Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Alternative Health? is it really an alternative?

How weird. You walk up the High Street or watch the telly and its all about illness and how to get over it: this drug, that treatment. The biggest company on earth was a drugs company.

Could we get over the illness thing and be healthy? I mean as a thing, something to be. Instead of talking about "my asthma" for example, how about "my goodness me I do feel so well today." Or is it not all in the mind? Where does it start? If you want to be a doctor they start you on dead people. If you want to be a patient?

A doctor friend told me that in 7 years of training he spent one afternoon on nutrition. I was hospitalised once, gallbladder seizure from eating the wrong stuff (yes, entirely avoidable.) Doctor said I'd been eating the wrong stuff. I should eat, he said, less fried food, cut down on the dairy maybe. Hospital dinner came round, a choice of chips or roast potatos which hadn't actually been roasted but deep-fried (didn't you know?) Pudding was custard or cheesecake. When I insisted on discharging myself to go home and eat steamed veg I had to sign a form saying I wouldn't blame them if I got sick. There was no form for blaming them if I stayed in and got sick from being fed what they told me not to eat.

Not sure where I'm going with this. See you later.