Conventional vs Natural

I've had to come face to face with some hard facts lately. I've known since I was about 18 that I'm sensitive to gluten and dairy products. But it wasn't life threatening, so I've just bodged along, sometimes going hard core and not eating any gluten or dairy and other times eating whatever I wanted until I got sick and had to slow down a bit. Mostly I've maintained a bit of a middle road, prefering to eat gluten or dairy free, but eating other stuff if I felt I could tolerate it.

Not any more.

I"ve had some worrying trends with my health lately and so the gluten-and-dairy-free diet has begun. I'm tired just thinking about having to think and cook gluten-free and dairy-free meals!

But I just wanted to share how the solution to my health concerns came about. I've been to my GP and had some tests done which all, worryingly, came back negative (apart from a sinus infection). NOT ONCE did she mention that my condition may have something to do with my diet. I've got a friend who's had a few issues similar to mine, so I asked about it and she shared her experience and how she solved her problem - all with information from natural health practitioners rather than relying solely on conventional medicine.

I'm so amazed that GP's are called 'General Practitioners' but a majority of what they do is treat symptoms rather than causes. Is it really that revolutionary to look at someone's diet to work out where problems might stem from? I really do have respect for doctors (particularly those in emergency - funny that!) and I know that they do a lot of good. But twice now I've had a major factor left out of the advice given to me on some really painful and worrying stuff.

Despite these amazing deficiencies, I find the conventional medical community more than happy to criticise and demonize natural health practitioners.

I think there's extremes and zealots in both professions and I think it's horribly sad that there's no dialogue between the two (except harassment and labels which are really ineffective). I think a GP should be a doctor, perhaps, but also know a bit about alternative medicine like lavender, calendula, comfrey and aloe vera. God's given us some awesome things in nature to use and while I don't think He's necessarily against conventional medicine, I'm wondering if we should be using natural health first and then conventional medicine as a back up rather than the other way around?

I get that there are times when medications need to be used, but I think when you go to the GP, like I have, and all they can do is prescribe a pill or painkillers rather than look at why such a problem would be occuring, it's a worrying trend. Call me cynical, but I just don't trust big pharmaceutical companies to do what's best for my health - I think that their focus is on their bottom line and getting me dutifully paying them for my pills that I have to take every day.

So while I prefer to err on the side of natural health, I'm not an extremist. If my children are seriously sick or it's drawn out, I take them to the GP to be checked out. I use antibiotics sparingly and boost their systems with probiotics at the same time to counteract the effects. My children are fully vaccinated (although we refuse the newborn Hep B shot - I do not want my minutes-old child shoved with vaccine as soon as he/she arrives in this world, thank you very much!) and especially with Ben working in the conventional medical field, we strike a balance that we're happy with.

I wish that the conventional and natural health practitioners could do the same.