Founder and editor of AvoidingRx.com

06May 2022 by Marjorie No Comments

Managing the doctors

diagnosis and testing, doctors and practitioners

At a certain point in your health investigations you'll discover that the majority of doctors will do the same time-wasting things over and over. This is especially maddening when dealing with a complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) practitioner not covered by insurance. Here is a list of suggestions for getting the most out of a doctor's visit. 1. You're the boss, or maybe the department head I suggest you treat appointments like you're running a business meeting with the head of another department you know nothing about for a project you'll both be working on. You have no reason to be embarrassed by the fact that you don't know a great deal about his subject, and the other person has no reason to be surprised if you do not. You both have…

14Feb 2022 by Marjorie No Comments

How to speed up your health research

self-experiment

I first started my self-experiments with nutritional therapy two decades ago, when internet searches for "XYZ deficiency symptoms" landed me on sites featuring iguanas, Yorkshire terriers, cockatiels, and, on one auspicious day, a Colin Farrell sex tape. At the time, I was amused that veterinarians, ornithologists and herpetologists had put more effort into researching the effects of vitamin and mineral deficiencies on their patients than human doctors had. Unfortunately, researching alternative health treatments still involves wading through a lot of crap. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind. If you have other suggestions, let me know. Learn about your filter bubble These TED talks cover the topic, which had its heyday about 10 years ago. The browser Duck Duck Go also offers tips on how to minimize tracking. And…

06Oct 2020 by Marjorie No Comments

Therapies I’ve tried

treatments

Updated August 2022. This blog originally focused mostly on self-experimenting with nutritional therapy, using supplements available over-the-counter (OTC) from healthfood stores. I have since widened my horizons. Here's a short intro to nutritional therapy if you're just starting out. The other entries here include products not available at retail stores, as well as energy work and, yes, two prescription drugs. See also these posts on bright light therapy, electrosmog reduction, lymph cleansers, perfume therapy, essential oils, and lead chelation (aka heavy metal chelation). 1. Acupuncture I luuuuuuurrrrv acupuncture, but I only saw results when I went to dedicated practitioners -- that is, people who took a few years to learn it, not a half-day course at a medical conference somewhere. There was a Chinese guy in Seattle, the kind with…

01Jun 2019 by Marjorie No Comments

Amusing effects of correcting nutritional deficiencies

self-experiment, side effects, symptoms and conditions

(This is a repeat of a 2011 post.) These "side effects" happened more than a few times following supplementation of some duration. 1. Vivid dreams. This effect of vitamin B6 is fairly well-known. Some members of Yahoo's pyroluria group (pyroluria is a condition in which vitamin B6 is chronically deficient) say that you're at the right dose when your remembered dreams are pleasant, and that you're on too much if they are too vivid or jittery-making, but I've never come to any conclusion myself. 2. Random, pointless memories. I've occasionally experienced this when repleting with big doses of calcium, magnesium, iron, or B12, all closely associated with memory. At the same time I realized I could recall long-forgotten Photoshop commands or go to the grocery store without a shopping list,…

03May 2019 by Marjorie No Comments

Scary leg pain resolved with calcium

nutritional therapy, self-experiment, supplements, symptoms and conditions, Uncategorized

(This is a repeat of a 2011 post.) Before my gluten-freedom (which commenced April 4, 1998) I became aware of a constant, aching bone pain in my legs -- not a tissue or a muscle or a joint thing -- that was most noticeable when doing the dishes or standing in line at the airport. In 2000 or so I realized that if I didn't take vitamin B-complex, along with biotin and vitamin B12, for two days, by the third day my legs would hurt so badly my jaw would do that shaking thing and I'd start breathing in the kind of way that makes your fellow shoppers at the grocery store edge away from you. Since I took B-complex/etc. every morning for years, though, I sort of forgot about…

23Apr 2019 by Marjorie No Comments

Another early nutritional therapy success: hypoglycemia

self-experiment, side effects, supplements, symptoms and conditions

I had this for years without knowing what it was. At its worst, I had to eat every 45 minutes or my brain would do that revving/screaming/wheels spinning thing (silently, I mean; I'm pretty sure no one else could hear it). If I drank fruit juice alone without food, I'd get woozy and almost pass out. Long periods without eating would leave me shaking and practically comatose. However, when my doctor tested me for it with blood tests and an oral glucose tolerance test, they came back negative. All this resolved after I started taking magnesium and biotin. I don't remember how much magnesium I had been on -- 500 mg/day? -- but when I added 2,000 mcg of biotin, after a few weeks I could go for eight hours…