Senior Thinking

By Raoul Pascual

Raoul’s Two Cents: September 6, 2024

I’m a Believer

Warning: Heavy topic. Move on to the jokes if you’re not into this.

She screamed every time she changed her position because her lower back was killing her.

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

This is the first time my wife had this problem so she was skeptical when I said she should go to a chiropractor. She was in a lousy mood as we made our way to Dr. Wendy. She was as stiff as a rusty robot that needed a large dose of Windex (WD40). If you were on the other room you’d think she was giving birth or something. She asked me to get her something to eat so I left to get her a snack. When I came back she was done. The disappointed look on her face told me the treatment didn’t help.

However, maybe about 2 hours later, she was surprised that the pain had subsided. Was it the ibuprofen (pain killer) or was it Dr. Wendy? A few more hours later she was in a good mood. “I’m a believer!” she said. Some of the pain came back the next morning but it wasn’t as acute. Her bones were still adjusting I guess. The same thing happened to me when I had my own back problems. She is looking to her next appointment this Friday morning.

Here’s another testament to the wonders of alternative medicine: I became a “believer” years ago when my right wrist experienced the early stage of carpal tunnel syndrome due to the awkward way I held my computer mouse. I called my nurse friend who said I should get a wrist brace and take Motrin to kill the pain, otherwise, I would need to have an operation. I wore that brace for a week. Motrin helped but the pain never really left.

As I entered a BNI (Business Network International) business meeting, my chiropractor friend, Dr. Mark, stared at my wrist guard and asked me why I was wearing that evil contraption. After I explained, he said that was silly; he took off the brace, massaged my wrist — up and down he went while “oooh, oooh, ahhh, ahhh!” I squirmed. Doctor Masochist tortured me for about 3 minutes and then he said it was done and to never wear that brace again. I thought he was crazy. But the next morning (betcha by golly wow!) the pain was gone. The debilitating meta carpal tunnel thingy never came back.

Another time, I woke up with an excruciating pain in my left shoulder. It was so bad I couldn’t lift my elbow past the height of my shoulder. Again western medical experts said I needed to have an operation. I met this Amazonian lady from Hawaii in the same BNI business meeting. She said she did Deep Tissue Massage and that she could help me. This woman had vise grip fingers. She massaged the veins under my shoulder blade like she was flattening the wrinkles of an aluminum foil. She did it in 3 sessions. Just when the sadomasochist in me began to manifest, the pain all but disappeared. And to this day I can still extend my arm to its full capacity.

WESTERN MEDS
Through the years I’ve learned to balance Western and Eastern medicine. (And of course some doctors are better than others). One of my forever friends, Dr. Manny, is a retired oncologist who helps my friends by giving away his free medical opinion (what a guy!). I’ve learned not to trust the highly politicized and corrupted FDA who have legalized dangerous psychotropic drugs. Same goes with the WHO (World Health Organization) who encouraged vaccination over developing immunity and other alternative medications. I only got my vaccinations so I could fly home to visit my sick Dad. Call me a conspiracy theorist but my suspicious mind wants to know who are getting rich over anything these institutions recommend. Yeah, yeah, Mr. Conspiracy Theorist — that’s my middle name. Aw c’mon don’t tell me you trust everything the government tells you.

An old client was a Compounding Pharmacist and she claimed she knew drugs better than the doctors. Doctors learn what meds to use for certain situations. Pharmacists understand why those meds work.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DILEMMA
During the early years of AI, I had hopes that an IBM program named Watson would modernize medical diagnosis because their database is fed with the latest discoveries that human doctors don’t have time to read about. But I didn’t expect that AI would be weaponized like they are now. Ask Alexa why you should vote for Trump and she says she “cannot provide content for a specific candidate.” But ask Alexa why you should vote for Kamala and she has a long list of reasons. (If you have Alexa, go ahead and try it while they still haven’t fixed this bias.) It’s true — the computer is only as smart and honest as the data and the algorithms you feed it. So the real cure may be suppressed to protect the interests of Big Pharma and the shadow government.

TWITTER: A GAME CHANGER
Tik Tok is for mindless entertainment (I don’t trust these guys) but Twitter is for thinkers (pretty humble, huh?). Thank God for Elon Musk who took over Twitter for the sake of Free Speech. I know some of you may not think so but it truly is a platform for (relatively) free speech. (It’s full of good and bad influencers or people who simply regurgitates an idea … it’s still evolving … just be patient with each other). When you get the hang of it, it’s quite obvious who refuse to listen to opposing ideas in order to preserve a dreamlike unrealistic narrative vs. those who are open to discuss alternatives. Thanks to Twitter, it’s a new era where the mainstream media no longer hold a monopoly of the news. The news comes from eyewitness accounts of the ordinary guy.

LAND OF THE FREE
They say Satan is the father of lies and we live in his world where truth and integrity swim in the same pool as deception and ulterior motives. One can be easily disillusioned. But take heart and remain optimistic because “someone else” is more powerful and everything he said was/is true. It was true then and (thankfully) it’s still true now. And you know how the saying goes … “the truth shall set you free.”

Technology and medicine are still evolving. Hold on to your seats. It’s gonna be an interesting ride.

But this is just me. TGIF people!

“Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do ‘practice’?” — George Carlin

“How do you tell the psychiatrists from the patients in the hospital? The patients get better and leave..” —Lisa Scottoline

“A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.” — Aesop