Has anyone seen an integrative/natural doctor?

[Colie]

I feel like all my gi doctors care about is pushing these horrible meds on me. They never want to talk about anything related to food/stress/emotion/herbs. I don't feel well taken care of. Yes, I have had success with humira, cimzia, and prednisone but the side effects and what it does to your body is sketchy! I'm starting to wonder if natural therapies could do just as good.
Somebody at work recently suggested an integrative doctor and she said the first thing that the doctor did was run a blood test that tells you what foods you are allergic to. I've never even heard of this test before! And I'm sure it could have saved me a lot of grief (just recently realized that eggs give me diarrhea). Anyway, I want to go see the doctor but she doesn't take insurance so it would be pricey. Was wondering if it was worth it and if anyone on here has had luck with a more natural doctor.
Thanks

 

[ebarker2]

I haven't seen one, but my son has, based on my recommendation. Having researched this subject a bit, my feeling in the end is that the tests for food intolerances (you are far more likely to be intolerant than actually allergic) are often inaccurate; you get false positives and false negatives. Some of the best tests are done by a lab called Cyrex (dr. Aristo Vodjani). But they are expensive. A good naturopathic dr. can completely change your situation. On the other hand, they are really hard to find.

You can research how to do the same thing yourself, in a more reliable way, by doing an elimination diet. There's a book 'The Elimination Diet' by Tom Malterre. If you follow that, you'll end up feeling a lot better for sure, and then as you reintroduce foods you will learn more about what your body can take or doesn't want.

From my point of view, the first and most important step is to stop eating processed foods generally, because they can create all sorts of immune reactions in the body which we don't want. But getting rid of processed foods is quite a big story. More like an adventure i guess.