Nightwriter
New member
To start with -- Robert is right, of course.
In my quest to try to "get better", I think I have tried all kinds of alternative medicine. Many years ago I went to India as part of my quest. I went to an Ayurvedic doctor who was a friend of a friend. He had a real office, he charged me about $3.00 and sent me off with tiny twists of paper with white powder to be taken while I was in India and when I got home. I have no idea what it was. Also he learned everything he knew from HIS father. My Indian friends swore by his abilities.
I also went to a different kind of doctor there, one who examines you by reading your pulse. He said during the Nixon years, he always was flown in to take care of the president. He also gave me a brown liquid that was so vile, I tried to force myself to take it --but gave up. I even went to a Black Magician in the middle of the jungle and he gave me some stuff too and he was a very scary character who it was said that he used to be a cannibal and that was why he was 98 but he looked like 50.
When I got home from India, much sicker than when I left, my culture showed MAC for the first time. I did not pick this up in India -- I would have had it in the U.S. and it takes a while to manifest. I was worried that I infected all of India.
I think in other countries, their systems work for them. But I don't even know if places like India and China even have CF. And the purity is in question and we our immune systems are compromised in some ways. Yes, India has beautiful modern hospitals now (nicer than ours) but as Robert said we have the FDA and the purity of our drugs is controlled as best as they can. And with supplements, you can buy ones that are independently tested. And there are a lot of ifs about supplements because they haven't gone through rounds of testing.
The other problem for me is when American are prescribing these substances -- how much, for how long? I don't think you can compare the systems and I do think they work best in countries of origin and by true practitioners there. I wouldn't have taken anything for a length of time that would have mattered even if it could work (and that is a big if.)
I went to a clinic in CA that had doctors of Chinese Medicine. Too long of a story, but I don't believe that did any good either. Pseudomonas IS a tough one. And I did Macrobiotic remedies that was a waste of time when I needed to be on antibiotics at the time.
My last foray into alternative medicine was a Quack MD (yes MD) who gave me all kinds of weird things: Lung tissue that had been under the gravitational pull of Mars for 9 months in France (seriously!) Egyptian medicine (don't ask), vitamin IV drips, all kinds of weird supplements and treatments and I ended up the sickest I have ever been -- 3 weeks in the hospital.
When I found my doctor, after that experience (and the only one who ever helped me), she said it would take as long as TWO YEARS to get all that weird stuff out of my body and start feeling better. Who knows what I took and what damage these things did? And you know what? It did take 2 years. I do take supplements, buy very prudently under my doctor's guidance (as Robert suggested).
Does that answer your question?
In my quest to try to "get better", I think I have tried all kinds of alternative medicine. Many years ago I went to India as part of my quest. I went to an Ayurvedic doctor who was a friend of a friend. He had a real office, he charged me about $3.00 and sent me off with tiny twists of paper with white powder to be taken while I was in India and when I got home. I have no idea what it was. Also he learned everything he knew from HIS father. My Indian friends swore by his abilities.
I also went to a different kind of doctor there, one who examines you by reading your pulse. He said during the Nixon years, he always was flown in to take care of the president. He also gave me a brown liquid that was so vile, I tried to force myself to take it --but gave up. I even went to a Black Magician in the middle of the jungle and he gave me some stuff too and he was a very scary character who it was said that he used to be a cannibal and that was why he was 98 but he looked like 50.
When I got home from India, much sicker than when I left, my culture showed MAC for the first time. I did not pick this up in India -- I would have had it in the U.S. and it takes a while to manifest. I was worried that I infected all of India.
I think in other countries, their systems work for them. But I don't even know if places like India and China even have CF. And the purity is in question and we our immune systems are compromised in some ways. Yes, India has beautiful modern hospitals now (nicer than ours) but as Robert said we have the FDA and the purity of our drugs is controlled as best as they can. And with supplements, you can buy ones that are independently tested. And there are a lot of ifs about supplements because they haven't gone through rounds of testing.
The other problem for me is when American are prescribing these substances -- how much, for how long? I don't think you can compare the systems and I do think they work best in countries of origin and by true practitioners there. I wouldn't have taken anything for a length of time that would have mattered even if it could work (and that is a big if.)
I went to a clinic in CA that had doctors of Chinese Medicine. Too long of a story, but I don't believe that did any good either. Pseudomonas IS a tough one. And I did Macrobiotic remedies that was a waste of time when I needed to be on antibiotics at the time.
My last foray into alternative medicine was a Quack MD (yes MD) who gave me all kinds of weird things: Lung tissue that had been under the gravitational pull of Mars for 9 months in France (seriously!) Egyptian medicine (don't ask), vitamin IV drips, all kinds of weird supplements and treatments and I ended up the sickest I have ever been -- 3 weeks in the hospital.
When I found my doctor, after that experience (and the only one who ever helped me), she said it would take as long as TWO YEARS to get all that weird stuff out of my body and start feeling better. Who knows what I took and what damage these things did? And you know what? It did take 2 years. I do take supplements, buy very prudently under my doctor's guidance (as Robert suggested).
Does that answer your question?