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Do you have gastrointestinal problems such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Colitis, Crohns Disease, Acid Reflux Disease, among many others? Are you sick (literally) and tired of going from doctor to doctor only to be handed a prescription slip and pushed out the door? Do you enjoy the many side effects these prescriptions cause? Are you looking for a solution to the problem instead of covering it up with drugs, or removing it with surgery? Then try holistic medicine.

I am very happy to see our nation slowly catching on to the idea that natural medicine is the better way to go. It angers me however that insurance companies (who we pay premiums to) do not give us the choice to choose what path we want to take to heal ourselves. Holistic medicine is not cheap because there are very few insurance companies that cover your office visits, and none that I am aware that assists with nutritional supplements used by holistic doctors. Now don't get me wrong, modern medicine has its place in this world, and heaven knows all the good it has done for mankind, but there is a limit to how far it should go in the treatment of health conditions. Modern medicine knows next to nothing about the digestive system and how to fix it when it is in duress. Just ask any person suffering from any of the conditions listed above. The old saying of you don't have anything if you don't have your health is a very true statement.

I suffered with Crohn's Disease for 5 years before I started going to a holistic doctor. I went through 2 colonoscopies, and visited 3 different gastroenterologists. The first doctor performed my first colonoscopy, and found a mass of tissue close to my ileocecal valve. The tissue biopsy that he took came back negative for cancer (thank the Lord), but they could not tell what the tissue was. He referred me to another gastroenterologist who on my first visit, told me flat out that all he wanted to do was cut me open and remove the mass so he could try to figure out what it was. Needless to say my wife and I left his office never to return! Only later did we find out that he was a surgical gastroenterologist, so that's all he knew how to do was cut people open and remove their insides (comforting I know). The third doctor I visited was a medical gastroenterologist. He also wanted to perform a colonoscopy, and found more tissue masses etc. When I asked him what caused my condition, he said that medical science does not know what causes these kinds of conditions, but knows how to control them somewhat. He wrote me a prescription for a steroid medication, and sent me out the door.

Thus began my crusade to figure out what was going on with my body and why. I never did take any of that steroid medication that last doctor prescribed me, because I had enough sense to get online and start researching what it was he was wanting me to take and what it did. The drug is an immune suppressant. You see people with digestive problems often times have an over active immune system, thus triggering inflammation throughout the digestive system. The steroid suppresses the immune function to reduce inflammation. It does nothing to get rid of what is causing the inflammation, just masking the effects.

To fully understand how the body gets afflicted with these digestive problems you need to understand how the digestive system works in conjunction with the rest of your body. The digestive tract has been called the body's second brain because there are more nerve endings in the digestive tract than the brain itself. Think about what the digestive system does for you'.it is the extracts of all vitamins, minerals, and other materials your body needs to function from the foods you eat. Without it were dead! New research indicates that most diseases of the body are a result of a failure somewhere in the digestive system. So if you are afflicted with a serious digestive problem, and you take a drug that masks the problem instead of fixing (and has the potential of serious side effects which include may other diseases), sure you symptoms may subside for a while, but in the meantime your condition will worsen or spread!

Finally I decided to go to a holistic doctor. It was the smartest thing I have ever done for my health! My doctor knew more on how the body works, and all the organic compounds it uses and more specifically what organs used them, than any medical doctor I have ever been to! I was on my way to recovery after my first visit. I had a plan on how to recover my health. It wasn't a prescription for some drug that he gets kickbacks from the drug companies for prescribing, it was a professionally planned regiment of natural compounds that would kill parasitic infections, reduce my inflammation, assist in digestion of foods, and nourish my body with the critical vitamins and minerals I was seriously lacking. Yes it took me well over a year to get myself back to normal. You have to take into account the fact that I had been living with several parasites in my digestive system for several years to get to the point I was at, so there is no way I would heal overnight. You know its funny how over the years all my doctors told me that I had IBS, and that I needed to eat more fiber. If only I had known about holistic medicine back then! Sure holistic medicine is expensive, but can you truly put a price on your health and well being? I sure can't, it has been worth every penny.

Do your research! No matter where you go and what you do, there is always going to be someone with a horror story about a holistic doctor, or even a modern medicine MD. It's just unavoidable, people make mistakes every day. All I can say is this: do your research! Find a holistic doctor that is highly recommended, Answer any of their questions with total honesty, stick to the regiments they give you (to the T) and always be a well informed patient! If the doctor you go to makes you uncomfortable, don't go back! Find someone you are comfortable with. Trust your instincts! Your reading this aren't you? Your instincts have brought you this far, searching for answers a medical doctor could not give you. Keep going! Keep digging! You deserve to feel normal again!