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Opinion on Western medicine by a  German living in Japan 
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The Day I Got Sick from Jogging

From jogging? Right, not of jogging. I had just started exercising after a few years of sedentary lifestyle. Had figured the workout would do my body good. It didn't, and for almost a year I had no clue why. Neither did the doctors, both of whom didn't even ask what I thought might have triggered the outbreak of the painful  intestinal infection. They prescribed antibiotics, I took it, the fever went away and that was that. Or so I thought. Well, it didn't come back, (knock on wood) but the cause was not found. Now, a year later, I know more. Wouldn't have guessed it.

 Jogging makes sick?

1996 October, a mild Saturday morning sun wakes me up early. A good day to finally start exercising again. The body pushes 39 and everyone says it is good for ya. Up, up, and before breakfast I run a mild pace through the bamboo woods nearby. Pretty well, ol' boy, for so many years of mostly walking to the subway, to and from the office and the occasional stroll with the children through the parks.

As I jog uphill, I slow down, walk, enjoy the fresh morning air and meditate about the prickling sensation under the skin. They say it is from the burning of fat, when the stored toxins get released. I have had that prickling before, years ago when I speeded the long walkways up from the subway tubes towards the rainy city air. At that time I had my first motorbike and on fair days did not pedal 20 minutes to the office by bicycle any more. Must have been a half year or more without the exercise when the prickling came up.

Slow now, the path is damp and the profiled soles seek for traction. There is the top of the slope . Enough for the moment. I stop and enjoy the environment. Actually, I had this prickling before, after some 2 years of working as a salesman. Four days a week, I had been on the road with expensive electronic measuring equipment in the trunk. One day on the phone in the office. Beyond the four flights of stairs, no exercise. During vacation, I had taken up sauna and jogging and I remembered the prickling when I began with the jogging part. It had gone during the vacation, and of course my endurance had come up.

I turned back down the slope, slow first, then at a mild pace through the bamboo. Through the street and around the bend, the last block I walk again. Some indefinite pressure in the bowels slows me. It must be about toilet time. Back home a quick shower and - finally, breakfast. I only eat a bite. There is a definite dull sensation in the bowels and later benign diarrhea. Small pain, which recedes when I stand on my head. I remember the teacher saying in biology class, "in the bowels, you only feel pain if there is a major problem".

Seven o'clock, I find myself on the toilet with cold sweat and nausea. It passes. This is not major, I think and try to sleep. No good. It is fever (36.9) and severe pain. I can barely walk, but I can drive to the emergency room. After only one and half hours of patient waiting, I see the doctor (This is Japan).  A short examination, pulse and blood pressure OK. "I prescribe you antibiotics", he says, "come back tomorrow if it is not better." Another half hour later the assistant calls me up and hands me a small paper bag with my name, the date and a "3" next to the Japanese character for day. Three times a day, and with meals. In it are 4 blisters of pills broken off a larger unit. "What is it?" "Antibiotics." "Which name?" She looks at some paper on her desk below the counter top, then scribbles on the bag, Cravit 100.

At least the pain in the abdomen is endurable now. Back home I take one pill, one more at four, one at seven. No lunch, dinner, I don't feel like eating. Only few bites of an apple or banana. At 10 that night, the pain grows, and headache starts. I measure fever, 38.0. Barely Sunday, 1 a.m. I tatter to the toilet. Diarrhea. Two more times that night. Then I get some sleep.

Morning at 8, the pain is better, and off to the hospital again. After 1.5 hours of patient waiting and measuring pulse, blood pressure and fever, I see another doctor. She looks over the records, "oh, you were here yesterday", listens to what I say about the night and examines the abdomen. It feels hard, but no particular point of sensitivity. "Your appendix does not have inflammation." Relief, no immediate surgery needed. "I prescribe you the same antibiotics for a week."

"Doc, can we find out what this is, why it happened?" "OK, we take a stool specimen. It takes 14 days for the laboratory." Well, I want to know the cause and agree to do the lab analysis for some $120. I leave the sample with the emergency room staff, wait another half hour, pick up my package of medicine and pay like the day before. I go home. It is not life-threatening, but it feels serious. We'll see how the antibiotic works. On the way out, my attention rests on a poster that says no information by telephone. That means I have to come in and wait patiently for one and half hours.... Such inept logistics. 

The Fever Curve

I decide to track the temperature and measure every 2-4 hours just before taking the antibiotic to make sure it works. I apply the rule that fever goes down if enough of the right antibiotic is administered and that the fever must go below normal and come up to normal while the antibiotic is taken.  Fever data

Once I was sure the antibiotic was working, I increased the dosage (on my own responsibility) and monitored the temperature closely. I did not seek medical advice for this change.
Do not try this on your own, seek competent medical advice.
 

Why could a short jog make me so sick?

Honestly, I don't know. I don't even know the result of the lab analysis. After two days of sick leave, my job requires my full attention. I simply don't have the time to wait hours in the emergency room for a 10 minute consultation with a doctor on duty I don't know. After all, the antibiotic killed the sickening bacteria, I ate yogurt to restore the intestinal micro-flora

Western medicine habitually forgets to fully clean up the side effects of is treatment. In case antibiotics are given, the micro-flora in the intestines is killed, too, and it needs to be restored. If not, you invite yeast overgrowth (candida albicans, etc.) and other secondary effects. These problems are minor, compared to the illness just conquered by antibiotics, but the effects accumulate and later in life, you need to see the doctors for chronic diseases which are much harder to cure.

Until just a day before I start writing this, I was musing about the strange coincidence that I get a colic just on the day I resolve to start exercising and do some jogging. Shit happens, quite literally. Yet, I have this unrelenting urge to find out the cause so it can be corrected and prevented from happening again.

For a few days, I have been studying texts on bowel ecology on the Internet. Just yesterday, I read an oriental view about the positive effects of fasting. And today I realize with a shock going through my solar plexus that...

Don't read any further if you have a weak stomach.

Read about fasting and healthy colon first. 
You have been warned.

... most likely the jogging jarred loose a piece of nonmoving matter festering in the intestines and poured out bacteria that may have been sealed off before. That may be hard to digest, but it makes perfect sense to me. If the statistics are true, my body's condition is like that of many people in the industrialized nations, 95% of whom who live on a diet of processed food without knowledge of harmful food combinations.
Unsuitable combinations are not digested, they rot in the bowels. No wonder there is gas and general malaise. I feel like I had a volcano under the belt, just waiting for a jog to shake loose the thin cover for an eruption. How come doctors don't see the connection, don’t even ask the patient what happened before the illness?

CONCLUSION

If it is mechanical injury: doctors are great. If it is more complex than mechanics, I am better off by taking my health in my own hands.   All responsibility for prevention is with me.

Thank you for your attention.
 
 

Shocking? According to a 1500 page report by consumer attorney Ralph Nader, 30 000 people annually get killed in U.S. hospitals (quoted in a 1994 tape lecture by Dr. J. Wallach). A former Quality Assurance manager of a medical devices company tells me, 
10 000 people get killed in German hospitals each year. The figures in Japan are not available to me, but according to what I saw in hospitals, the numbers should be comparable.
The patients are killed, not dead by neglect, but by some error in the medical procedure. Every year, more than the death toll on the roads.
This report from living life is provided as a public information service. Names and circumstances are not invented. Similarities with living or deceased persons are not accidental.
Disclaimer
All data on this site is based on my personal experience and opinion.
No claims about the contents others put on their pages linked from here.
I am not affiliated with the medical profession or any drug company.

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 Revised 1997-09-07 Why on earth this date format ?
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