An allergic person’s confession

Alternative Cure 3

Alternative Cure 2

Extreme methods sometimes work

My father was born at the beginning of the century, the ninth child in a family living in a poor area in rural Canada. Because he was the last child, he became the family’s cosseted darling, the apple of my grandmother’s eye. But he was a small, frail boy, and when only six he fell very seriously ill with an abdominal infection called peritonitis. The doctor told my grandmother that he would die. My grandmother drew herself to her full height, glared at the doctor and declared: “He will not die.”

She harnessed their one horse to the little buggy, drove the eighty miles to the nearest town, and searched all the libraries for information about peritonitis. She returned triumphant. In distant Switzerland, an alternative healing method had been found to work in many cases. The whole family was set to work, fetching water from the pump and heating it on the big wood stove. The small child was repeatedly plunged into very hot water, then carried kicking and screaming out into the bitter cold to be rolled in the snow.

When the doctor was called back the following week, expecting to sign a death certificate, he was astounded to find a happy child playing by the fireside. “It’s a miracle!” he declared. “But I’m sorry to have to warn you that his system has been terribly weakened. You cannot expect him to live for more than a few years at most.” My grandmother glared at him again.

My father lived into his eighties, became a doctor himself, and, like the majority of his colleagues, was always extremely suspicious of alternative healing methods.

Well, I suffer from all sorts of weird allergies and things like that or seem to, so I’ve been the round of the alternative medicines a bit because, sort of conventional medicine really doesn’t help a lot in those areas it seems. And sometimes I’ve had encouraging results, sometimes less so.

I’ve done quite a lot of acupuncture, which I quite enjoy, partly because I like the lady who gives it to me, I think it’s nice to have your hand held for an hour but I must admit it does hurt a bit when the needles go in… And although she thinks I’ve made great progress, I’m not quite sure… if I’ve experienced it myself. So I don’t go to that so often now. I’ve had homeopathy at various stages and recently I’ve been seeing an Ayurvedic doctor who is the traditional Indian form of medicine. And he combines homeopathy with physical exercises, with diet, etc. And he’s good for a laugh. There’re all sorts of spiritual input as well…

And on the more physical side, two things I’ve done which I have found useful. One is the Alexander technique, which is about posture and well, a bit more than posture really, but how you stand and how you do things and… inhibiting your automatic responses and bad habits. And the other is a form of very heavy massage, called Rolfing, which is very painful at times but actually I did find very satisfying, very useful.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-29