More then meets the eye – The importance of home health

If you or somebody you know has struggled with a consistent, chronic ailment, take a moment to read this. It will be time well spent.

My diagnosis was Dry Eye Syndrome, which to me sounded relatively mild and easy to deal with. The course of treatment, sounded rather simple: use eye drops frequently. Easy enough, right? So I went about my business with a bottle of eye drops always at the ready. My symptoms got worse. I used more drops. I also did research, tried several other recommended treatments, got a second opinion and still the condition worsened. Severe dry eye, I soon discovered is painful and disrupts your life.

The pain, like needles in my eyes, woke me every night. By three o’clock each day, my eyes burned so that I could barely keep my heavy eyelids open to finish my work. Increasingly I found light of any type almost intolerable. I could not leave the house without sunglasses and I kept my house and work area practically dark. Sound depressing? It was. Adding to my growing angst was the fact that dry eye syndrome is typically a disease of aging. Was my body aging faster than most? Would I lose my sense of sight?

Kryptonite at the Foot of my Bed

I am by anyone’s standards healthy. I eat right, exercise, get enough rest. I enjoy my work, I’m active in my community and I have a happy, active household. It was hard for me to believe that dry eye syndrome could slow me down so much. Not only did my eyes get worse, but my strength diminished too. As they say, my get up and go seemed to have got up and went. I felt like I was falling apart. How could dry eye be so degenerative?

It turns out, it wasn’t. In fact, I did not even have dry eye syndrome. I had the equivalent of Kryptonite at the foot of my bed: My dogs’ beds were toxic to me.

For me, the fiber content and chemicals used to treat the bed filling to prevent odor was toxic to my system. My first clue should have been that when the alarm woke me each morning, I felt tired and weak. I unwittingly ignored that first warning and continued to subject myself to the culprit night after night. So, my body sent a second warning sign: dry eye symptoms. I treated the symptoms, but as I slept, while my body should have been restoring and rejuvenating, it was being bombarded with a weakening agent. It was a losing battle and the symptoms got more severe and expanded.

My situation may be unusual, but it’s not atypical. We are all, to varying degrees, affected by the products we encounter and consume. Some, like I, are more sensitive than others, but everything we inhale, eat or put on our body has an effect on our overall wellness. From person to person, effects will vary, but the effects will always be one of three types: Strengthening, weakening or neutral.

Sometimes the effects are easy to identify. For instance, if you’ve ever felt queasy from the scent of perfume, or gotten a headache from exhaust fumes, you’ve experienced the weakening effect of an environmental agent.

Sometimes the effects and their cause are not as easy to recognize, but can be cumulative, are often surprising and can lead to compromised health. Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a tool that can help identify how we are affected by what we consume and encounter.

“Applied kinesiology (AK) is the study of muscles and the relationship of muscle strength to health. It incorporates a system of manual muscle testing and therapy. AK is based on the theory that an organ dysfunction is accompanied by a specific muscle weakness. Diseases are diagnosed through muscle-testing procedures and then treated.” (Judith Sims, The Gale Group Inc., Gale, Detroit, Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine, 2005).

To Have Whole Health, Check Your Home Health

As my symptoms worsened, my frustration grew. Dr. Silverman, a Chiropractor and practitioner AK, suspected that something in my environment was at the root of my ailments. He conducted a simple, methodical evaluation of each room in my house, through which we discovered the negative impact the dog beds were having on me. It was remarkable. No sooner than the dog beds were removed did my condition improve. I am now completely asymptomatic (as I write this, I don’t even know where my eye drops are!).

I have experienced the benefits of AK through Dr. Silverman’s expertise for many years now. My first visit with him was over 15 years ago. I was suffering from severe sinus pain to the point I could not put my face to my pillow. I had already had sinus surgery that was suppose to fix the problem, but it didn’t. After consulting with several ear, nose and throat specialists, they could only offer to do another surgery which they really couldn’t assure me would work. They really had nothing else to offer me and I was quite uncomfortable and frustrated. It took a couple of months with Dr. Silverman to totally fix the condition and I have not had a problem since. Although it has proven itself time and time again, I am, each time, still amazed and confounded by the science of AK and the results it can help achieve.

While I can’t explain exactly how AK works, I am compelled to tell my story simply because it does. It may surprise you to learn that adjustments as simple as replacing your bed pillows or changing your moisturizer can affect how you feel each day, but if you or somebody you know has struggled with a persistent, chronic ailment, you’ll be astonished by the benefits that AK can deliver.

Sincerely,
Bernadette McGee