My Mom Suggested It

So, here I am FINALLY writing a blog. I am happy to say that it was my 74 year-old mother that suggested I do this. I didn't even know she knew what a blog was! She claims to know nothing about computers, let alone the web. It was a great idea though. The reason she suggested it is because I am determined to make her healthy...if it's the last thing I do.

Here's how it's going to go: as time permits I plan on writing about natural healing. This information will come from research I've done or articles I have read and I'm hoping to compile it into a simple format - for the average person to understand. My focus is going to be on pharmaceutical drugs, their harmful side effects, interactions, contribution to nutrient deficiency and natural alternatives.

Once I get into the pharmaceutical topics, I will give my mom's story first and then you'll know why she even made the suggestion. But this week I want to start the story of how I discovered natural health.

It all started around four years ago when my beloved cousin, who had begun a vegan lifestyle and was already well-versed in eating organic, talked to me about The Master Cleanse, or "The Lemonade Diet". She told me the story about how a local businesswoman (her business is now to promote natural health) had once been very sickly. She was a young lady with rheumatoid arthritis as well as other problems. As a result of the arthritis her fingers had already begun to curl. She came across information on the cleanse and decided to read more about it and subsequently try it. To make a long story short, this lady decided to get rid of all the junk food in her house and made a vow to only eat healthy. She ultimately cured herself of the arthritis and is now teaching yoga as well as consulting in natural health. The other story my cousin told was of a man that had gallbladder problems. He'd been to numerous doctors and all told him the same thing - his gallbladder would have to be removed. He told the doctors (in so many words) "Um, I think I'll keep my gallbladder. I'm assuming that it's there for a reason.." Instead this man chose to seek out alternative healing. He too found the cleanse and ultimately through cleansing and diet he rid himself of his gallbladder problems.

At this point, after hearing about these things, I decided it was worth my looking into. I purchased the two books about the cleanse (which you can find reference to at my web site http://www.marciemartinez.ws/Health) and found the information so fascinating and it made so much sense to me (and my boyfriend) that we both decided to try it early the next year. One of the things that is required to do a successful cleanse is to cease ingesting or, in any case, subjecting one's body to outside toxins (as long as it can be helped). This meant that I was going to have to get off my allergy medication - I was on Claritin and Rhinocort because I'd had miserable allergies for years; I was on Protonix for my acid reflux; and I was on antidepressants (from having gone through a divorce...I continued taking them for about a year). These, I knew, were fairly major toxins and so I got off all of them - cold turkey - because I wanted to do a successful cleanse. In addition (side note) I ensured that all products I was using during the cleanse were all natural - natural lotions, shampoos, toothpaste, etc. so that my body could take a complete break from dealing with all those toxins.

It was a successful cleanse. I cleared myself of acid reflux (for a while....I'll discuss this in a later blog), I cleared myself of allergies (again, for a short while...but subsequently got cured of those naturally...also for another blog) and I no longer needed antidepressants (I actually think I never really needed them, they were just a knee-jerk reaction from my doctor because I was bawling in his office, but I digress).

There's more to it obviously but the gist of it is that after discovering the cleanse and reading a lot about natural health, while I was on the cleanse, I was convinced that natural was the way to go. I have changed many of my methods of cooking, cooking products, food, etc. but that's not really what this blog is about. It may evolve into that later but I'm going to keep it to the blog my mom envisioned as closely as possible.

Now you know a little bit about why I believe in this. Next blog I'll talk about what I'm doing for my mom.

Until then, have a great week!