It goes like this. . . you walk into your Doctor’s office. You tell him or her about an intermittent problem you are having. Just like getting the brakes looked at over at the mechanic’s shop, this particular day you are not suffering the problem, but you needed an appointment, so this was the day of the appointment. The doctor looks at you and says, “You like fine to me, come back when symptoms are present.” The next time symptoms are present however, your Doctor’s office is closed. Perhaps a walk-in Doctor might be of more help because the symptoms are happening and you were told to return when the symptoms showed up. You spend several hours at the walk-in, finally see a doctor, tell them your symptoms, they give you a sheet of paper for some tests and send you out the door. You dutifully complete the tests, but weeks go by with no phone call. You call your Doctor’s office and are told they only phone if a problem shows up in the tests.
Is your intermittent problem really all in your head? Are you imagining this? In today’s medical landscape, chances are you are NOT imagining the problem, but you didn’t check off all the boxes in any particular malady, so you were sent home as not having the problem you are experiencing symptoms over. Things get worse if you are on basic BC Medical, because Doctor’s can’t recommend courses of action only covered under extended medical benefits. You are told to go to Emergency if symptoms appear again because they are setup with the tools to get to the bottom of it.
Hmmm. . . There’s a problem here, and it’s hitting more and more people, particularly those who don’t have a family doctor anymore. More and more people are tired of being sent home with problems they know they have and some have almost died thanks to such mainstream medical behaviour. The average Joe is starting to take matters into their own hands and cross the street to the alternative health care options there. While alternative healthcare is indeed helpful, it has it’s own pitfalls, most notably cost. Many of the people being brushed off by mainstream medical sources, can’t afford the typical cost of a naturopathic visit, let alone the remedies found at the natural healthfood store. For these people, researching their own problem may or may not sound like a credible course of action. Those who do get brave and start doing their own research either get bogged down by all the terms suddenly coming at them, overwhelmed by the range of sources thrown at them, or develop a fascination with the knowledge they are gaining and they begin to empower not just themselves to take positive action for their health, but share it with others too. (how’s that for a run-on sentence?) This third group goes on to offend mainstream medical personnel because they had the gall to educate themselves on their condition and find workable solutions that led them to ask more questions. Mainstream medical is not interested in patient self-education and sees it as having no benefit to the patient, but instead causing more trouble.
These reasons and others taking place within my own family as we speak, are why I have chosen to become a Natural Health Practitioner. This Diploma program available from New Eden School of Natural Health and Herbal Studies, will give me a Biblically-based holistic natural health education that will position me to assist others in taking back control of their and their families’ health. My focus will be on herbal and whole food nutrition with a background in historical use of food and herbs and medicine, including Scriptural background on the subject as well. Don’t worry, I won’t expect you to go vegan and claim Scripture supports that eating style! There is plenty in God’s Word to support omnivorous eating habits. See the list of Scriptures I shared over at Webtalk for awhile and this blog article.
One of the things I love to do, is teach others how to do things. I love seeing the lightbulb go on in their minds when they discover they’ve just learned some new task or skill. My love of history has been passed to my daughter who shares in the fascnation with historical use of herbs and whole foods as medicine. While most medicines through the centuries have been derived from plants and minerals, it is amazing just how far back in history the concept of self-management of one’s health fell out of favour. Just as far back into history, one finds the basis and materials used for most medications becoming somehow divorced from the medications themselves, and those who harvested to create such medications seen as being on the fringes of society. Interestingly enough, this mental separation between one’s medicines and the plants they were derived from, is shown throughout history as occurring among those wealthy enough to afford a doctor. By the time the witch hunts began, the idea of harvesting your own herbs and sharing your concoctions with friends was somehow the realm of those involved in the dark arts. Even a book written in the US called The Farmer’s Own, contains repeated nods to chants, mantras, rites and rituals that make the common person raise an eyebrow thinking, “That was expected to work???”
To this day, there are many who feel you can’t be involved in holistic medicine unless you espouse Shamanistic ways of various tribal religious practices associated with herbs and healing from around the world. These range from ancient oriental teachings to East Indian mantras to aboriginal medicine men to African medicine men and everyone else in between. What amazes me is the lack of solid Christian teaching in this area, at least here in Canada. Christians, who know Creator personally, who believe Creator created all things for our use for food, medicine, shelter, and transportation, and who knows how the human body, soul and spirit work better than any other imagined diety out there, seem to shy away from offering whole-person healing and maintenance.
There is no reason, financial or otherwise, why the plants and animals God gave us for food and healing, can’t be returned to once again. Historically, my mention above about the wealthy and their mental divorcing of plants from medicine, has now come full circle. This separation of plants from medicine is now as widespread as the concept of getting your beef from the grocery store, not the local farmer’s butcher. People have forgotten where their food comes from and where their medicine comes from. First world society has a general level of wealth available to make even someone on low-income default to the local grocery store rather than head outside into the back yard. As economies get worse, it will become increasingly necessary to teach people how to forage again. It is already necessary to teach people how to use their food as medicine because many can’t afford the prescriptions their doctor’s give them. We are starting to arrive at that point where foraging will cease to be a fascination of hippy-type folk who have money to spend on all the hiking and off-grid materials they could ask for, and shift toward those who can barely afford to reach the trails, let alone buy food or medicine at the grocery store.
The medical divide is already present in Canada on the “see your Doctor” level. People don’t lose their smarts just because they can’t afford the doctor’s recommendations. It is time for medical professionals to do as doctors used to do in centuries past, and write down recipes for making medicines in one’s own home with one’s own kitchen paraphenalia. Bloggers are already doing this. Integrative doctors slowly coming onto the scene are starting to do this as well. This information needs to get out to a much wider audience in ways that many of them have access to. It’s amazing how many people don’t know where to look online for this information, and just how many people don’t want to go online either. The poorest among us in our cities will sometimes make use of library computers, or find wifi zones for their phones, but otherwise rely on word of mouth and what they can hold in their hand. But they are not idiots. The poorest among us are treated just as they were centuries ago, sad to say. But the knowledge of what peasant-folk had for home remedies has either been lost, or chalked up by mainstream medical as so many old-wives’ tales or medicine-man nonsense.
Student Workbook: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1928160077
Three Month Journal: http://amzn.to/1PY95ng
It is my desire to be a source of education on all these topics. For those who need alternative medicine but who can’t afford general going rates, there will be workshops offered on such topics as foraging, researching your issue and learning where to look for answers, food as medicine, making your own medicines, contraindicators to watch out for, etc. I wrote a budgeting course that will be offered to the general public for the hourly fee of $5 per session. Some of the proceeds from that course will subsidize people who need my help, pay for the workshop expenses, etc.
There has always been a medical divide between the haves and the have-nots. Those equipped to engage on their own would shrug it off while others went on to suffer unnecessarily. Today the number of those suffering unnecessarily is growing because dissemination of information is seen as a premium product sold to those who can afford it.
I encourage you, once my NHP Diploma has been paid for, licenses acquired, association dues paid, and I am set up to accept clients, to come see me. Don’t only bring yourself, but bring someone along that you know has been struggling with their health. Let’s start turning the tide on the health picture for today’s poor and “untouchables”.
When I am up and running, you can take part by sponsoring one or more sessions for the less-fortunate. If you run your own business, or you are part of a business that likes to sponsor such things, your business can be featured among the sponsor lists. Such lists may appear in the office, on office material, on social media, etc. Sending you more business is a justifiable thank you for helping someone who would not otherwise get the help they need.
The fundraising goal set here is an estimated amount for the tuition, books, replacement computer, fees and dues. It does not currently cover any office rental or office space set-up. As we get closer to paying for my tution and books, if you are wanting to donate funds to start-up capital, let me know and I’ll adjust the fundraising goals to include that as a next step.
Pass this around to those you know who are concerned with where modern healthcare is taking the average person the street. Share this with those who feel lost medicinal knowledge needs reviving, particularly among those most vulnerable in today’s society. Share with rebels, with do-it-yourselfers and with those who want a more sustainable way to manage their health.