The Dr. Weil Change-Up

I have astonishing news! But, first I will give you the nitty gritty details. I had been reading Spontaneous Healing by Dr. Weil and recently finished it up and have been putting his principles into practice. The diet he suggests is basically in line with that of the other programs of note that I have investigated; a relief as I feel it affirms my decisions up until this point. The only minor change (sort of major for me) is to avoid too much celery, black pepper, and other foods that have a naturally occurring poison in them. Over the years our bodies have evolved to process these adequately, but Dr. Weil suggests giving your body a break from all poisons while in the healing process (solid sounding advice!). The really big change that reading his book has brought about is my herbal and vitamin regimen. Before I was taking an herbal line up created by myself through research of anti-inflammatory herbs. They definitely helped with managing pain and seemed to reduce the amount of overall inflammation in my body. I was always lacking confidence in my decision to take all of these herbs as I really wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do and there were lots of pills each day that I feared would burden my liver. They didn’t harm me in any way and I took them for 4 months straight basically, so no harm no foul.

But, still I have been looking for a regimen that was more grounded in healing rather then inflammation management (if those can be considered two different things). Dr. Weil is my ticket. He states that every being is capable of healing themselves of just about anything. The key is to activate your immune system to get the job done. He provided numerous, and I mean numerous, accounts of spontaneous healing from a variety of diseases, mostly life threatening cancers. These patients utilized a variety of alternative therapies, customized to their needs and mixed with conventional medicine if practical. Dr. Weil believes strongly in the use of conventional medicine for emergency interventions, but feels that there are a good number of things that we can and should take care of on our own. When a conventional treatment has worked it is due to the activation of the immune system, ask a doctor and they will say it was all due to the chemical compound administered... tomato, tomatoe. So, through the desire to activate your immune system, Dr. Weil promotes an intense anti-oxidant regimen of vitamins and herbs. In his book he laid out all of the changes that one could make to enhance their chance of spontaneous healing, based on all of his past experiences with patients, his knowledge of medicine and nutrition, and personal use. Luckily, I have already incorporated much of what he details with the exception of the anti-oxidants.

I changed up my routine about 4 or 5 days ago and have been testing the results. It was extremely hard for me to give up some of the things I have been counting on the heal me, such as the L-Lysine and Cat's Claw. I must say, though, that I always felt taking the L-lysine was pointless as I found no correlation between its functional properties and the treatment of Tarlov. Maybe it works on cases involving the herpes virus, but again I find no real correlation between herpes and Tarlov. So, I say good riddance to it for now. What I have been doing is taking a large amount of Vitamin C (about 6,000 mg a day), Vit E with selenium, D3, Milk Thistle, Vit B complex, large amount of Omega3 through supplementation and nutrition in the form of flax seed. To replace all of the previous supplements I was taking for inflammation (rosemary, ginger, Cat's Claw, turmeric) I have been taking an all natural pain management herb (that I LOVE) called Phenocane as needed. So, you wanta know how it has been working? Let me tell you what I did yesterday:

I put on wedge heels first of all! I haven’t worn heals in at least a year because I have been too scared to try it...I mean I could barely walk with flats! But, I decided to give it a try and brought a backup pair of shoes in the car in case. My husband and I went to Toys'R'Us and found a gift, then to The Rainforest Cafe for a my husband's god daughter's birthday party (lots of walking and standing), then to Best Buy, then to Fry's, then to Wal-Mart for some cucumbers. Do you get where I am going here? I ran freaking errands! Real errands, in heels and without a WHEELCHAIR! My feet actually began to hurt before my back did!

Now, what do I think caused this miraculous new ability of mine to actually be normal again? Obviously, I am gonna have to say it is the anti-oxidants. Perhaps they have kicked my immune system into overdrive, so it is better able to deal with my pain. Hopefully, that extends to being able to better heal the cyst. There are some other factors I wish to explore as well as possible causes.

1. The heels. Maybe walking with weight to the front of my leg is what helped me to have much more stamina then I have previously experienced. I would be interested to know if any Tarlov ladies notice a difference between flats and heels with their symptoms...

2. I believe. Let's face it, I am a neurotic, energetic, curious person. The combination of the three mixed with education equates to me being over-analytical, worrisome, and anxious. Meaning, that I am able to change my own mind on things that I previously believed whole heartedly, even things that are obviously true and based in fact. For this reason, I have been going back and forth on whether I believe that healing myself was actually a possibility. You have to remember that I have been brainwashed alongside everyone else for my entire life that the only way to fix a medical issue is through pills or surgery; that is something that lingers. My inability to trust the process (as Bob says on Biggest Loser) is what has been holding me back. Reading other accounts in this book of healing, from things far worse then what I have, definitely cemented in my mind that this is a real possibility, if not a fact. He even expresses the importance of ignoring conventional medical doctor’s pessimism and seeking out those that have healed naturally, as it is a necessary connection one’s mind must make before it can heal itself. Before something can happen, you have to believe it can happen.

I believe that all of the mentioned factors, with the exception of the heels perhaps, made yesterday's events possible. I am really excited to see if the trend continues. I am leaving to go out of town for two weeks on Wednesday for a southeastern states camping/working vacation and have been hoping to have some improvement beforehand so that I might be able to enjoy the scenery without the pain. I am cautiously optimistic that I just might get too! Perhaps, being on a strong anti-oxidant regimen while getting in touch with nature will activate my healing system even further. Plus, Dr. Weil stresses the importance of proper breathing to feed your body, which I have been working on some of his techniques and already feel improvement in my lung capacity. This will give me a great opportunity to get back to basics.

I am thrilled with my progress thus far and I cannot tell you how fascinating it is to me what can be accomplished through diet. I suggest anyone who is trying to heal themselves from anything, should purchase this book. Sometimes the only thing standing in between you and your goal is your mind. This book helps you to see that and that is priceless.