All of you know how hard you are working to regain your healthy balance and get back to life–ordering more normally in a restaurant, not needing to worry about every minute ingredient in a meal served at a friends house, etc…

So, you are trying to eat heathily and take care of yourself. You are exercising and doing all the things you think are important for health. However, life catches up and stress enters the picture. You find yourself not being able to deal with it and now it's effecting your sleep. You go to your doctor and he gives you a prescription to help your nerves and help your sleep. OR, that didnt happen–you came down with strep throat, and figured you will just take this round of antibiotics , it can't hurt right? You haven't taken antibiotics since you came down with brnchitis 6 months ago. OR that didnt happen–you are getting frustrated with having to worry about when you are ovulating and being careful about contraception. There is a newer low hormone birth control pill or the copper IUD. OR that didn't happen either–one dessert a week made with agave turns into two with processed white sugar and then slowly that turns into one a day. You think to yourself, its just a little dark chocolate every day.

Suddenly you find yourself feeling itchy vaginally and realize you are a little gassy and bloated and your bowels have changed a bit. Your skin is not as clear as it was last year. Your hair is not as pretty and suddenly you are seeing it all over the floor again. And then you realize, "uh oh" I am peeing once an hour again and I am thinking about my bladder again. Sadly, you have to make the call to talk to me about all of this and by the time we speak your symptoms have escalated further.

This is what I dont want to have happen to you. One of my jobs is to educate each of you on how to take care of yourself. These are a few of the pitfall examples. It is not that you can never have sugar in your life or that if there was some crisis, you could not take an antibiotic. But using the tools I have taught you, thinking about what and when and the appropriateness of your choices is what I hope I have given you the ability to.

One of these tools is understanding perspective. So, if you are seeking the advice of your MD, please remember to take the advice given you in the context of his or her persepctive. He may think that a prescription of Valium, or Ativan or the like is not a big deal. It IS. it is a BIG deal. He or she may think that taking a Z-pak a couple of times per year is also not a big deal. It IS. You should not need to take a prescitption antibiotic twice per year. To give you an idea, I have take antibiotics once in the last 27 years-really! Herbal supplements are ample to fight infection in most cases. If you are having problems with your stress or sleep, there are natural solutions to that as well. And, the list spills over into all other categories of health too.

I had someone come back this month because she fell into one of these categories and honestly, my heart broke. I thought, "where did I go wrong?" Perhaps I was not admant enough about the do's and dont's of good health. Beer, benzos, sugar, mushrooms, coconut, chemical birth control, unnecessary abx amongst the big examples are all things that should be avoided like plague.

This treatment program is a way of thinking differently about your health care. And the biggest part of healthcare is taking care of yourself so you avoid getting sick!

Thought for today:)

Dr.M