Falling off the wagon

I love the topic of health. It's one of my hobbies. I love the idea of eastern medicine and pure foods that heal. I believe in the idea of mind over matter, and healing oneself. It just makes more sense to me than doping up on pills.

I once went to an MD in Beverly Hills for back/shoulder pain and based on my x-rays, he suggested surgery to relieve my pain. I was 25 years old. A couple years later, I went to an acupuncturist twice and I was pain free for months. The same acupuncturist put a needle in my knee, and instantly dissolved the headache I'd been nursing for three days. He could tell I had a headache based on the tension in my leg, and I literally felt my headache melt away.

I suppose this suspicion of western medicine also stems from my experience working in Phen-phen and Vioxx litigation. I am inherently skeptical of pharmaceutical companies and the notion that they have my best interests at heart. Healthy people are not where the money is made.

I've been obsessed with diet since I was young. I'm on film at the age of 8 at Nikki's birthday party saying "no ice cream on my cake please, I'm on a diet." You'd think that a statement like that stemmed from some serious mommy-issues, but my mom was never on my case about appearance - quite the opposite. Looking back, I may have been obsessed with the idea that I was able to control my weight by what I ate. That same obsession has thankfully evolved past the superficial into the idea of controlling my own health by what I eat. I love raw food. I get a little buzz after I drink a glass of spinach juice, flavored with carrots, apple and ginger. I think of how it's healing my lungs from years of smoking, or my eyes, for weeks of sleeping in my contacts. There is no ailment that a healthy diet can't fix.

Okinawans are famous for their health. They have more Centurians than any other country. The elderly are extremely active, and the Okinawan diet is "of the earth" meaning not the non-fat, lo-cal, nutrient-free stuff that American's consider health food. It seems the perfect environment for me to learn more about the natural state of health.

THAT BEING SAID...

It is a lot easier to ride on the high horse when you're not choking on your own snot. This flu is sapping my will to live and my ability to breathe. I've completely irrigated my nasal cavity with warm salt water, I've meditated, I've harnessed my Chi... I'm now raiding the medicine cabinet, and I will not be shamed.

Exactly what I was looking for...FloNase. "FloNase" for pete's sake! As I spray this stuff up my nose, I know it is killing my brain cells, and that I'm slowly building my addiction to it. It is putting my reproductive abilities in question, and perhaps taking years off my life (the years mercifully left by Philip Morris). I know that it is actually doing nothing to cure my flu.

However, I can now breathe freely in 45 second increments. ahhhhhh. I'm kneeling at Glaxo-Smith-Kline's alter. I will pay for this heresy, I have not doubt. I'm going to have to drink a lot of spinach juice as soon as I can actually consume fluids again.