Are your health choices compromised by your community?

After 35 years of living in Manhattan, I moved upstate New York and I’ve been having fun getting to know my new neighbors.

I’m not shy. Whether I’m living in a big city or a small town, I like to engage with people and get to know who they are and how they think.

So, I started a casual conversation with a woman I often see lounging at the pool with her husband.

Only on this day, her husband wasn’t with her. Instead, her 30-year old daughter was her pool cohort.

I said, “Where’s your other half today?”

“He’s not feeling well. He’s upstairs. 

“Oh no,” I said, “Is he okay? What happened?”

She said, “He decided to stop taking his acid reflux medication and now he’s not feeling well. He can’t even drink with us. He had one drink and then he went upstairs because he wasn’t feeling well. He deserves to feel bad. He got off his medication without telling his doctor, and now he’s suffering for it.”

The daughter chimed in, “Who does he think he is? He’s not a doctor. He sells furniture for god sakes! He thinks he knows better than his doctor. It’s so stupid.”

I certainly do throw my husband under the bus occasionally, but it’s always in a playful manner. These two ladies weren’t playing. They were dead serious!

Truth be told … I am a bit biased.

Even though I like engaging with new folks, I prefer surrounding myself with people that question medical authority, take charge of their health, and exude positivity.

These two ladies told me, without telling me, that that they were in deep with the medical mafia. To the point that they were lambasting their own kin for not following doctor’s orders and for taking his health into his own hands.

In the book, Cured, by Jeffrey Rediger, MD, he says, “Social connections turn out to be an essential nutrient like any other; you can’t heal without micro-connections to light up your vagus just as you can’t heal without nutrient-rich food to fuel your body. Love and connection are clearly among the most potent medicines. We should be writing prescriptions for people to spend restorative time – those micro moments of positivity – with friends, family, and new acquaintances, just as we write prescriptions for pharmaceutical medications.”

Interestingly, that “unwell feeling” that comes from acid reflux can tell someone a LOT about their condition, IF they are willing to question it.

• Am I eating too fast?
• Am I eating too much?
• Am I eating foods (and drinks) that don’t work well in my body?
• Is my stomach acid too low? (which is often the case with acid reflux)
• Is there some emotional trauma in my life that I cannot stomach?

According to ancient healing medicine, the stomach is energetically connected to our third chakra. This energy center emotionally relates to our self-perception, self-worth, self-esteem, self-confidence, and ability to care for our self.

Maybe beyond what was on this guy’s plate, or in his drinking mug, he’s having an emotional experience that he can’t stomach.

I’ll continue getting to know my neighbors, but I’m very discerning about who I’ll invite into my home and into my life for deeper and more nourishing relationships. Needless to say, these two ladies aren’t on my brunch list.

One of the reasons I created my Health is Wealth Community  is that there are a lot of people around the world regurgitating medical nonsense that is disempowering. It keeps people sick and trapped in a dysfunctional system.

My community has none of that negativity going on.

It’s a safe space where you can get health advice that is holistic, supportive, loving and outside of the mainstream medical narrative.

It’s a place where you can find answers that haven’t been given to you at the doctor’s office. And, it’s a place to connect with a community of like-minded health-focused people that are ready to support you when you need it.

Take a peek a what members are saying and join us on the inside to connect with a loving and supportive health-minded community: