Re: As a consumer who is tired of having chemicals pumped into his body in the name of Good Health..

Nobody has a corner on the health care market. While I do respect the efforts of health care professionals and scientists, I have this unscientific hunch lurking in the back of my head that keeps telling me that ingesting one chemical to overcome an illness simply requires that you take another chemical, etc. -- until you're eventually nothing more than a walking test tube, waiting for an unfortunate encounter with the proverbial Bunsen Burner. While I may be there eventually, I want that to be the absolute last resort for me.

So wholistic medicine does interest me. My wife is from a country that is considered by many to be third world and has introduced me to several home-brew remedies for ailments and etc. that are simply amazing. She also does everything to and for our dog that "The Book" says not to do. Her "old" Dzaki -- who received the same type of care -- died a couple of years ago at the age of 16, and the "new" Dzaki is four years old and going strong (the vet is always amazed at how healthy she is).

I also think that a lot of the illness we have comes from our thought processes and have thought this way since I was seven years old (1965, for those counting). Everyone in my second grade class came down with a case of mumps. For some reason, I was absolutely determined that I was NOT going to get sick with mumps. The thought absolutely dominated my thinking for weeks. And as you can guess, there was one person in my class that did not get sick...

I, too, am a certified professional in my field (computer security) -- and I know that in my profession, the more I know, the more I realize that I need to learn. I think the same can be said about every profession, including medicine. We don't know everything and we never will. Furthermore, what works best may seem to defy common sense, logic, and scientific study. And while I always try to listen, my listening does not imply that I will implement what I hear (which is why some people still don't run firewalls and anti-virus software on their computers... but I digress).

I'm glad that we have both modern medicine and alternatives, and I'm glad that I have the right to choose.

And to end it on a lighter note, one of my favorite sayings goes something like this: The Ark was built by amateurs; professionals built the Titanic. Which one stayed afloat?

Thanks for listening,
Tom