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Loading...10 Things I Learned from Healing an Incurable Disease
- Selected from Owning Pink
- October 21, 2011
- 9:03 am
- 73 comments
By Meghan Telpner
Five years ago I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a condition that is commonly believed to have no cure. I was given the options of surgery and medication for the rest of my life, still without the potential of a cure. My doctor told me that diet would have no effect and that I would have to learn to live with it.
Not one to play by the rules, I decided to create my own. I chose a natural route that included meditation, yoga, acupuncture, rest, and a diet comprised of whole, unprocessed foods. Within one month I was symptom free and remain so five years on. I have since become certified as a nutritionist and run a cooking school in downtown Toronto. I am firm on the fact that getting sick was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and getting well was the greatest adventure ever. This is what I learned healing from an incurable disease.
1. Take other opinions with a grain of salt. It is just an opinion and only our own opinions of ourselves and our current situation really matter. I received the opinion that I had an incurable disease and nothing I ate or did regarding my lifestyle would have an effect. I chose to trust my own opinion that this was not true. That has made all the difference.
2. Learn how to cook… really well. Prior to this experience I owned one cookbook called Help! My Apartment Has A Kitchen. Four years later, I own and operate a cooking school. I believed strongly, despite my doctor’s contradictory opinion, that a disease of the digestive tract would obviously be affected by what passed through it. It therefore became my mission to know exactly what I was eating and so I learned to cook from 100 percent whole ingredients. With all the processing happening in my own kitchen.
3. Yoga is more than twisting yourself into a pretzel. I used to be one of those before-work workout nut heads who rolled into the gym at 6:00 a.m., kicked my own bottom for an hour, and then raced off to work. When high-impact workouts were no longer an option, I turned to yoga. Yoga is a gazillion times harder than climbing a stair master or doing crunches until you want to puke—because it makes you actually look at yourself from the inside and realize some change has to happen.
4. Life may not always bring you sunshine and rainbows, but if you wait out the storm long enough, they always appear if you look for them. That’s all I have to say about that.
5. A cute outfit doesn’t mean much when you feel like total crappola. Great health makes you look (and feel) great—way more than high heels or manicured nails can.
Read more: Alternative Therapies, Colitis, Crohn's & IBS, Diet & Nutrition, Eating for Health, Food, General Health, Health, Crohn's disease, cure, diet, healing, intuition, meditation, Meghan Telpner, natural, Owning Pink, yoga
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Thank you for info.
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Thank you for the wise advice. I have been an advocate for others and even myself when it was neces…
Great in theory, but there's the problem of insurance coverage. Many insurance plans, including mine…
hmmm..interesting thought.
73 comments
+ add your ownGreat article...thanks for posting.
Well written Meghan,I was diagnosed in 2002 i was 33 yrs of age ,i had to have 4 operations to remove parts of my bowel,appendix,gall bladder.Not much fun .10 yrs lateri have finally got it under control by taking messalzaline and have vitamin B12 injections every 3 months to stop me becoming anemic.I stay positive and still have my bad and good days.I also have Alopecha which i have had since i was 21 yrs of age ,I wear wigs.Their is also no cure for this
Awesome outlook, thanks for the sharing
Amen to that! In particular, I love point #6 and #8. In reference to #8: it echoes what Gandhi has also said. Fighting only creates resistance. We need to work with the challenge rather than against it. Yet all too often I hear/read the word "fight" when dealing with diseases, such as cancer. I love your approach, Meghan! All the best to you!
inspirational and affirming! thank you!
This article is filled with wisdom and common sense, thank you !
This article is full of wisdom and common sense. Thank you !
I really agree with those who choose to listen to the messages within and to trust their own innate wisdom. It's such a courageous decision to make in the face of what is presented as a deadly disease.
Congratulations for honoring your own wisdom and winning the right to live healthy!
Well said
I used to be a health nut, vegetarian wheatfree, go to the gym 3 times a week. When I was diagnosed with Crohns' I asked my doctor "Why me?" he said its not personal but it has been known to happen after abdominal operations (I had my appendix removed) but they can't be sure and there is no cure! I immediately started drinking and smoking again, I started to eat the foods that tasted good as I now felt Mortal. And all my symptoms stopped! I became more social because I could go anywhere without constantly picking and worrying. Instead of going to the gym I now play sports and I laugh more. All my old friends who are on their vegan gluten free diets are weak and sickly with constant digestive problems, grey and joyless. I think I was misdiagnosed or my body just needed a drastic change to kickstart it into action, I think it needed germs so my body could fight. I suspect I was too relaxed. It's been 3 years now and I feel great! I think that old adage 'A change is as good as a rest'. Applies here.
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