There’s an old saying, “God cures — the doctor only sends the bill,” that has a certain degree of validity to it, but not enough for me to simply pray for a cure when something ails me; I’m going to the doctor. Indeed, I actually like going in for my once-a-year physical — even though some recent literature suggests that even at my age I could probably still be safe if I went in every two or three years instead.
Nonetheless, the genuine care and concern expressed by my primary physician is comforting, and getting a clean bill of health — with a 10-pound drop in weight that thrilled her to no end — bolstered my sense of well-being, something I noticed as I retrieved my vehicle from valet parking.
However, just because I have platinum-level insurance coverage (due to my wife’s long years of service in the public sector and Medicare), I still eschew some of the annual tests — such as eye and foot due to my early-stage diabetes that is completely under control — simply because my commonsense tells me that nothing has changed since the previous tests.
But the main reason I trust my doctor is she suggested an over-the-counter substance, turmeric, for a complaint I had, something few physicians do since the American Medical Association (AMA) basically takes the position that all such remedies are worthless scams. They would much rather we only take something they can write a prescriptions for so that Big Pharma can continue to break it off in everyone’s butt by vastly overcharging the American public. Still the AMA takes a decidedly dim view of doctors departing from the medical party line.
I first became aware of the efficacy of some vitamins and natural cures when, years ago, a doctor — after looking around to make sure no one was within earshot — whispered to me that I perhaps might try cranberry capsules for the reoccurring urinary tract infection that came back to plague me every year like clockwork. That was over two decades ago and I’ve never been bothered with any symptoms since. It works.
Further, I do tend to believe that Mother Nature has put a cure for whatever ails us somewhere on the planet. The problem is, somehow over the eons, we’ve lost valuable information about the natural world and the remedies and cures she has to offer. The Dark Ages suppressed and destroyed so much of the storehouse of knowledge man had accumulated, and much of it has yet to be replaced or relearned.
Now I’m certainly not endorsing a vitamin or “natural” regimen for whatever ails someone, since I’m also convinced that some vitamins and other supplements are nothing but scams — they are no better than sugar pills. That’s the problem within an industry that is fairly unregulated. Snake oil salesmen will foist anything they can on an unsuspecting public, and sometimes rake in millions in the process.
But, with that said, simply because a certain compound doesn’t work for one person, that doesn’t mean that it’s not going to work for someone else — just like prescription drugs. It behooves us all to monitor and evaluate whatever we put into our bodies, from whatever source.
Currently, of the 10-pill regimen I take every morning without fail, half are over-the-counter medications or vitamins and the other half are from a pharmacy. And, while I’m not as spry as I was at 67, I’m still in relatively good health for age 77, and hope to be around for a few more decades — if that’s not asking too much.
Most of the time when checking in at the receptionist’s desk at the Clinic and I am asked my age — if I perceive the person has a sense of humor or a sunny disposition — I say, “4/20/43 … you know that’s 1843!” If that joke gets the intended response or chuckle, I then ask, “Do you know what I want people to say about me a hundred years from now?”
When the receptionist bites and asks, “What?” I respond, “Boy, he sure looks good for his age!”
Protect your health. Good health, love, and trying to make this world a better place than when you first entered into it is all that really matters in this life. In the end, all I’m trying to do is have a big funeral — just not anytime in the near future.
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsIn