I get alternative medicine and conventional health questions of every kind under the sun each day. And of the questions asked by men and women of all ages and health status, there is a strikingly similar trend. Most people spend more time looking for the most difficult answers, rather than ever implementing, initiating and doing the fundamental basics that would prevent and fix the health problem, ailment or need that they’ve 100% GOT.

It has been determined that in today’s world, seventy-five percent of the population are “self-diagnosing” to some degree and taking an all natural or alternative herbal medicine option to solve an ailment, major or minor.

Alternative medicine need not be extreme practices and giving up all things from conventional medicine, but even supplementing herbs, vitamins, even drinking tea, can be considered, “alternative medicine”. And yet, of the three quarters of the population who admit to treating conditions, or at least consciously trying to improve themselves, only one third of those people ever bother to tell their doctor or physician what they are actively doing.

While the perception may be that, because alternative therapies can be much less harsh, addictive or impacting compared to the consumption of pharmaceutical-grade alternatives, external or internal, even alternative medicine, home remedies, an alternative therapy treatment and practices of similar ilk can alter the treatment of drugs, medicine and if you do not share with your doctor the complete picture.

So many men and women flock to their favorite, or best researched alternative therapy treatment, in the specific belief that being natural (or at least less than conventional) can do no further harm, or could alternative medicine make things worse.

That’s pure myth. Even alternative herbal medicine (an oxymoron?) most certainly can plague you with side effects, harm and discomfort. Thinking otherwise is not only one hundred percent wrong, but such foolishness could make you sicker than you were originally.

And there lies a problem. Doctors who practice and prescribe conventional methods and medicine are not taught about alternative possibilities, even in the year 2009, and rarely bother to ask about it when speaking with a patient, unless it is volunteered. Alternatively, patients who are seeking solutions outside of the doctor’s “jurisdiction”, rarely bother to share the complete picture with their doctor, perhaps intimidated by possible backlash, talk of crockery or they already recognize their doctor’s limited belief about what will work and what does not.

Perhaps a sweeping generalization, but I’ll freely suggest, that of the two parties involved, YOU are the one who should make the extra effort to ensure your doctor is at least aware of all that you have done, or are actively doing to stay healthy and avoid sickness and disease, even if preventative only.

The most important person within such a relationship, is you; waiting for a doctor to abandon taught and paid for beliefs will most of the time be a wait that you just don’t have time for.

Ultimately, the person affected is YOU. Thus, it is up to you to “cowboy up” and face the music, even if at the risk of feeling awkward, or hesitant. You are an important factor; you are the one at risk of you aren’t talking to your doctor openly about everything. An overkill? You’re right, if you are thinking to yourself, Joe is making too big of a thing over just having a conversation. It’s just talking, but less than thirty percent of those who are using an alternative therapy treatment or alternative herbal medicine to improve themselves, ever open their mouth to speak the words, and that by itself can throw everything about your health completely out of whack.

It can make a doctor’s prescribed treatment, medication, or therapy ineffective, lead to inaccurate diagnosis, create side effects or trigger an interaction that you in no way would want to experience.

Take care,

Joe