Alternative medicine approaches have helped me on more than one occasion. Most recently, I tackled the root causes of my acid reflux in just two weeks with a food I already had in my fridge. Yep… you guessed it – dill pickles.

I have an amazing alternative medicine MD named Dr. Fred Hui. He has been one of the main integrative healthcare practitioners that has helped to pull me out of a deep fatigue and replenish my energy stores to function in my every day life. He is the kind of doctor people go to when Western Medicine has failed them. By the time I found Dr. Hui, many doctors had told me that I should be feeling better, that I should be feeling fine now, and when they had no other ideas on how to help me, I was told that maybe it was probably all in my head.  But despite their treatments and reassurances that my bloodwork looked great, I was still deeply fatigued.

When I finally got to Dr. Hui, I arrived with a bulging file folder of medical tests and bloodwork results. Dr. Hui did a comprehensive review of my documents, and a full assessment of my nutrition, sleep, hormones, mood, and emotions. Best of all, he looked me straight in the eyes and told me he could help me feel better. My eyes actually welled up with tears when he said this to me.

He recommended supplements, traditional remedies, healing through food and also prescribed pharmaceuticals where they were the best option. For example, rather than synthetic thyroid hormones, he prescribed natural dessicated thyroid hormone and it made a world of difference for me. I hadn’t felt much better at all on synthroid despite the fact that my thyroid stimulating hormones levels looked fine on my bloodwork. I sought Dr. Hui out after taking a full week long online course on thyroid function and disfunction where I learned that 80% of people feel better on natural dessicated thyroid hormone and it can be because their body may have a problem converting the synthetic hormones into usable forms.

When I started on the natural dessicated thyroid, the fog started to lift and so did the fatigue.  In addition, I followed the other aspects of the protocol Dr. Hui gave me and I experienced a significant improvement in my sleep, energy, and mood.

Dr. Hui was true to his word.  He made me feel better and I have been so grateful to him and alternative medicine approaches ever since.

So is this article about pickles or what?

I know that you’re thinking… “I thought this was about pickles.” Don’t worry, I’m about to get there…

Several months ago, I went to see Dr. Hui for my regular 6 month check-up. When he asked me how I was feeling, I told him my energy was good but that I was experiencing a lot of discomfort after I ate and at night with burping as well as a burning feeling in my chest and throat. I told him that it was particularly uncomfortable in the evening and late at night.

Dr. Hui cut right to the chase. He explained that he could give me a prescription to deal with the symptoms but he would rather help me address the root causes. He told me to that I needed to rebalance the acidity of my stomach so he recommended that I try eating a pickle or drinking pickle juice with each meal for several weeks.

That’s it…he prescribed pickles.

Pickles for breakfast? Oh my…

So I tried it. I ate a dill pickle with breakfast, lunch, and dinner – a pickle with my cereal, a pickle with pasta, a pickle with chicken and rice. I finished off a Costco-sized jar of dill pickles and then I drank the pickle juice with each meal.

As soon as I started the pickle protocol, my acid reflux felt a lot better. For several hours after eating each pickle, I had no discomfort at all. Within two weeks, I had no symptoms of acid reflux. At that point, I stopped eating the pickles with every meal and have been symptom-free since. The root cause has been addressed and I now have an easy, effective protocol to follow if ever I experience symptoms of acid reflux again.

I was recently encouraged to write this article when my friend was telling me about her acid reflux. (She is the one with the clever idea for the pun in the title – thanks Caroline!). Many people I know are on a lifetime pharmaceutical prescription to address their acid reflux symptoms. It’s amazing to me that they weren’t just told to try eating pickles first.

The value of alternative medicine approaches

There are lots of stories that I have heard where alternative medicine practitioners are able to help those whom Western Medical Doctors simply cannot help. I’m definitely in that group. I have certainly appreciated the help of Western medicine where it’s effective but I also hit some impenetrable brick walls in finding ways to move beyond my significant fatigue. Alternative medicine approaches were the only way that I was able to get through. And the pickle protocol is a perfect illustration of the effectiveness of these alternative medicine approaches.

There is also a depth of knowledge across cultures with respect to plant-based medicines and alternative medicine protocols that are highly effective. These protocols are often not tested and recommended by Western medical doctors because there is no funding to test their efficacy. In other words, if already available foods can effectively treat diseases, like acid reflux, there is little to no funding for randomized testing because there is no pharmaceutical patents to drive profits.

My intent in sharing this story is not to provide medical advice but rather to illustrate how alternative medicine approaches to health have helped me on several occasions effectively address the root causes of disease. As well, these approaches can often help to avoid long-term reliance on prescriptions that are aimed merely at reducing the symptoms of disease.

So do some research into root causes of symptoms you’re experiencing and advocate for natural approaches where they exist.  Once you do, you never know… maybe you’ll end up eating pickles for breakfast too!

We would love to hear from you in the comments section below the article.

Photo by Jonathan Pielmayer on Unsplash

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