The Nature Cure: Why some doctors are writing prescriptions for time outdoors

[cyndi]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-nature-cure/403210/

"...[font='Lyon Text', Georgia, Times, serif]Ecotherapy is a fledgling profession, still unrestrained by such things as “standards of practice” and “licensing requirements.” It can mean regular outdoor sessions with a therapist or simple exercises undertaken on one’s own, and can be part of a general approach to well-being or a supplement to treatment for a medical condition. (It is not intended as a replacement for standard evidence-based treatments.)..."[/font]

 

[Almost There]

It probably never will be widely recognized by western medicine - after all, it costs little to nothing and can be done without the supervision of highly paid medical staff.

Yes, I sound sarcastic, I meant to be. I have a couple of friends who would benefit from a whole lot less medicine and a whole lot more healthy food and time spent in nature and have known many more over the years!

 

[Ella1]

I agree whole-heartedly.
Vitamin B-17 has been proved to reduce or stop growth of cancer, before mid 1970's. It's never heard of, and difficult to find. There's no money in a cure.
Many of the problems we have are caused by common chemicals, again not common prior to the 70's, and many of the illnesses follow the growth curve of chemical use in daily life.

Eliminate un-necessary chemicals and change your health, your life, even your pocketbook.

Have you noticed, drugs to counteract the side-effects of other drugs are being advertised...

 

[DannyB1954]

Eliminate un-necessary chemicals and change your health, your life, even your pocketbook.
I am on 5 meds. Don't want to read the hazard warning papers that come with them. I would become a hypochondriac. I wonder about the plastic water bottles we use. The clear ones are real nasty if the bottle gets hot in the sun. When I was young I would drink from a garden hose. Always tasted funny.

 

[Queen]

It probably never will be widely recognized by western medicine - after all, it costs little to nothing and can be done without the supervision of highly paid medical staff.

Yes, I sound sarcastic, I meant to be. I have a couple of friends who would benefit from a whole lot less medicine and a whole lot more healthy food and time spent in nature and have known many more over the years!

Amen, sister. Everyone in my family takes/took a handful of drugs daily. My brother who is only one year older than me takes high blood pressure and cholesterol pill and wonders why I don't since I'm a "big gal". Well, I eat very clean and go outside as much as possible to move around... as sitting on the couch and eating garbage doesn't seem to provide the healthy life I prefer.

 

[Ella1]

From the New York Times today: Should We Bank Our Own Stool?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/o...region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0
Discussing the damage antibiotics do to our bodies, esp as given to children,
"...By age 10, the average American child has had about 10 courses, and some microbiologists argue that even one course a year is too many — that it might damage our native microbial ecosystem, with far-reaching consequences...."

and continues, "...Almost 60 years later, the “fecal transplant” is a cutting-edge treatment for the pathogen Clostridium difficile, a bug that kills 29,000 yearly and infects nearly half a million. “C. diff” tends to strike after antibiotics deplete the microbes that naturally inhabit the gut, leaving us vulnerable to invasion. So far, fecal transplants seem to be more than 90 percent effective at curing these infections... Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York has also started a proactive stool-banking study..."
IIRC, it was that facility that put the Kibash on Vitamin B-17 as an aid for cancer patients.

 

[dhawktx]

I can verify that about antibiotics! I became Gluten Intolerant in my late 30s. Now, just shy of 60, I took two intense gut biome supplements - one for three days, the other for 7 - and am now, officially, no long Gluten Intolerant! I've 'tested' this thoroughly and in the last two weeks consumed enough gluten rich foods that I 'should' have been on the toilet for a week, but have had ZERO side effects!

 

[Ella1]

I can verify that about antibiotics! I became Gluten Intolerant in my late 30s. Now, just shy of 60, I took two intense gut biome supplements - one for three days, the other for 7 - and am now, officially, no long Gluten Intolerant! I've 'tested' this thoroughly and in the last two weeks consumed enough gluten rich foods that I 'should' have been on the toilet for a week, but have had ZERO side effects!

That's good to know--a personal story.
Did you do it on your own, or under dr care?
If on your own, how did you do it? What steps did you take, etc?

 

[dhawktx]

I was following several "Paleo diet" blogs that were discussing these newer gut biome supplements and decided to give them a try after reading up on them. I have a history of researching my personal condition(s) and trying reasonable treatments as every doctor I've ever seen has wanted to throw a pill at or cut out whatever situation I've been in. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (by a neurologist!) in the mid 90s and told that my life was over, give up, anti-depression meds and NSAIDs were my life from then on out. On my own I figured out that all the hoity toity Fibro 'cures' at the health food store had a common theme - Magnesium. I researched 'therapeutic doses' and toxicity, then began supplementing my diet. A month later I was symptom free and remain so as long as I supplement my magnesium!

Likewise I did the genetic testing with 23andMe.com and confirmed that I have one of the "Methylation" mutations that inhibits my ability to process B vitamins, as well as finding that I should NOT supplement with Taurine (the 'good mood' supplement!) because another genetic mutation I have causes me to produce too much all on my own. Due to the Gluten Intolerance I've been trying to find the best diet for myself for the last 20 years, which led me to the Paleo Diets, the Price Foundation, and the gut biome supplements.

These are the two that I took (one is from England) - Use Bob's Amazon link to search these!

Garden of Life Primal Defense ULTRA, 90 Capsules

http://www.elixa-probiotic.com/

 

[Ella1]

Good to know. However, that article was talking about using our own (stored) feces to replenish intestinal microbes.
"...The scientific term for this is “autologous fecal transplant.”... You’d freeze your feces, which are roughly half microbes, and when your microbiome became corrupted or was depleted with antimicrobials, you could “reinstall” it from a backup copy..." "...The “self-transplant” isn’t a new idea. In the late 1950s, a medical technologist named Stanley Falkow practiced what he called “fecal reconstitution.” Gut troubles often plagued surgery patients during recovery. They’d received antibiotics prophylactically, depleting their native gut microbes. So Mr. Falkow, working with an internist, began giving these patients capsules containing their own feces, collected and frozen before treatment. It helped tremendously. ..."

 

[Ella1]

portions of the text:

Today's (Nov 9, 2015) info on these fecal transplants
Fecal Transplants Made (Somewhat) More Palatable
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/h...-made-somewhat-more-palatable.html?ref=health

"...She grew better, she said, only after treating the gastrointestinal infection at home with her husband’s feces, a blender and an enema bag.
Mark B. Smith, a young doctoral student in microbiology, was in the audience, almost as teary as Ms. Duff. Resolving to help patients like her, he started a nonprofit called OpenBiome, the first stool bank in the country, which distributes fecal samples from healthy donors to help cure people with tenacious C. difficile infections.

Now OpenBiome has made the process, called fecal microbiota transplantation, far simpler. The bank has come up with a capsule containing fecal microbes that can be taken much like any other drug — poop in a pill...

In a pilot study, presented last month at a scientific meeting in Europe, clinicians showed that swallowing a single dose of 30 capsules cured 70 percent of patients with C. difficile infections. When uncured patients were re-treated with a second dose, the cure rate rose to 94 percent...

Dr. Jessica R. Allegretti, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, is putting together trials of the capsules against Crohn’s disease, obesity and primary C. difficile.