Just found a great post

Last Updated on 3rd January 2019 by Caroline Haye

I just came across this great vitiligo post from the New York Times website commenting on an article published in February last year.  I’ve copied and posted it below in case the link doesn’t work…

February 25, 2010 12:17 am 
This article served to remind me of my disappointment with the wondrous but often woefully lacking institution of western medicine. A high-ranking physician in the article says that he doesn’t know what causes autoimmune disorders, which upsets me as a 23-year-old who has spent the majority of my life afflicted with and treated unsuccessfully for both vitiligo and chronic hives, both “incurable” autoimmune disorders.

After learning how to read my own blood work and realizing my doctors were not addressing key issues about my health, I decided to work with trained physicians, yes, but also to educate myself as best as I could and to be my own primary healthcare provider.

I learned my hormones were unbalanced so I improved my musculature and got more sunlight; my diet was unhealthy and so I experimented with different foods until I found what was comfortable for me and my body; I consumed more antioxidants, more nutritive foods and supplements; and, lastly, I began to “watch the thinker” in my mind and to control my stress.

These are measures that a doctor shouldn’t have to prescribe for us. Indeed, they won’t. It wasn’t too long ago that the American Medical Association refused to acknowledge the connection between diet and wellness, if you can believe it.

We mustn’t have diets of pure junk, live unhappy lives, hold on to emotional baggage, and then expect that we’re going to be in perfect physical condition. This is common sense, but can’t one see how western medicine fails to recognize this? Heal yourself by living a strong, healthy, happy life. Do your own research, but don’t do anything stupid. Use both your logic and your intuition.

I spent an entire summer with my vitiligo-patched body directly under the sun while being careful never to burn, following advice propounded by Hippocrates over 1,500 years before our contemporary medical establishment told us to avoid the sun’s rays like the plague. I am completely cured of my vitiligo. Since I began treating my body to vigorous exercise and to a diet that it feels comfortable with, my chronic hives have disappeared and return only when my stress levels spiral out of control. Which makes me wonder: if I can experience a severe autoimmune reaction through one relatively simple mismanagement of daily stress, imagine how stress actually manifests itself in the chronic diseases and disorders of billions of people around the world.

Stress? Go to your doctor and they’ll give you Xanax. (Don’t take psychotropics; they exacerbate autoimmune disorders.) Instead, look to the doctor within. Ask yourself for maybe the first time what it is that you need physically, emotionally, maybe even spiritually, and then begin the process of healing yourself.

— Jordan

Thanks for your common sense comments, Jordan – and congratulations on your recovery from #vitiligo!