.

If I believed my doctor, I would not be able to function normally today.

Just last year, during a friend's wedding, my hands could not stop shaking and all the pictures I took were blurred.  I also found other things peculiar like forgetting what I was about to say without any interruption to my thought patterns or my heart beating over a hundred beats per minute even if I was lying down in bed.

Needless to say I thought maybe this was it and that all my rushing about in this life was about to come to a screeching halt.  It wasn't at all a daunting thought but what worried me was that I probably had to go to a doctor (a visit I would avoid at all costs!!!).

To make the long story a little bit shorter, I was diagnosed with Graves disease which is when your thyroid hormones work overtime and produce more than what your body needs.  Over time, more and more things happen like: losing weight, sleeplessness, major tiredness and to top it all off an overall miserable feeling about anything and everything.

I didn't really think there was anything wrong with my frequent heated "discussions" with my mom or sisters and rather liked the fact that whatever gi-normous portions I ate did not result in weight gain. (Others later thought this was a dream illness.)

After diagnosis I learned that there were only 2 known options in orthodox treatment, drugs and surgery.  Otherwise, as mentioned in one online forum "you die" of your heart just conking out for running too fast.  But apart from this, it was said to be a treatable illness and no cause for worry (though I was told I had to take meds (and never miss like clockwork) for at least 7 years!!!)

About a month after taking Tapazole (the drug known to have less side effects), I felt so good (emotionally)!!!  I noticed the disappearance of sluggish mornings and my heartbeat slowing down.  But soon after, cooky things started happening....

Itchy rashes appeared all over my body and then arthritic pains would be felt in different places every day.  It came to a point where I would guess which part would hurt the next day.  Then came the excruciating headache. It was only one headache but it never ended.

I could not sleep if I would not take a pain killer.  But I noticed I was still in good spirits.  I never felt bad about it.  I just had a nagging doubt that all was not well.  My doctor said it had nothing to do with the meds I was so religiously taking every morning, noon and nighttime.

So I went to the eye doctor as he suggested and to the dentist and the last resort was a neurosurgeon (akkkk!).  As a desperate effort to rid myself of this unceasing pain, I agreed to have an oral surgeon take out an impacted tooth as it seemed like the source at the time. 

If ever you have an impacted tooth, don't ever rush into surgery like I did.  It was so painful that the surgeon said afterwards "congratulations Tina, it's a boy!"  It cost me thousands of pesos and horrible agony to finally find out it was really the meds causing the headache. 

Right about this time I chose to switch doctors and he gave me steroids.  This caused me to have zombie red eyes!!!  And the headaches still persisted.  Going back to the eye doctor, he told me to apply steroids (yet again) to take care of the redness.  Fortunately by this time, I ceased to trust doctors' words and educated myself on the options they presented to me.  I read up on the side effects of the drugs they prescribed before I bought them.  None of these were appealing and more than ever, alarmed me to what perils they held in store!

With a loadful of prayers and even a healing session with Fr. Suarez, I stopped medication and very slowly my headaches faded away but so did the symptoms of Graves come back! The first night I stopped taking them I felt like... sad and wanted to cry and then laughed because I realized it was all physiological and was not really sad!  I kinda looked nutty all by myself but at least I was able to ditch the melancholy feeling.

This was a worrisome thing as I knew I would be given only a stronger drug or surgery.  Surgery would mean I would have to take drugs all my life (for post op maintenance).

Blessedly (!!!!) I found a website (amongst the millions of sites about traditional treatment) about a man who experimented with vitamins to cure his thyroid disease.  He found that taking Vitamins C and E for prolonged periods of time caused a deficiency in the body's minerals like Copper (for hyperthyroidism) and Zinc (for hypothyroidism).  This caught me by surprise since these were two vitamins I regularly took!  It struck a chord within me.

The site www.ithyroid.com had very detailed descriptions of how he ultimately cured himself just be using vitamins and by drinking mineral water!  All natural treatments!!! 

I read all this just in the nick of time.  I was very weak though I tried to hide my exhaustion.  When I first bought some mineral water and just drank, it was like drinking water from an oasis in the desert!  Pure life was streaming back into my bones!  My brother also found copper vitamins from GNC and I also loaded up on other suggested minerals for my condition (not more than the recommended daily allowance, mind you!)

Today, just a year after diagnosis, I still stock up on mineral water but don't need copper tablets anymore.  My blood tests show that I am healed of this terrible illness and it is something that so many people out there are still suffering from despite such a simple cure!!! 
I feel fantastic!  I hike, run on the treadmill, travel without fear of collapsing from exhaustion.  I have a normal appetite now and have gained the weight I've lost before.

Nowadays I am inclined to think of the items labeled as "no therapeutic claims" as otherwise.  The more natural a product is, the better it is for the body.  Food as medicine is a better preventive measure than popping a pill concocted to alleviate the symptoms rather than the root.  There is a lot of room for improvement with the whole medical system which only sees alternative methods as hocus pocus. 

I watched a BBC feature on Ayurveda where a lady doctor flew all the way to India to learn it as many of her patients were turned away without any hope for cure whereas in India their illnesses were reversed.

When doctors say "you will not be cured" but other people who do alternative therapy say they were healed, who would you want to follow?  I say everyone needs to take full responsibility for their personal health and be informed what is happening to their bodies and be able to also adapt a healthier lifestyle and develop an overall quality of life that is better. 

I also hope that in the future, pharma companies would truly work not for profit but for the good of the people in developing herbal products that are more natural than ever.  In saying all this, I don't negate the good that doctors and pharma companies do.  Yes they save lives.  Still, may they have the wisdom and openness of mind to study what is truly the the best treatment for their patients.

I'm glad that at present I'm totally drug free and even vitamin free.  The body will heal itself as perfectly designed if we but only take care of it as we should.