When they released my daughter from the hospital the next afternoon, with several prescriptions and a nebulizer, I knew what I was going to do.  I promised myself I would use the nebulizer IF she started wheezing again but would first try and prevent wheezing with the same protocol I had used for my son.  And she hasn't needed a nebulizer since that hospital stay at 4 months!  No meds.  No wheezing! 

It has been a long journey, but now, just finishing her Kindergarten year, she is a happy, healthy girl who was recently awarded an academic excellence medal at her school's award ceremony.

This blog will discuss the many things we are committed to, as a family, to be as healthy as we can be!  Healing comes from God and I believe with all my heart He is the reason for the healing I've seen in my children's lives.  That being said, He has used some interesting methods to bring that healing about:)  I am committed to praying and asking God to guide us each day.  You may be surprised when you read where that has taken us.