Well, I went to the natureopath (ND)yesterday. Prognosis is still unclear. (I mean
mine of him, not his of me.) His clinical manner couldn't be better: he spent
an hour and a half with me. When was the last time you heard of any kind of
doctor putting in that amount of patient time, except maybe during surgery?
Furthermore, he didn't talk down to me in the least, except for defining terms
when he thought it was necessary. He asked first if I had a biology background. (I
don't, specifically, but am reasonably good at medspeak and general sciences.) He
went into depth on my family and personal info and seemed interested in
everything. When I mentioned reservations about specific things, like the blood-
type diet (on which more below), he answered them fully, and told me why he
believed in it and who did what research.
And he gave me wind
chimes.
On the other hand, he does, as I said, buy into the blood-
type diet, about which I'm very skeptical. Actually, its broad outlines sound very
good and match my own experience and conclusions:
I. Different people have
different needs. The ND's response when I said that I tend to be uncomfortable
with anything that says all humans fit into four groups was, "I agree, but most
diets try to fit everyone into one group." Good answer.
II. Given our blood
types, Rudder needs to eat lots of meat and I should go easy on red meat and dairy
and eat lots of veggies. This matches what we do already, and we do it because
that's how we feel our best.
III. Less processed foods are better than
highly processed ones. Not that you can tell from how I eat, but at least to a
degree, this makes sense to me.
On the other hand, this diet doesn't
stick to saying I should eat more fruits and veggies, it has long lists of which
ones to eat and which ones to avoid. (Oranges and bananas are among the latter.
Bananas are the ideal regatta breakfast: lots of potassium and you don't tend to
puke them back up. Avoid them? Don't think so.) I have trouble taking a diet
seriously that lists out specific fishes and says to eat salmon but not flounder
or whatever that was. Ye gods and little fishes.
Another reservation
is that he said I might have hypoadrenalism, which according to the net is related
to chronic fatigue syndrome and (in its acute form) to Addison's disease. I was OK
with this possible diagnosis (apparently you normally diagnose by treating for it
and seeing if the patient responds well) until I looked it up and the very first
listing on the search engine mentioned a treatment used by Edgar Cayce. I am
not taking ANY treatment recommended by Edgar bloody Cayce! Also, there was
a warning from the AMA about one drug used by from "fringe practitioners" to treat
it. So I'll have to see what he recommends as treatment and make my decision then
-- he's supposed to send more info by email. Anyhow, it's pretty clear to me I
don't have CFS or if I do it would have to be the world's record mild case, so if
this is more than slightly related, I may also balk.
I will try to
avoid soda and go easy on the red meat, though.
To his credit, the ND
being also a rower, he did NOT recommend I give up rowing and take up the "gentle
exercise such as yoga or golf" the blood-type book recommends, he said flat out
that though he's seen dramatic improvement on the diet, he's also seen people for
whom it didn't work, and he understands that nobody is just going to eat exactly
what's listed in all those long lists - he said, "Just try to eat a bit less of
THOSE and more of THESE and do what you can," or words to that effect. So I'll
listen to what else he has to say.