COD-LIVER OIL FOR THE SOUL

(When the Dirty Diaper Dad last left you he was in the able hands of Dr. Moses, the Naturopath, seeking respite from his broken brain. I take up where I left off.)
I learned from Dr. Moses that naturopathic medicine differed from allopathic medicine (that is, western medicine) in one fundamental way. Whereas western medicine treated the symptoms of a sickness, usually by prescribing drugs for it, naturopathic remedies sought to address the core, underlying, cause of the sickness. And to do this it was necessary, obviously, to find out what the real problem was. He told me the medication I was taking for anxiety/depression only treated the symptoms, and that, in fact, one of the meds was actually harmful to my liver. Something my doctor had never mentioned.
When was the last time you spent 90 minutes with a physician? In my experience the doctor rushes into the examining room, spends as little time with me as possible, finds out what is wrong with me, prescribes some medication and then rushes out to see his next patient because, invariably, he is running behind schedule. I’ve never spent 90 minutes with a physician. That is, until my session with Dr. Moses. Over the course of an hour and a half we went through a detailed medical/mental history. He was very thorough. He asked me about my goals for my body and my mind. Once he had a good picture of who I am and how I got to where I’m at, he gave me a detailed overview of how my system worked, explaining that it was his goal to get my system in balance.
He told me that there were 5 or 6 key markers he could test for and then determine exactly why I was undergoing the symptoms that I was experiencing. And even though my current medication was pretty heavy stuff he encouraged me to not quit cold turkey, but rather to gradually wean myself off them while at the same time brining on line natural supplements and vitamins that would treat my underlying condition.
It all made a lot of sense to me. I asked him had he treated men with similar problems and he answered that he absolutely had, though no two cases were identical.
I left his office with vie vitamins and supplements and, just as importantly, a sheet of paper detailing my plan to get better. For someone like me, having the plan in hand was almost as important as anything else. I could look at this plan when I got wiggy and remind myself, “Oh yeah, I do have a plan to get better, and I have a doctor to work this plan with me.”
That’s important for a neurotic, self-absorbed guy like me. Even though I don’t act like it, I don’t like to be alone. I want help, even though I usually won’t ask for it. And after my meeting with the good doc, I felt I had help and I had a plan to get better.
Funnily enough, one of the supplements I went home with was Cod Liver Oil. Now, when I was a lad my mother made us swallow a tablespoon of this hideous elixir most mornings during the winter. It tasted so bad you would have to gulp down a glass of orange juice right afterward. And then as I sat at my desk in St. Gregory’s Elementary School in my scratchy corduroy pants I would keep burping up the awful taste of the Cold Liver Oil all morning. But here’s the great thing; now Cold Liver Oil is made with different flavors – I chose Orange naturally – and it hardly has any taste at all.
This is what I call real progress.
Just when you think there is no hope for mankind, what with tsunamis and nuclear reactor meltdowns, global warming and the decline of America, then you discover that some smart chemist has been working behind the scenes to make Cod Liver Oil you can actually swallow.
Is life great or what?