Alternative Medicine

The Problem: Last week I was getting C. out of her carseat and I felt a tightening in my middle-upper back. Hmm- should've used my legs and my core, and lifted, then twisted. So that night I ran off to yoga at the gym to stretch it out a bit more, thinking that would fix things.

*Note about gym yoga: All yoga teachers give lip service to the individuality of yoga and doing things at your own pace.  I know enough about different types of yoga to know lots of safe, acceptable variations on the standard positions. So it always makes me smile inside when I hear a teacher correcting a student from one acceptable variation until that student matches the teacher's verbalized variation. I always compliment my students (who are under 5 years old) on their version, and that "there are many ways to do this." 
At the gym they're really gym-like about it, encouraging people to keep holding it and mentioning the great ab work we're getting or whatever. I get it- it's a gym class. But with my schedule, I go to different yoga classes by different teachers each week so no one really recognizes me and I am constantly corrected. Eventually, I just pat my belly and say "pregnant" and they leave me alone. I know what I'm doing. I've done prenatal yoga through two pregnancies and I've done extra research this time around since I know I'm flying without a prenatal teacher. And I know what I can do first trimester, versus second and third. But as this posting shows, I'm not as smart as I think I am! *

An hour after the yoga class, my back seized up and it was excruciating.  I learned in Anatomy and Physiology last semester that heat can relax a tight muscle better than anything else. So I plugged in the heating pad and spent the next 2 days laying down on it. I still had to take care of the kids and that was so painful. My back would spasm if it bent at all. Or if I laid still too long. Or if I shifted positions. It was bad.

The Solution: I called my midwife who recommended that I see my primary doctor to get pain medicine and then see a chiropractor to figure out what's going on. That's exactly what I did and what happened. The muscle relaxers knocked me out but it took the sharpness out of the pain. The kids were fabulous that day at home, as I turned the couch into a creative wonderland, fully stocked with activities, wipes, food, drinks, and movies. I was half asleep all day as they climbed around me. Love those kids.

The following day I had my chiropractic appointment. My first one ever. I have heard great things about them and my mom took my brother to one for allergies when he was a kid.  But Jeremiah gave me that skeptical face when I told him I was going bc he thinks chiropractic is a phony medicine.

Take Home Message: I have learned through my experience there that chiropractic is a holistic medicine that recommends a lifestyle that I'm already striving for. It provides instant relief by making physical adjustments (which was great) but to use it as your only medicine, you need to incorporate a lot of stretching, yoga, good posture, safe body movements, and exercise to rebuild your body to be healthy.  I would go back if I ever had a chronic problem. As it was, he recommended that I go three times a week for several weeks and then slowly go there less as I continue with yoga and everything else.  Well, my insurance has a crazy high deductible and they only cover part of the visit, so we can't afford for me to go there at that rate for the pleasure of a spinal adjustment. I had to break up with him after two visits and I'll do my own body rebuilding.  I just keep thinking how wonderful it would be to have daily visits to a masseuse or chiropractor! Oh and by the way, he said laying down was the worst idea- I should have kept moving despite the paralyzing pain (as if). And that I should not use a heating pad ever because of electro-magnetic radiation, particularly while pregnant. (this falls into the same category for me as microwaves and cell phones- I'll be aware to limit use just to be on the safe (and paranoid) side).

The Issue: Jeremiah gave me his skeptical face once again over the weekend when he saw my latest book from the library- "Mother Warriors" by Jenny McCarthy.  We tried to have a civilized discussion on why he can't stand her and what's his problem with her autism-dealio.  But civilized did not work (we're cool now though). Probably because we inherently differ on the key issue of alternative medicine.

The Reason: We have both grown more conservative in the 14 years we've known each other.  But him more so than me. And while he isn't a strong advocate of the business of Western medicine, he is just as skeptical of all alternative medicines. Maybe he thinks we should all follow his regime- do nothing and wait out the sickness bc eventually your body will heal itself. Yeah, you guessed it- he's just lucky that he's never had anything seriously wrong with him.  I am an open-minded person at the core. I believe in everything unless I find it reliably and scientifically disproven. And even then I can consider user errors, unknown variables, interpretation bias, and the fact that everyone's different. So it takes a lot for me to say that something is categorically and ultimately false for everyone and everything at all times.

I am offended at snarkiness regarding my choice of reading material. Just because I'm reading or listening or nodding doesn't mean I'm adopting something. And in terms of this book, just because Jenny McCarthy ("famous despite doing nothing intelligent") wrote it, doesn't make anything in it less true. Although he definitely got bonus points when I saw the ads at the back of the book for her line of communication tools for autistic families.

Take Home Message: I have learned through my reading (of all of Jenny McCarthy's books on her autism-dealio and of countless online and printed articles on the subject over the years) that some families find it worthwhile to treat autism with special diets and internal cleansing medicines.  There. How can that be so incredible? Dealing with a medical issue through holistic means usually results in an improvement in overall health.

The Controversy: I get that everyone likes to latch onto the additional part where some families find that their autistic children have high levels of the mercury-based preservative thiomersal, which is found in high levels (how high is controversial) in many childhood vaccines.  And then when their kids take internal cleansing medicines that rid the body of this, many of their children's signs of autism are nearly instantaneously gone, to the point that many of these families are told that their kids were misdiagnosed as autistic in the first place bc how else could they have such a dramatic change?

The Logic: I hear that and I believe it. I also hear that every point of that scenario is debatable and not true for many other families. And I believe that too. I agree that for something to be a scientific fact, a scenario needs to have a repeatable outcome that is statistically significant. I also think that many "facts" in our world are shown or hidden in this world according to money and power.  Always consider the source and the motives.

The Conclusion: Do I think we should stop all vaccines? No, but we could re-evaluate what's in them and when we give them. And I think groups like Autism Speaks should give funding to research related to diet but I also support them and their important efforts to get behavior therapy for autistic children covered by all insurances.

If I had a child who was autistic, I would do everything I could to treat them, including alternative medicine.  And I do delay my kids' vaccines if they're even a bit under the weather during our well visits. And I say that they can have some of their scheduled vaccines but not all- sometimes that's too much in my opinion. And my pediatrician agrees with me. He tells me not how soon my child can have a vaccine, but how long we can wait.  And he never ever judges me because he tells me that I know my kids better than he does and I appreciate that he respects my intuition (and google knowledge) nearly as much as his book knowledge.  I guess that makes me more on the side of alternative medicine that standard Western medicine. But I'm not going to tell you what decisions you should make, even if I'm breaking up with the chiropractor and reading Jenny McCarthy's books.