The perspective of alternative medicine

Homeostasis: the body regulates itself

While this is understood in biology, it's less often referred to in the understanding of illness.

For alternative medicine, we see a "striving for balance" occurring in illness, too.

First, some basic examples:

In each case you see that the body does something (sweats, gets thirsty, pumps out excess water) in response to the change.

There are many, many mechanisms to maintain a balance in the body.

Now, what about in illness?

In a long-term condition, most people have good days and bad days. It's usual to assume this is the illness being better or worse. The response of the body isn't considered.

As a practitioner of alternative medicine, I don't see the body simply at the mercy of the illness. I understand that it is fighting back ... in many different ways. The ability of the immune system to fight infection is just one example.

We see the "better days" as those days when the body's ability to regain health are winning the battle. The "worse days" occur when the illness has got the upper hand.

In alternative medicine we do all we can to ensure the body's abilty to fight back is as strong as it can possibly be.

As a homeopath, I use this idea every day in practice. It helps to explain how homeopathic remedies "work".

Our medicines produce the same symptoms as the illness we are treating.

If I'm treating someone with a hot, red, dry and thirstless fever, I want to find a medicine that - if I took it - would cause me to develop a hot, red, dry and thirstless fever!

This is the basis of "like cures like." How does this crazy idea work?

It's simple, once you tune in to the idea that the body is working to heal itself.

We're tricking the body into 'believing' that the problem is getting worse. When some one takes an appropriate remedy, the body experiences the remedy as if the illness is getting worse.

It's a "wake-up" call to the body's defences. The body responds by working harder to overcome the problem. The remedy disappears from the system quickly. The body's increased response is directed towards overcoming the illness and promoting recovery.

The importance of this idea in nutritional supplementation is that we do all we can to strengthen the body's ability to fight back. If the system is weakened by lack of key nutrients, it will not be able to mount an effective response to illness. See examples in the "Diet ... naturally!" section.

With alternative medicine, the body protects its "core" first

This is another example of the body maintaining balance. In this example, the "core temperature" is maintained at the expense of the extremities. Better to lose a finger or a toe with frost-bite than to have the vital organs - like the heart - shut down because they are too cold to function.

How does this relate to restoring health?

Given the chance, the body will look after the core first. This may mean that the health benefits you experience from taking noni juice will not necessarily happen in the order you'd wish for.

Localised symptoms may get worse before they get better

In homeopathy, alternative medicine - and, I believe, in any situation where the body is healing itself - a good remedy (and the boost given to the body's defences by excellent nutrition) is likely to improve the asthma before the skin. We actually want to see the deeper, core aspects of the illness improving first. Sometimes, as this happens, a skin problem will worsen.

What's happening?

The lungs are a more vital organ than the skin. The body will try to heal that problem first, once it's been given the resources to do so.

What do you need to watch for? Basically, the "pay-off" for you as a whole should mean that you feel generally better first. This is likely to happen before you feel the local benefits of any nutritional supplement.

General "pay-offs" include:

For example, a patient with arthritis may experience a worsening of pain for a while after beginning an alternative treatment. However, they may alsofeel more energetic, be sleeping better and have an improved appetite.

They might say something like: "You know it's peculiar ... while the pain in the joints is a little worse, I feel stronger in myself. I'm coping with it surprisingly well. Overall, i'd say I'm better, brighter, more optimistic."

These are signs that healing is taking place a deep level, and that while that is happening, the local symptoms of arthritis are not (yet) being addressed.

Don't forget: it's the body itself that's going to do the healing. It ineedsto gather its resources before it can act positively on the problem.

The Alternative Medicine approach: some safeguards

Ask yourself this question before you start any programme of supplementation. Overall, how have I been feeling in the last week? Score that out of ten. 1/10 means "as bad as I could possibly feel"; 10/10 means "as wonderful as I could possibly feel."

Even if local symptoms worsen for a time, overall your score should be rising.

It's important to take this in. Alternative medicine is compassionate in approach. It should help you be compassionate with yourself. You can take the "it has to get worse before it will get better" line too far!

Most approaches used in alternative medicine are gentle ... powerful, but gentle.

We don't want to do anything that adds to the body's stress levels. Aggravation of local symptoms can do that. The simplest thing to do is stop the programme of nutritional supplements for a while ... until the aggravation subsides. Then return to it taking a lesser quantity of supplement.

Of course, if any aggravation is mild, there is no need to stop. Most patients or clients become skilled in using their own discretion.

If you feel "worse in yourself" that is worse in an overall way: poor energy, appetite, sleep worse and so on. It is my advice to stop and proceed only with caution, if at all. This may show that your condition needs to be managed very carefully - by a qualified practitioner.

You need to think about timescales, too.

A programme of supplementation will not work quickly, like a painkiller might. A generally accepted timescale for a nutritional programme to have an effect is about three months. If you experience positive changes before this, great!But a programme should be continued for this length of time before its effectiveness can be judged.

If there are no hoped-for changes after three months, it's reasonable to say, "This isn't working for me."

You might then consider talking to a nutritionist, or having your nutritional status (and your precise needs for nutritional supplements) diagnosed more accurately, for example by hair mineral analysis.

This will enable you to have a much more closely tailored nutritional programme (alternative medicine is at its best when programmes are tailored to individuals' needs).

Any programme of alternative medicine will need to be re-assessed to ensure it's working (that nutrient balance is being restored) and that the nutritional supplements remain appropriate to your needs - which should be changing ... if the programme is being effective!

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