How to Proceed When Your Doctor Gives Up

Two and a half years ago the "specialists" gave up treating my father's condition of congestive heart failure. They said that there was nothing more that could be done for him: he should just go home, get comfortable, and "wait". He was sent home to die. My family and I had heard about "reversing" heart disease and "alternative" medicine. Like many of you, we didn't quite know what was a scam and what was true. Now, this was the ONLY avenue of hope.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Patience
• Internet Access
• Book Store

1. Use your bookstore as a place for research Using a combination of the internet and your local bookstore, research your specific health concern in the "alternative medicine" or "health" sections.
   
   Get familiar with the existence of other modes of thinking and treatment, besides what your doctor has told you.
2. Find a FM Practitioner on the Institute for Functional Medicine site For life threatening and chronic conditions, go to The Institute for Functional Medicine at http://www.functionalmedicine.org. They have a doctor referral listing by state. Locate specialists within your region, and call them, to see if they work with your health concern.
   
   When you find somebody make every effort to pay their fees and go see them. The process can be expensive, but if it is a matter of extending life - this is your best chance. This is the approach that we took with my father. He is still here 2.5 years later, and we will celebrate his 80th birthday this month.
   
   Integrating multiple sciences, these visionary healthcare professionals focus on primary prevention and rectifying underlying imbalances, instead of just symptoms. The condition of the whole person is treated.
   
   Many diseases have at their core, an imbalance of nutrients (including air, water and exercise), hormones, vitamins, and minerals. Laboratory testing reveals these imbalances, which can potentially be improved through diet, supplements, and lifestyle changes. Addressing the body's nutrient needs in combination with more traditional treatment can yield spectacular results, where other methods have failed.
3. Find a Certified Holistic Health Counselor Another resource is to find a Certified Holistic Health Counselor in your area. Go to http://www.integrativenutrition.com. Go to the alumni section and follow the instructions on working with a graduate. Again there will be listings according to state. Also, enough of us have websites, that you could search for "health counselor" and come up with some names.
   
   A health counselor is trained to initially identify imbalances causing a health condition, and determine which of many approaches might be effective. Each counselor will have different areas of specialization (mine is nutrition), but all will be able to refer you to other skilled practitioners and doctors appropriate to your concern.

Tips & Warnings

• Eating and lifestyle changes are often able to improve serious health conditions. We all eat, even if we are sick. So it makes sense to try to eat things that might help us along, even if we are receiving more traditional treatments and medicines. There are diets that support treatments for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, healing from surgery, etc. Often it is as simple as drinking more water, or eating blueberries or more greens. Read up on this and give it a try.
• When seeking alternative health treatments, do not immediately stop taking your current prescribed medications. The general idea is to improve your health, so that the medications will no longer be necessary. Healing is a process, and often takes several methods working together. Give it time.