Ever since I was diagnosed with RA last October, and being on Prednisone I began looking at holistic treatments for treating this condition. I read Amy Myers’ book The Autoimmune Solution and she was valid in her points that food will help the body repair itself. And that the body can repair itself when given the right tools.
And as my dietician said, “Medication only treats the symptoms, not the cause of a disease.”
And that’s how functional medicine operates.
Now, I’m all for medication in certain aspects, like treating cancer with chemotherapy. No amount of waiting and diet is going to stop a disease like that from spreading. But after reading up on functional medicine it made me think: If we can prevent diabetes, Alzheimer’s, heart attacks, and a slew of other conditions, why can’t we reverse the conditions if we have them? (Given that they’re in the early stages, of course).
Makes sense, right? If we ate three bags of chips a day and gained 100 pounds, the only way we can lose the weight is to stop eating three bags of chips a day.
(There may be other factors that makes someone get sick, but the causes are mostly fixable, like the chips.)
I mentioned this before in my first RA post, but stress was the cause of me getting it. I’ve never been able to handle stress well and my job at the time was too much (in fact, that’s when I noticed my first symptom, a swollen pinky). Even though I got out of that stressful situation, it was too late. My body was still holding onto the stressors.
And my hunch was confirmed at my new job: whenever I would get stressed, my elbows would hurt, which never happened before. And on the days where I was relaxed? No pain!
I felt like I had discovered gold. And now I’m taking the steps to manage stress better. And my pain has been on the low end of the pain scale. My swollen pinky and middle finger are still present, but getting back to normal.
The medication may be helping too. Functional and conventional medicine do work together at times it seems.
But to me, functional medicine is a safer approach to treating disease. There are no side effects from eating fruits and vegetables. Or exercising five days a week. Or doing yoga for 15 minutes a day.
It’s all about adopting healthy habits.
Island Girl 