Holistic Health Center Experiences?

[Diandra]

Hi All,
I would like to know if anyone here has gone to any of the holistic type health centers for weeks of immune system boosting, cleansing and detoxification. I have gone to Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida and had a wonderful experience there. I was very lucky in that I was able to get off all my pain meds(at the time!) although that was not my goal. I just wanted to feel better and as I went through the body cleansing and detox, the need for meds just slowly evaporated during my 3 weeks in their program and even though I still had pain, it was managebale with the tools I left with. That was in 2004. When you leave, you need to maintain the regimen which is all vegan, raw food(veggie, sprouts, raw nuts and seeds), wheatgrass and vegetable juicing, one day a week juice fast and weekly enema and monthly or qtrly colonics, massages, H-wave machine for pain, and the emotional side which is keeping in touch with your feelings and keeping a handle on stress. I did very well when I maintained their regimen for a couple years but, I fell off it and the pain and need for meds returned.

I would like to try it again at a different health center and was just wondering if anyone else has ever done this and do they have a place they can recommend?. I think HHI is great but, their prices have gone beyond what I can afford.

Other places I am considering are:

- Tree of Life Rejuvention Center in Patagonia, AZ (Dr. Gabriel Cousens)
- Cedar Springs Renewal Center in Sedro-Woolley, WA
- Optimum Health in Austin, TX or San Diego, CA

Thanks for any input and I hope you are all doing well with this crazy weather we are experiencing this winter here in the US.

Take care, and I wish you all a low pain day,
Diandra

[lobelsteve]

I can offer the same treatment.

Just mail me the check for $1000 and I'll tell you whatever you want to hear.
I'll also send you herbs, crystals, magnets, a lobelsteve voodoo doll (you'll want to poke this after forking over a grand), and some proprietary ALL-NATURAL pills that will make you taller, smarter, faster, sexier, richer, leaner, and fire resistant.

I'm a scientist and have little faith. How about they take the money and put it escrow- if you agreed you are much better than they keep the money. If you are not any better than you get the money back.

Desperate people will do anything for answers. This includes anything not covered by insurance. I have seen kids 8 yrs old with cerebral palsy get hyperbaric oxygen to try and make them better. Mom and dad feeling guilty is not going to change static processes and outcomes.

Word of caution: don't take pills made in places that are not regulated. They contain lead, arsenic, barium, warfarin, paint, etc. At least the poison we prescribe as part of the medical industrial complex are exactly the poisons we intended to prescribe.

www.quackcast.com (this guy is great)...

needlejockey.wordpress.com (this guy ain't)

[Diandra]

Way to be open minded.
I was looking for experiences, not your negative, cynical, sarcastic opinions.
Please, if you are going to be so negative every time I post, please just don't.
Diandra

[Lavandula Canadensis]

Diandra,

i glad to hear that you had a positive experience at the Hippocrates Health Institute.. :)

as i can't afford to go there, i manage the best i can to follow 'partly' their diet with the help of some books, and one of them is The Raw Gourmet by Nomi Shannon, former raw chef at the HHI :D

i'm actually 95% vegan, mainly following a raw diet in the summer, and half raw in the winter

i wish you good luck in deciding to go back at the HHI, or in finding another option :)

http://www.rawgourmet.com/

2571

would you be interested about a thread on the raw vegan diet on the Complementary and Altenative Medicine forum that we have ? it could be motivating to help us maintain our diet at home :D it would certainly be good for me, as i am re-structuring my diet after a big moving... i'll join for sure !

[Lavandula Canadensis]

Diandra,

i just discovered this forum that sounds very interesting... i thought of sharing it with you...

Raw Food Chat - Lifestyle Support

http://www.rawfoodchat.com/forums/

[Diandra]

Hi Lavandula,
Thanks for your responses. You are certainly correct that HHI is costly and I commend you for being able to do the vegan diet on your own. It takes alot of will power but, as I guess you have found also, it is worth it.

I have heard Nomi Shannon's book is good but don't have it. I will check it out.
I would love a thread on raw vegan diet on the Alternative Med forum, that is a wonderful idea. I find the raw diet is not so bad in the summer but, I really struggle in the winter. I am trying to find a better balance because I have failed in the past to stay on it 100% and unfortunately I am often an all or nothing kind of person...I have to learn to do the best I can with a partial vegan lifestyle . I am really lucky that I joined a raw vegan group around here that does potluck dinners so you get to try alot of recipes and meet other people with the same lifestyle. Unfortunately, I have been feeling so lousy lately I have not been able to partake....am hoping a few weeks at one of these places get me back on track.

PM me anytime you want to talk about this.

Thanks again,
Diandra

[lobelsteve]

Way to be open minded.
I was looking for experiences, not your negative, cynical, sarcastic opinions.
Please, if you are going to be so negative every time I post, please just don't.
Diandra

I'm very open minded. But I'm a scientist first.

The diet, exercise, and behavioral therapy (meditation, self-affirmation) are what made you feel better. You also described the fact that opioids pretty much relieve only 20% of your pain (for chronic not acute pain). Still, 20% is a pretty big chunk and almost always worth pursuing.

Colonics and enemas have no therapeutic value and your liver and kidneys are responsible for "detoxifying" your body. There are no toxins in your colon and there is no scientific rationale for putting anything up your endo, except for a colonoscopy screening at 50 (or younger if at risk) unless symptoms are present.

I personally think you can duplicate everything a holistic program can offer at home for a lot less money.

[mrsdoubtfyre]

I have a foot in both worlds.

From my perspective, generalized medicine has huge flaws. The very "science" that Dr. Lobel relies on may be presented dishonestly. In fact we have the current scandal at the FDA over dangerous medical devices being approved with little or no evaluation for YEARS now. So that doctors implanting them, are really HARMING people.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41860&dcn=todaysnews

The same goes for drug studies, that doctors seem to think are "scientific".
In reality they are often manipulated to give the results that Big Pharma wants and presents to the doctors as "scientific".
Ghostwriting, and fraud (one study doctor for Lilly shredded documents showing heart attacks from Zyprexa), and other abuses like hiding negative outcomes, is very common and slowly being revealed and hopefully dealt with now.

Let me give you an example of a situation some members here at BT on PN have discussed.
Alternative--- The Rebuilder for PN. This electric device is expensive and uses magnesium in solution and electrical current supplied by electrodes that are very similar to electrostim you get at PT.

Allopathic interventions? -- IFc units can be purchased online for about $140 and used at home (compared to $500 for the Rebuilder). IFc and other electrostim therapies are acceptable to allopathic physicians, and used in PT just about everywhere. Anyone can use epsom salts in a foot bath...without the Rebuilder and get alot of relief.

When deciding to go alternative or "holistic", keep in mind that MONEY will be the most deciding factor. Anyone who tries to charge you ALOT, or sell you tons of supplements from their business needs to be looked at carefully.

I come here to educate people about what is really out there, and what is inflated. For years now I have given suggestions that I know are based in fact for helping people.
For example~~ the very drugs allopathic doctors use, can also have tremendous downsides...but this fact is often ignored. A doctor will give more and more drugs to counter side effects, with little understanding of how the drugs are really working.
There are some professionals (like Ross Pelton and James LaValle) who have brought this information forward so people can continue with therapies safely.
A doctor named Vagnini, has authored a newer book...less technical than the Drug Induced Nutrient Handbook I use... and targeted the layman.
http://www.enotalone.com/article/4624.html

Is Dr. Vagnini holistic? I think so. Is he a "quack" ... not by any means!

The truth is you are just as likely to be damaged by an allopathic physician as by an alternative one.

So that means, you have to do some homework. And trust your intuition.

You can PM me anytime!