As I sit here typing this, I just finished a Med Bath. I'm able to walk around the house, do low-impact exercise, take care of a house and two dogs and a lizard, and go on dates with my husband. And while I have nasty symptoms still, I have come a long way in the year and a half since I discovered natural medicine. Let me tell you about it and then give you some information for if you're starting a natural medicine journey or need some ideas to re-start your journey.
In January of 2016, I was pulling out chunks of my hair regularly. I had daily horrific muscle spasms, fell often, and was in extreme pain. My body shut down and tried to reject my medications that I needed to live. I stayed on the basic meds, but was not able to take anything for the pain or nausea. My stomach also refused nearly all food, reducing me to eating nasty, unhealthy things just to keep a calorie count up. I existed on white bread, small amounts of cheese, occasional milk, and that's about it. Fruits and vegetables caused seizure-like episodes and blackouts followed by severe stomach cramps and frequent vomiting. My service dog Riley was working overtime and was getting worn out by the sheer magnitude of her duties. I was looking forward to a wedding (mine) in June and starting a new life with my husband in December. And here I was in January, unable to climb five stair steps without crying due to the pain. I was unable to work and had to move in with my parents while I waited to join my husband (we're military...there's a lot of waiting).
My mother sat me down and told me that I had to work while I was living with them. I was shocked until she told me what she meant. She told me that while I was living with them, she expected me to fight for my health and she was going to do everything she could to support me in that fight. She told me my job was to see as many doctors as I could and try as many things as I could while I had a safe place and people to look after me should something go wrong. With her unwavering support, I contacted my primary care doctor and demanded that I get referrals.
After several failed specialist visits, I got referred to a rheumatologist who remains one of the single greatest doctors I've seen. After doing a thorough exam during which he dislocated every joint in my body and put them back (much to Riley's disapproval) he told me quite frankly that I had the worst case he'd seen, there wasn't anything he could do for me, and that what I was going through was, and I quote, "a special kind of hell." I had loose joints and severely tight muscles. My entire body was convinced it was under attack all the time and was seizing up and refusing food and other outside things like medication because it perceived them as attacks. Any type of movement, even sitting up, was viewed by my body as a horrific event. He told me my body was in crisis and he didn't have any treatments that wouldn't make that worse. He then asked me how I felt about natural medicine.
I told him all the natural medicine I had tried was people telling me that yoga and prayer would fix me. He told me yoga is detrimental to people with my specific condition and that he wasn't talking about that kind of medicine. He set me up with an Integrative Medicine specialist at a local Cancer Institute. His honesty and referral are among the greatest gifts a doctor has ever given me.
I met with an Integrative Medicine Specialist who worked daily with people in severe pain with weak or no immune system. Bodies in crisis were her specialty. She was very honest with me and gave me a bunch of tips and inside information and recipes. I'll share her tips below. I began using Essential Oils, natural supplements, and massage therapy to help me get my health under control. Using what she taught me, I began what will be a lifelong journey to healing using natural medicine.
Information I got from the Integrative Medicine Specialist:
1. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Seriously. Research, research, research. NEVER take information you find on a website that sells you a product for fact unless you back it up with other research.
2. Just because a company says their oils are great, it doesn't mean they are. Again, do your research. You're looking for a 100% organic oil, but make sure it has a "certified" label. "Certified organic" or "certified therapeutic and/or medical grade" are what you're looking for. Young Living Essential Oils are fantastic for the average user, but not for someone who is looking to use them for purely medical benefits. (She didn't say anything about DoTerra, so do your research. And this was a year and a half ago and it is possible that YL has gotten medical/therapeutic grade oils since then. Refer to #1 on this list.) I personally use Wyndmere and oils I get from an apothecary in my current city. I'm lucky enough to have access to that apothecary. I did use some Aura Cacia oils for a bit, but found that their quality really varied from oil to oil and sometimes even bottle to bottle. If it's from Walmart or is a pre-packaged "bath," it's not medical grade.
3. Natural medicine cannot replace traditional medicine. Take your medications. Always.
4. Always consult your doctor before starting anything if you've got an underlying medical condition.
5. What works for one person may be harmful to another. Trial and error is the name of the game. And never take a full dose of anything to start. Start small always and work up.
6. Test oils on the inside of your forearm. Put a drop there and wait. If in fifteen minutes nothing has happened, you're probably good to use it (again, start with a small amount). If your skin swells up or turns red or a rash appears, that's a histamine reaction and you must wash off the oil immediately with cold water. Do not scrub or it will get worse. Discontinue use of the oil completely. If, like me, your body randomly rejects things one week and then not the next week, keep the oil around and test it again in a month or so.
7. Start slow. Start slow. START SLOW. If you find a recipe online or in a book or even from a doctor, cut it in half or even down to 25% and use that to see if you're going to be able to tolerate it.
8. Never start multiple treatments at the same time. Start with one thing, do it for a month, then maybe add another thing. The trick with natural medicine is to relax your body into healing. If you attack it with multiple things, it will see it as just that: an attack.
9. Start with aromatherapy. Then move on to topical treatments. Then go to the internal things like supplements, etc. Again, you're easing your body into a new way of behaving.
10. Try, try, try. It might get frustrating to buy something and then find out it doesn't work so it might be helpful to see if a friend wants to go in with you on buying oils or if they have some you can try in a small amount.
11. It will take months before you see any major benefits. The immediate effects (such as smelling peppermint for nausea) will be nice, but the major benefits of overall better health will take forever to show up.
12. Aromatherapy and all topical oils are like punching your brain in the face. You want your brain to react a certain way, so you smell or apply a certain thing. This one's confusing, so here's an example: You want your brain to stop sending you the signals that make you feel nauseous. You punch it in the face with extreme peppermint fumes. Your body says "OH GOOD HEAVENS WHAT IS THAT THING! THE ONLY WAY TO COMBAT IT IS TO STOP FEELING NAUSEOUS!" and shuts off the nausea signals. It's more scientific than that, but that's the basic idea. Another example would be using lemon for anti-inflammatory purposes. Your brain gets overloaded with the lemon and the lemon somehow tricks the brain into sending your body anti-inflammatory things. Thus, your body becomes less inflamed. Science.
And now things I have learned:
1. All of the above tips are essential (pun not intended) to the success of your treatment plan. Don't skip any of them.
2. Certain oils can sometimes "burn" the skin in high concentrations. It will start as a histamine reaction that will turn into welts that look like nasty burns on your skin. Always start with a heavily diluted concentration and work your way up slowly. If you think you've got too high a concentration of an oil by accident, it's better to throw your solution away (or drain the tub, etc.) than to suffer the oil burns. Been there, done that. Nasty stuff. Citrus oils are the most prone to do that.
3. Use a carrier oil for topical treatments. Carrier oils are what you dilute the essential oil in. Grapeseed, jojoba, coconut, and almond are the common ones. I like grapeseed because it's cheap and I'm not allergic to it. I personally don't use it in Med Baths, but others need it to dilute the oils in the bath.
4. So many oils can be used for so many different things. It's upsetting to try to find the right ones that work for you, but very rewarding when you do.
5. Different people swear by different carrier oil to essential oil ratios. It's basically a handful of carrier oil for every 3-5 drops of essential oils. Some people do more, some do less. It's what works for you and your skin and your body and doesn't harm you.
And now, a recipe for a Med Bath, straight from the Cancer Institute:
MED BATH
2-2 1/2 Cups of Epsom Salt
1/2 - 1 Cups of Baking Soda
5-15 Drops of Each Essential Oil (The type of oil depends on what you want the Med Bath for)
1/2 Cup of Sea Salt
Combine with water as hot as you can handle. Begin with only a five minute soak. Work your way (over several months) up to 15-30 minutes. Begin with only a few drops of oils. Work your way up to more.
(ALWAYS have a glass of ice water or even two handy, as you'll get dehydrated and feel awful after the bath. NEVER take a Med Bath when you are alone in the house, in case of fainting. NEVER take one before exercising or going somewhere. Plan to go to bed with plenty of water to drink afterwards. My healthy as a horse husband took a full strength one when he had a cold and was weak as a kitten for five hours afterwards.) (If you're getting sick, take one of the above baths every single day and your sickness will come on aggressively and then go away quickly, cutting your sick days down by over 30%. You'll be miserable for your sick days, but there will be less of them.)
If you just want a relaxing bath, 1 cup of Epsom Salt and add a carrier oil and use only 5-10 drops of Essential Oils. Or skip the Epsom Salt altogether. The Med Bath recipe above is only to be used by people who are sick (with a chronic illness) or are getting sick (like getting a cold or the flu).
Common Oils/Uses include:
- Lemon for anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial, useful if you've got a cold or are getting a cold
- Cinnamon for congestion and sinus headaches
- Lavender for calming properties (personally, I hate lavender. But you do you.)
- Sweet Orange for anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial
- Peppermint for nausea or pain
- Eucalyptus with Lemon and/or Peppermint for pain
- Frankincense for pain, sinus headaches, congestion, basically everything
- Myrrh for pain
My daily bath includes Ravensara, Copaiba, and Palmarosa for building collagen. Sometimes Peppermint or Frankincense is added in for pain. I add Vanilla and/or a bit of White Musk in it just because they make it more pleasant. I tinker with the intensity of the bath based on how I'm feeling and what I'm needing on any given day. You've got to find what works for you.
Hope you enjoyed my scattered yet informative post about my use of Essential Oils. Please comment below with tips and tricks and feel free to educate me on Young Living, DoTerra, or whatever brands you use. I'm always open to learning more!
No comments:
Post a Comment