When Modern Medicine is a Good Thing

Originally Posted September – October 2009

Ever since I have been a young adult, it has been my natural inclination to focus on staying healthy and to avoid the medical system (allopathy). In fact, my wife and I do not have medical insurance by choice. We don’t want it. Instead we put our money in various savings and spend it on oils, vitamins, supplements, and healthy food. When we need medical treatment, we have the savings to pay cash. This has worked for us for nearly fifty years, during which we raised five children, and had four hospitalizations. Our total medical expenses over the years have been a lot less than we would have paid for insurance and we found that one receives better care when paying cash, and at lower prices than those charged to insurance.

I especially try to avoid pharmaceuticals of all kinds, even aspirin, since all allopathic drugs and remedies have unhealthy side-effects. However, sometimes allopathic medicine is what you need and it can save your life. Emergency room care is an example. In a traumatic situation, the heroic measures of emergency room staff may be necessary to keep you alive. In a life-threatening situation, the side effects of allopathic treatment become secondary to your survival. Hence, there is a time for drugs, surgery, and other allopathic measures. After your life has been rescued and your bodily functions stabilized, that is when you can return to natural measures to heal and rebuild your health. Modern medicine can save your life, but your ultimate healing and return to wellness has to come by other means outside of allopathy.

A Case in Point
On June 30th I was working in the field on our farm and upon returning to the house I found seven ticks on my body. I picked them off, thinking I had gotten them all. Two days later I found another one, this one well embedded in my thigh. There was a large red area around the tick bite. The tick, itself, was smaller than the head of a pin. In Missouri we call these “seed ticks.” I pulled the tick off and forgot about it except for the fact that the area where it had bitten itched a lot and the red area did not go away. I put some Purification and Thieves on the bite, but evidently it was too late.

About week later I awoke suddenly in the night saturated in sweat, with a high fever, a headache, pains throughout my muscles and joints, and a stiff neck. I got very little rest for the remainder of the night. For the next week I was in pain, had no appetite, and no energy. My eyes became hypersensitive to light. I also suffered from “brain fog,” and could not remember things or think clearly. I could barely function. All I wanted to do was to sleep, but sleep was not easy because of the fever, aches, and pains.

We first thought it must be some kind of flu, but there was no nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Only a slightly runny nose and some sensitivity and congestion in the throat. Then, after a week, the symptoms seemed to go away and we thought it must have been a virus and now I was getting over it. But a week later, the severe symptoms returned as bad as before. It was then that we realized this was nothing ordinary and I remembered the ticks.

Now is the Time to Call a Doctor
What I needed was a reliable diagnosis. That is when we called our local clinic for a doctor’s appointment for some lab tests. Upon hearing the description of my symptoms the doctor and his staff concluded that it was probably a variety of tick fever, but was it Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever? Lyme Disease? Or, perhaps, Ehrlichiosis, which is a less common tick borne disease, but one that is fatal if not treated. The clinic took several vials of blood to send to various labs while also testing me for Swine Flu. It was definitely not Swine Flu or any other kind of flu. Ehrlichiosis (pronounced, “your-licky-osis”) was not known or identified until the 1980s and is currently confined to the Southeast and South-central U.S.

Even though they would not receive the results of the lab tests for a week or two to confirm the diagnosis, they immediately prescribed a powerful antibiotic, Doxycycline, which is effective against all three tick borne diseases. They were able to rule out Rocky Mountain Tick Fever before I left the clinic, but the tests for Lyme and Ehrlichiosis would have to be sent to the Mayo Clinic and would take a week or so to get the results.

The acute symptoms for both Lyme and Ehrlichiosis are very similar. While Lyme Disease is rarely fatal, it can leave one with permanent muscle pains, arthritis and other lingering effects. Ehrlichiosis, on the other hand, is often fatal if not treated. I looked it up on a medical book which said that treatment should begin immediately when suspected based on the symptoms because “if one waits for the lab tests to confirm it as Ehrlichiosis, the patient may be dead.”

A week later the results came in that it was not Lyme. Two days later it was confirmed to be Ehrlichiosis. The good news is that Ehrlichiosis is completely curable with Doxycycline without long-term lingering problems, as with Lyme Disease, which can hibernate in your cells and become a recurring illness. Ehrlichiosis bacteria destroys white corpuscles and causes red blood cells to coagulate which leads to seizures, coma, and eventual death. Doxycycline kills Ehrlichiosis bacteria. In my case, as soon as I began taking the Doxycyclin, the unpleasant symptoms stopped and my energy and appetite began to return to normal. My prescribed regimen was Doxycyclin twice daily for three weeks.

There were some side effects of the prescribed antibiotic, but were minor. One of them is sudden spells of dizziness and tachycardia (rapid heart beat), which I experienced periodically until I finished the three-week antibiotic protocol. The lingering side effects of the drug were digestive problems that went away by eating a handful of dried wolfberries in a cup of Dannon Plain Yogurt every day.

This was a case where I had contracted a life-threatening disease that had an allopathic cure. During such a crisis, when taking prompt action is crucial to survival, is no time to experiment with oils or other means that are of unknown effectiveness for your condition or are inappropriate to meet the crisis at hand. This was a case where the side effects of the drug were considerably less than allowing the disease to take its course. Emergency medicine is the best of allopathy. It should be used without hesitation when there is an imminent danger to one’s life or limb. When allopathic medicine has a protocol to quickly overcome the acute situation and provide a basis for your survival and healing, I say do it.

As of today, October 2009, four months after my infection, I am not yet up to my full strength and former level of energy. My mind and brain are not yet fully restored to their former clarity either. But I am alive and on the mend and thankful I have oils, herbs, and supplements to rebuild my vitality.

For saving my life, I am thankful to the pharmaceutical companies and modern medicine. For having the means to rebuild my health and recover my wellness, I am thankful to Young Living.

How to Avoid Contracting Tick Borne Diseases
Tick borne diseases are easily prevented by using a suitable insect repellent. They also will not infect you if you find them within 24 hours after they bite. It normally take 36-48 hours for a tick to feast on your blood before the bacteria they carry will have invaded your system. So use a repellent whenever you go in the woods or fields and inspect your body carefully and thoroughly when returning in case you have any uninvited bloodsucking hitchhikers.

My mistake in getting tick bit was that I had not used any repellents for protection and when I came back to the house, I did not inspect myself for ticks thoroughly enough. Had I done either, use a repellent or do a better job of inspection, I would not have contracted Ehrlichiosis.
Commercial insect repellent are, themselves, toxic. They are harmful to inhale and can penetrate the skin and enter your blood stream. I am talking about insect repellents like DEET, or any repellents made from petrochemicals with a warning on its label. The main culprit in these is a chemical called permthrin, which is a neurotoxin. Exposure to these hazardous substances can cause eye irritation, skin rashes, memory loss, headaches, weakness, fatigue, muscle/joint pain, nausea, tremors, shortness of breath, and brain damage. Symptoms can appear days, and even months, after exposure.

As Young Living distributors, we are fortunate. Essential oils are excellent repellents and not only harmless to people, they are beneficial. I have used plain lavender oil applied around my ankles, waist, short sleeves, and neck and have been able to spend a day working on the farm or roaming through the woods without a single tick (and with no chiggers, either). You can also use Thieves Spray around the openings in your clothing to repel ticks and chiggers, too. Peppermint and tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) singly or mixed together work also. Purification blend works, too. Equal parts of lemon, peppermint, Eucalyptus radiata, and lemongrass (a few drops of each) in water can be sprayed on your skin directly (avoid the eyes) to repel mosquitos, discourage ticks, and other crawly creatures. With therapeutic grade essential oils, it is safe to experiment.

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2. Six Ways to Keep your Practice of Aromatherapy Within the Law
~^~by Dr. David Stewart

Young Living Distributors and others who practice some form of aromatherapy need to be concerned that they remain within the law when sharing the oils. No one wants to get in trouble with a licensing board or to be accused of practicing medicine without a license. Fortunately, there are six areas in which it is perfectly legal for anyone to offer assistance and advice and are not “practicing medicine.” They are as follows:

1. First Aid
2. Pain Management
3. Stress Management
4. Cleansing and Detoxification
5. Building for Peak Performance
6. Improving Quality of Life

1. First Aid
In an emergency, applying first aid measures until a licensed health care professional arrives is not practicing medicine. This can include applying essential oils.

2. Pain Management
Advising people as to what oils may have pain alleving properties, such as Clove, PanAway, Copaiba, and others is not practicing medicine any more than recommending one take an aspirin for a headache.

3. Stress management
Advising people as to what oils may have stress relieving properties, such as Lavender, Joy, Myrrh, Peace & Calming, etc., is not practicing medicine any more than recommending that one take a warm shower, lie down, and relax.

4. Cleansing & Detoxification
Advising people as products that release toxins from the system (such as the Cleansing Trio and other products of Young Living) or that Raindrop Technique may be a detoxification protocol is not practicing medicine any more than encouraging people to drink more water every day.

5. Building for Peak Performance
Advising people that some oils may help adjust one’s attitude for peak performance (such as Highest Potential, Valor, Motivation, or Magnify Your Purpose) or that some foods (like Ningxia Red or Balance Complete help your body to manifest optimal health) is not practicing medicine any more than advising people to eat right and think positively.

6. Improving Quality of Life
Advising people that certain oils and their applications, like Raindrop Technique, may alleviate many ills such as back pain, indigestion, fatigue, insomnia, and other chronic conditions is not practicing medicine any more than recommending that to your friends to get more rest, to engage in daily forms of pleasant relaxation, and to establish a spiritual basis for their life.

There are precautions to be taken when engaging in these six areas. Be sure that you are not “telling people what to do,” but are merely advising them as to the possibilities from which they may choose. Be sure you are not stating a definite claim that an oil or other natural protocol “can definite cure a condition or have definite beneficial effects.” Simply say these natural means “may” have benefit, but there are no guarantees and different people react differently to the same oils and protocols. If we avoid diagnosing, prescribing, prognosticating, or making claims, we remain on the right side of the law.
You can always cite your own personal experiences, which is not practicing medicine, but only telling anecdotes. And, of course, you can always quote data from published sources, attributing what you share to the sources.

So there you have it. Keep sharing and blessing others your knowledge and experiences of the oils and other products Young Living has provided for us. Stay within the guidelines given above and you needn’t worry about crossing any legal lines or getting into trouble with medical authorities or licensing boards. And always pray for God inner guidance and that He work with you closely in all that you do. The ultimate legal authority is Divine, but nevertheless, as citizens of the World, we must also “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” Mark 12:17