> The sad thing about all this is, that us ordinary mortals
> have to make such diagnosis and discovery.

Yeah, I've gotten used to that...

I found it so interesting that you used those words "ordinary mortals"... That really underscores the (mistaken) belief in our society that our doctors are some type of *gods*. Believe me, they're flawed, imperfect human beings who make mistakes just like the rest of us do. I found that out the hard way about eight years ago when they almost killed with their antibiotics and steroid drugs. That brush with death was the rude awakening that actually led me to a career in a health food store.

Since then, I've realized that the longer you can stay away from doctors, the better off you'll be in the long run. I know sometimes you have to give in and go, but I usually only do that for diagnostic purposes (which, like you pointed out, are usually flawed and don't help anyway). When you think about it, who knows your body better than anyone else? Your doctor certainly doesn't live inside it or know what you're experiencing with it. (And in all likelihood, he doesn't really *care* either, as long as he's getting paid enough to build that fifth beach house in the Hamptons...)

If you can just figure out somehow what the problem is, there are *always* natural alternatives that wil help your body to heal itself, rather than seeking to simply eliminate the symptoms as allopathic medicine does.