My Canadian father brought my Thai mother and I over to Canada when I had just turned four years old. He had been there for a couple of years beforehand in order to set things up to have us live there. My mother had never left Thailand let alone experienced a cold climate. It was winter when we arrived.
During this year, it was discovered that my mother had cancer. Almost instantly my father became a crazy health nut, although he never got to the standards of today's real health gurus. He was still way ahead of his time and he never had the internet to help him
He stopped my mother from using certain foods. He started buying many things from the health store. We even drove six hours to a health store in Montreal to get something that we couldn't get in Toronto. We lived in Hamilton, a hour east of Toronto. I was also the only kid in school to never ever receive vaccinations. I also never allowed my own daughter to be vaccinated. I know this is taboo for many but I stand behind it.
He found a special doctor in the town of Nyack, close to New York City. Her name was Dr Alice Chase. She had a clinic there on a residential street. My mother and I went to stay with her while my dad stayed in Hamilton to work. He came to visit on the weekends with my uncle who drove the six hours and back again.
Dr Chase ran a very unconventional practice, using diet to treat her patients. I was young so unfortunately I did not ask enough questions about exactly what it was but from my recollection, it was to omit meat, dairy, sugar, oil, chemicals, and substitute with raw juices and fruits and vegetables.
There was someone working there, that would slip me some chocolate covered almonds. I was happy about that.
It was a miracle that after my mother was bleeding from her cervical cancer, the heavy bleeding had stopped and it was clear that this kind of treatment through diet, was helping her.
It cost my father more than he could afford so my mother assured him that she would maintain this diet herself. We all went back home.
After some time she failed to keep up the lifestyle and ended up in the hands of the hospital where she would receive chemotherapy. She passed away four years later when I was eight.
My father continued to be health conscious but not to the degree that some people are in this day and age. He always ate meat and dairy but thought he was doing well if we ate the stuff from the health store. He also made what he thought were better choices when it came to cookies and ice cream. I now know that those better choices are still not good for you.
He still found as many occasions to eat bacon and eggs, whenever someone invited him for breakfast. He just didn't cook those things at home on a regular basis but he would never turn down a roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and cake for desert if someone made it for him.
He was a man that grew up on a farm in Manitoba, where he had a steady diet of meat, dairy, eggs, that were fried and many many sugary treats. The fruits and vegetables were canned and stored for winter. Salad was pretty much unheard of.
He died at the age of seventy three from cancer that he got for the second time. The first time he had a colostomy. He lived with that for about ten years.
I had always in my youth, been slightly annoyed with my dad's interest in health foods and lifestyle, but now I wish he had been more extreme so that he could have saved himself from an unpleasant ending. I guess it could have been worse than this. He always lived by himself and did everything for himself walking long distances and staying fairly slender right until the bitter end.
From my dad's influence, I have learned to try to heal myself before running for some drugs. And I have not been to a doctor for about twelve years, except once to get a couple of stitches after I sliced open my hand up at work.
About nine years ago, I realized by self diagnosing that I had developed asthma, most likely from working on a construction sight as a laborer, breathing in every kind of debris possible.
It escalated to the point where I was not certain that I would make it through each night. My lungs were gurgling and wheezing. I could never catch a full breath which left me terribly panicked. I did not go to the hospital knowing the only solution would be to have a puffer for life.
I knew that medication and a puffer would only be a temporary solution, alleviating the symptoms at the cost of potentially doing more damage to me.
Marc was on my page about not seeing a doctor. He gave a kidney to his father twelve years ago and never saw a doctor since he walked home three days later from the hospital after having an organ removed.
He has never had any complications ever. In fact after years of switching to a better diet, eventually removing meat, than dairy and eggs, and cutting down on sugar and fats, has made him healthier and stronger.
This is how I eventually had my very severe asthma disappear. I now have no fear of it returning. I think that once you have it you may still be prone to it if you don't maintain a healthy lifestyle.
I was told over and over by people, that it will never go away and that I need to get on puffers immediately or it could result in death. I just had my 56th birthday and am stronger now than ever feeling better than I did when I was in high school.
I by all means don't have a perfect diet. But I have learned to follow what is happening to my body, and make adjustments as I need.
I have not had a prescription drug or an aspirin, for almost twenty years. I once had to get antibiotics for laryngitis when it wouldn't go away in time for me to sing at someone's wedding.
I have seen people around me run to and look up to the medical establishment for the answers to their health problems but I know that it should not be the first thing you do. It is scary to think something is wrong and people always want a quick fix.
My best friend that I went to high school with, was in a high stress job when she was in her mid forties and went to her doctor for stress pills. She had a terrible diet and had other complications relating to women's issues. She continued with the pills and the crappy high fat sugary diet and her complications escalated so she went to get a solution from her doctor. He gave her two choices. She could have a hysterectomy or a day surgery. She was told the day surgery only had a one percent chance of complications so naturally she chose that so she could go back to work and not have to have major surgery.
The day came, when she would go to the hospital in Niagara Falls Ontario, and be admitted for surgery. Her husband would be picking her up later that day. He has never picked her up from that hospital.
During surgery they had an ooops moment which resulted in hemorrhaging that couldn't be stopped by any of the staff at that hospital so they put her in an ambulance and transferred her to Hamilton General that was an hour away. By the time she got there she was declared brain dead. There was nothing they could do to save her.
I know this sounds like I don't think that there is a need for the medical industry or doctors. I am amazed that someone could learn the art of repairing bodies. I just think that we need to be aware of the fact that our bodies have the natural ability to heal and repair itself if we allow it to.