For 40 years, I have suffered from Ulcerative Colitis (UC). UC is an autoimmune disease that is sparked by the body's misguided belief that the large intestine (often referred to informally as the "colon") is a foreign object and the immune system attacks that part of the body to try to get rid of that object. It causes sometimes severe tearing of the colon, to the point that it could rupture, which is a life-threatening event. Since I discovered I had UC at age 22, I have been taking pills to eradicate or minimize the symptoms and the discomfort. Roughly once a year, my symptoms would get worse and the doctors who treat me simply raised the amount of medicine or asked me to take more invasive medicine to push the symptoms back. All we are doing, according to my doctors, is "managing the condition," for they have yet to find a cure.
Recently, my symptoms became severe and the approaches I had taken in the past no longer seemed to work. Raising all sorts of concerns, the doctors told me that the next step (in order to avoid surgery to remove my colon) is to take some new drugs that, to the allopathic mind of my GI doctor, seemed promising. The drugs basically weaken the immune system so much so that it cannot attack my colon. The theory is, if the immune system is attacking myself, then simply weaken the immune system.
Of course, the problem with this strategy is that I would be subjecting me to all kinds of other problems--significantly reduced ability to fight off colds, flus, other viruses, infections that won't go away, liver problems, high risk of getting Leukemia, etc.
Instead of succumbing to this what seems like a Faustian bargain, I began to wonder if there were other ways of addressing my chronic illness. After exploring many alternatives, I came upon Dr. Tom Yarema.
What he did was remarkably different than what I faced with my western trained UC doctors. He asked a ton of questions about my life, my lifestyle, my emotional state throughout my life, how I ate, how I slept, my romantic life, etc. In other words, he was deeply interested in seeing me as a whole person, and he was wonderfully curious. It's as if he was not buying the presumption that UC was incurable (that's what the western medical doctors told me), nor was he buying that we do not know the causes of UC (that's what the western medical doctors told me). He was treating me as a whole person and engaging me fully in the process.
While it is too soon to tell the outcome for me, I am hopeful. I took the medicine he prescribed to kill the parasites, I severely changed my diet, and I got more active in inviting more love and community into my life. Six months later, as of this moment, I am symptom free and even better, there is no evidence of any colitis anywhere. At this moment, I sense I dodged a bullet, one that the Western medical world aimed directly at my belly. It is too soon to tell if I found a cure.
Most importantly, what stands out is that for 40 years I put my life in doctors' hands. I had become a passive receiver of what I thought to be their greater knowledge. I'm not alone. Almost everyone does. We believe they have the answers to our ills, and we give decision making power up to them. But had I done so in this case could have proven fatal to me. Thankfully, I woke up to see the pattern and met Dr. Tom. read more
