Ten years ago I didn't pursue any natural remedies. Now I do. Why? Because I got tired of my doctor throwing up his hands and, basically, saying "nothing I can do" or proscribing a drug that made me feel like crap that I would have to take for the rest of my life.

I've watched relatives die or their conditions deteriorate because the system they believed in didn't work. Ugly stuff. And I've seen the same limp complacency in each one.

I've come to the conclusion that the real modern illness is the desire to let somebody else take responsiblity for your health.

That's exactly it. People will subject themselves to the most godawful tortures just to feel coddled by a man(or woman) in a white coat. "There, there, I'll take all that nasty adult responsibility away from you, snoogums! You can just lie back in your cocoon of child-like ignorance."

I've never talked to a natural health practitioner who said "do X and all will be well." They've always offered a range of options and are quite clear that it is my choice, my responsbility and that I had to take charge of my own health.

And if there are natural health practitioners who command "do X and it will all be well" then they have my contempt as well.