Taking Charge of your Wellness Plan, Provides the Best Results

I just love stories of inspiration don’t you? It has that quality that pulls at something deep inside of us, and suggests, in the context of the human condition, we are able overcome anything. Just having read an article written by Larry O’Conner “Running for your Life,” inspired me to write about my personal journey into better health, and how the modernization of our health system continues to fail us.

Mirrored by tens of thousands, Mr. O’Conner’s story emanates from his childhood experience in a near death experience within the cold setting of a hospital. Modern medicine has critical focus on addressing symptoms but seldom addresses the person. In perhaps all cases, a wellness plan requires personal assessment and lifestyle changes and of course this requires compliance from the patient. This is a daunting challenge for any physician to provoke a permanent change in their patents, and they take the biochemical approach by prescribing a myriad of medication. Depending on the chronic condition, the patient must remain on this medication regiment for the remainder of their lives to advert feeling bad or even early death.

In 2000 I was diagnosed with diabetes, and immediately put on diabetic pills and suggested many lifestyle changes but with very little support to accomplish such alterations in how I lived. Some of the medications side affects actually caused weight gain, which is counterproductive in addressing diabetes. Jump 4 years later and now I am taking 10 different pills and injecting 80 units of insulin per day. Great for the pharmacological companies, but my body has become a biochemical quagmire, surely not healthy in any given since of the word.

Jump a year later and with the loss of my job, and insurance I am no longer able to sustain the price of this medicine regiment and forced me to take my wellness into my own hands if I were to survive. First, I began to raise my literacy concerning my diabetes, turned to folkways and alternative medicines in the area of natural herbs. I began eating six small meals a day to retard sugar spikes, which happens with a single setting of large meals. I started an exercise program and shed 80 pounds in 8 months. Jump 5 years later to present day; I am no longer on any pill or insulin. I reversed my worsening condition purely by changing my habits in seeking healthy lifestyle practices.

In conclusion, what happened to home doctor visits? If you are old enough, you can remember that not only was he/she your family doctor, but friend, the very person who set in the pew with you in church. Intimately a part of the community you live in and find support from in everyday living. We need a system that promotes empowerment of the individual, not just the treatment of symptoms, because in truth there really is no quick fix when it comes to personal health.

I implore you to read Mr. O’Conner’s article on “Running for your Life”, I hope you find it as inspiring as I have. Here is the link http://www.run4yrlife.blogspot.com/