The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician.
Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind.
— Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus
_________________________
Seems like every Amish community has one. Its local expert on natural cures. The man or woman who will prescribe concoctions of herbs and mixtures of who knows what for just about any ailment.
The Amish are particularly gullible to natural fads. They believe what they are told by scurrilous quacks. Are maddeningly susceptible to any claims published in a book or magazine. If it’s in print, it must be true. It never seems to cross anyone’s mind that lies can be printed as well as told. Used to be one could identify the latest scams by scanning the pages of The Budget. Always good-sized box ads proclaiming eternal youth, joint health, snake oil guaranteeing a brand new heart, ointments for every imaginable sprain or bruise. The Budget is probably still a valid barometer.
Not that I don’t believe in natural treatments and cures. With age, I am increasingly hostile to all pharmaceuticals. I’ll take prescription drugs only in severe emergencies. And then get off them as soon as possible. I’ve taken a daily regimen of vitamins for about ten years now. For the last five, I’ve faithfully drunk my Superfood mixture twice a day. Great stuff. I wouldn’t do without it.
But I don’t buy all the wild claims made by herbal manufacturers. Anyone can claim anything. I research all herbs and vitamins before using them. It’s easy to do, on the internet. I also ask the opinions of those I trust, those who harbor knowledge far advanced to mine.
My father, in his later years, became quite involved with natural foods. Every year or two, it seemed, he wrote another extensive expose on his latest discovery. In the 90s, it was fiber. Then bread baked from fresh ground whole wheat kernels. Then COQ10, a miracle vitamin for the heart. And those are only a few I can remember, of the many. It got so that when he launched into his latest magical discovery, I would just kind of let it flow in one ear and roll out the other.
So it was with extreme skepticism that I greeted his latest “discovery” a few years back. My parents still lived in Bloomfield. I think it was in January, 2007, when Ellen and I made our final trip home as a married couple. We were there a few days. It was winter, ice was everywhere, the roads were slicker than snot.
When we arrived, Dad was gimping about the house, busy as always, firing the wood stove and pounding away at his manual typewriter. He and Mom greeted us cheerfully. He paused from his work and sat on his rocker, arms folded, to visit awhile. It didn’t take long.
“Have you ever heard of John Keim?” He asked, rocking vigorously, glancing at me sideways, as he tends to do.
“Nope, can’t say I have,” I answered.
“He’s an Amish naturalist. He lives in Ohio,” Dad said.
Oh, boy, here we go already, I thought to myself. “Oh, is that right?” I grunted.
Oblivious, Dad was just getting warmed up. In the next half hour, I learned far more than I ever cared to know about a man named John Keim.
He was a man, Dad claimed, who had invented a natural ointment that healed burns. And wounds. But mostly burns. The Amish are particularly interested in burn treat-ment. They get burned more than average because some child or adult is always pouring white gas into a kerosene lamp, it seems, and poof, a split second later, an explosion and skin is peeling off from third degree burns. Or that old classic, pouring gasoline on an open fire. That’s probably caused more severe burns than anything else in the world.
John Keim named his concoction B&W Ointment. For Burns and Wounds. The product is entirely natural. A mixture of various herbs, with a base of raw honey. In recent years, he traveled around to Amish communities, holding meetings, and teaching others how to apply B&W treatment to severely burned victims. And, Dad claimed, the ointment actually causes natural skin to regrow, even where there had been the worst burns, third degree. Something modern medicine cannot do. Burn doctors do painful skin grafts, because they can’t make burned skin grow again.
After a burn accident, the victim is slathered with the B&W over the burned area, then the ointment is covered with burdock leaves. Then everything wrapped in gauze. New treatments are applied each day. In seven days or less, new skin is growing. Rarely, if ever, do any scars remain.
I was dubious. But I listened. It could be true, I reckoned. It all sounded pretty simple to me. Like an “Amish” story. Lots of fantastic claims, but short on facts. Not that I doubted the power of natural remedies. But a concoction that would heal burns and grow new skin? If true, the medical profession would have to pay attention.
Dad had a vision to publicize the B&W regimen in his monthly news magazine, “Plain Interests.” Also personal testimonies. The plan, he said, was to have an appointed person in each Amish settlement, a person trained by John Keim. When there was a burn accident, that person would be summoned to come and apply the treatment.
And as my father rocked back and forth and talked incessantly about this latest “discovery,” I sensed that this was more than his usual health kick. That he was excited. And firmly convinced of the quality and claims of this product. He is not a stupid man. I decided to keep my eyes open, to see for myself if the B&W Ointment was all it was cracked up to be.
And so I did, after we returned home. Read the occasional account in Plain Interests and The Budget. Stories of how someone, usually a child, was badly burned. How the B&W treatment was applied.
From testimony after testimony, I’ve concluded the stuff does work. Exactly as Dad had claimed. Dozens of successful treatment cases have been meticulously recorded by John Keim and others, including Mark Stoll of Aylmer. They have taught others. In many Amish communities today, burn victims are immediately treated with B&W ointment. And, except in two cases, I think, they have been completely healed. The two cases involved infants or very young children who died from their burns.
Recently, a family in Aylmer was not allowed to use B&W on their badly burned little girl. The doctor, who had previously allowed it at his hospital, flatly refused and instead did painful skin grafts on the child’s burned leg. After the girl was finally released to return home, the parents fled with her to Mexico. There, they somehow convinced the extremely dubious and slightly horrified Mexican doctors to remove the skin graft. They applied B&W, and the wound was soon covered with new natural skin.
Completely healed. Something modern medicine cannot do. Just think about that for a moment. Let it soak in.
Because that’s really the bottom line. Whatever valid criticisms might surface, and there may be some, that central fact cannot be refuted. A simple Amish man with no formal education has developed a natural remedy that outperforms all the known burn treatments ever devised by modern medicine. It flat out boggles the mind.
And it’s not a secret. The Amish freely share their knowledge with anyone who cares to inquire. In certain few hospitals scattered about (Kansas City and London, Ontario and maybe one or two others), they even allow the Amish to come in and apply the B&W treatment to their own members who were burned. The doctors witness it. They see the results. They know it works. And yet, it has caused no stir, no shock waves in the medical world.
Why would a person supposedly devoted to healing ignore such a simple solution? Suppress a remedy that costs almost nothing and could heal thousands who writhe in constant pain? Several reasons, probably. There have been no controlled studies of B&W. Until that happens, it will be viewed as a quack cure. I did find one critical analysis on the web. And there’s always peer pressure. Unwillingness to risk stepping outside established boundaries. And deep suspicion of anything outside mainstream thought and teaching.
It all reminds me of the Old Testament story of Naaman, the Syrian captain. He was told to dip himself in the Jordan River to cure his leprosy. But that was too simple. He expected more fanfare, a bit of recognition of who he was. Some acknowledgment of his office. You’ve got to be kidding, he thought to himself. Here I travel all the way to this desolate country and this hick prophet tells me to go dip in a dirty river. I’ve got the best doctors in the world. And they can’t heal me. Who does this guy think he is? He was storming off in a huff until his servants calmed him and somehow convinced him to consider Elisha’s very simple directions. He relented and returned. And dipped himself seven times in the River of Jordan. Only then was he healed.
The comparison may be a bit of a stretch. But the simplicity of the remedies is similar. And the bull-headed resistance of the powers that be. There is one huge distinction. The doctors who ignore B&W do so to the detriment not of themselves, but of their patients. Contrary to their sworn duty to heal.
I’m not against doctors. They are callously and relentlessly demonized as the Obama administration muscles to pass into law the abomination of universal “health care.” Most doctors work hard and do the best they know, the best they can. Not to mention the long years and endless hours they spent on their educations. All I’m saying is that they should examine the readily available evidence and consider the implications of natural treatment for burn victims. Would that there were one, or even a few, who might dare to shed the shackles of the State and reject all government funded programs. And open private clinics that would include the option of natural remedies.
And then there’s always the drug companies. Vast conglomerates who will commit any act to protect their billions in research investment. Thousands of burn victims can writhe in agony as their wounds are wire-brushed. No way that an unlearned Amish-man and his natural formula will ever be allowed to jeopardize their precious profit.
Not that I have anything against profit or against the drug companies’ right to pursue it. But when their minions run crying to the government to shut down competition, and outlaw natural treatments, that is beyond despicable.
We are, I think, entering the dawn of a dark age in our civilization. We will see and experience hitherto unimaginable things. Terrible things that no one alive has seen or experienced before. An age of upheaval and fire and blood. When government intrusion will dictate every aspect of our lives from cradle to grave. When the elderly will be assisted in their passage to the afterlife because of lack of “affordable” care. When natural treatments will be outlawed and people who persist in providing such treatment will be prosecuted, imprisoned, and forced underground into the black market. An age when the less you have to do with any governmental programs, the better off you will be. And the longer you will live.
In such a time, it would behoove all of us to step into the “River of Jordan.” To be aware of simple remedies like B&W, as well as a host of other natural products. To know how to use them. Where they come from. And how to get more. Not only for our own benefit. But also for those around us.
Those who refuse to prepare with available knowledge and plentiful resources will have little recourse when the dark times come. And even less excuse.
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We have neighbors here in Lancaster Co who became involved in this treatment several years ago. The success of the patients they have treated is very remarkable. The doctors in this area became aware of the treatement due to several severe cases they treated that had great results. They are now allowing this couple to come into the hospitals and treat the patients if they or their relatives request it. They have even made trips to the highly specialized Bryn Mar Burn Center near Philadelpia to treat 3rd degree burns. As we can imagine a trained and educated doctor’s intitial reaction is going to be at least a little skeptical of an unproven natural remedy, but after seeing the results they have been accepting it very well in this area.
Comment by Smucker — August 7, 2009 @ 8:43 pm
I was the only English person to attend the John Keim burn treatment training June 30 – July 1 this year. I, too, had followed all the testimonies in Die Botschaft and Plain Interests. My “special” daughter was burned a few years ago, so I was keenly interested. I met people there from many Plain churches–Nebraska and Lancaster Amish, Hostetler church, 35ers, etc. Many had experience using this treatment, and some showed hands, arms, feet that had been treated. I now have the whole kit at home, and I gathered and dried the burdock leaves as John Keim showed. This is the real deal, folks. Hills and Dales Hospital in MI also allows treatment with salve and burdock. Even Johns Hopkins has shown interest. I feel honored to have seen the master at work. John Keim is a shy, humble man, but he is both a deep feeler and deep thinker.
Comment by Katie H. — August 7, 2009 @ 9:15 pm
Thanks for opening my eyes to it – I’ve never heard of that before. I hate when people poo-poo something they know nothing about, especially natural remedies. I’m a bit, maybe, cautious because they don’t go through the extensive testing, etc. and I worry about long-term consequences. But hey, look at all the things that ARE approved and go on to be recalled after they find out they have a little flaw, like maybe DEATH!! Word of mouth is the best and if these people have seen it work endless times and it’s natural, I say bring it on! I can’t wait to find out more about it – it would’ve come in very handy when my husband tipped the turkey fryer on his leg a few years ago!! Thanks, Ira, and have a great week ~
Comment by Bethrusso — August 7, 2009 @ 10:08 pm
The Amish do tend to have uncountable injuries and horrible burns on a regular basis. I tend to think it’s because they don’t put much value on human life or basic safety issues.
For instance, an Amish man will think nothing of leaping into a freezing pond to rescue a drowning horse. He never thinks about the 10 children that may be left fatherless if he himself drowns trying to save an expensive $$$ horse.
John Keim is indeed a purpose-driven man and humble too. He’s somewhat absent-minded, though. He was 2 hours late at the presentation, because he turned off the Interstate on Highway 81 as directed. It happened to be in the wrong state, so he was long lost before he discovered it.
Comment by Grandpa Jess — August 7, 2009 @ 10:25 pm
I have been very impressed by what I’ve read & heard about this burn treatment…Mark PollyAnna’s articles in the latest Plain Interests were very interesting & touching.
I agree with you about running after every quack, but am just as leary of medical doctors. I am very pleased with the Dr./Health center we have found in this area. It took me 10 yrs. to find them.
Comment by Wilma Wagler — August 7, 2009 @ 10:38 pm
My wife burned her hand in June so that it blistered. She applied B&W and a burdock leaf. It immediately took the pain away and within a couple of days it was healed with no scar! She’s a believer.
Ira, since you made your pilgrimage to Holmes County last month, I thought it was only fitting that I journey to your place of origin, so here I am in Aylmer, seeing some of the places you write about in your blog: your school, your farm,…I even saw your Dad! Reading your blog while in the holy city! It don’t get any better than that.
Comment by John Schmid — August 7, 2009 @ 10:40 pm
The struggle of conventional medicine versus alternate medicine continues. It seems that doctors are on a power trip to only allow certain practices under their jurisdiction. What really affects decisions of doctors is the ability of people to sue in court for malpractice. The Amish system disallows that. Doctors would do well to take that into account. If a doctor allows alternate treatment, his insurance carrier would have a fit. What if it causes a catastrophic result? The patient’s family could get millions for your bad decision! That is the attitude of insurance carriers. But wait a minute! Amish generally don’t sue. That should give a perfect opportunity to try something new.
That is one of the flashpoints of the increase in the rights of the individual versus the rights of an organization. Years ago my business was also your business. The community was responsible to one another. Often it was a church based community. Fraud was easily spotted. Now we look to insurance located far away to be our safety net. No responsibility to my neighbor. What I do is my business, we say. The Amish and Mennonites mostly have a good grip on this. The down side is when you have a fundamental disagreement with those in authority, they drop you like a hot potato. Go to another church. Now you are totally on your own.
In summary, what I am saying is that the resistance from doctors is more than just profit or loss, but a social ill caused by the proliferation of individual rights. The theme of this movement seems to be; Do any harm to me and I will see you in court.
I think I had better quit or get my own blog! But you do point out an interesting subject that I heard quite a bit about just recently during a visit to Amish country, Ohio.
Comment by Eli Stutzman — August 8, 2009 @ 12:01 pm
Hi Ira, I always enjoy reading your blog when I get around to it and I enjoy your candid opinions and vulnerability. What stood out to me in this article “The River of Jordan” were some of the seeming contradictions. It is interesting that you note how modern medicine is largely unwilling to accept folk remedies and you also note the control of corporate pharmaceuticals. I agree on both accounts. But I wonder if you also do not have your strong biases, like modern medicine, which prevents you from seeing things in a different light.
For example is not medical care currrently a corporate power in the USA that makes billions of dollars and has a vested interest in keeping the government out of its lucrative business? As a Canadian it is hard to understand the resistance to government desire to care for people’s medical needs. I understand that there are 45 million uninsured people in the USA and that upwards of a million people a year declare bankruptcy because of medical bills. Also the USA pays more per person for health care than in Canada. I would also point out that life expectancy is higher in Canada than the USA in spite of the devilish-communistic system. All people in Canada regardless of ability to pay or not are covered and given health care. American reaction to government medical coverage sounds like fear-mongering and ignorance for my biased Canadian view. Our system is certainly not perfect, but obviously there are serious flaws in the USA system also. It seems to me that unless all Americans can afford health care the USA will become a less and less attractive place to live. It seems that Americans are impervious to what outsiders think of their health system even when it is rated far down the list of developed countries.
I also find your negativity about the growing degeneration of the world to be very strong. Don’t know where that comes from but it sounds like the pessimism of a pre-millenialist. This is not an accusation, just an observation. I enjoy your writing and I hope you are open to considering another point of view. From where I sit, government health care looks very secure and I have never had to want for my medical health. In fact I simply take it for granted that I can go to the hospital or my doctor without ever having to worry about my insurance company rejecting my needed treatment or wondering how I will pay for it. The bottomline, it seems to me is; do you want a corporation, which is focused on making a profit, to make choices about your health care; or do you want a government to make choices about your healthcare? Which one can do a better job? And which one is more concerned about the good of all people? This is the core issue; all people should have equal access to food, clothing, housing, meaningful employment and healthcare among other things.
I hope you and your American readers will at least consider some of my radical thoughts.
–Andy Martin
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Ira’s response:
Thanks, Andy, for your well-crafted comment. You are always welcome to add your two cents’ worth.
First, I am NOT a pre-millenialist. In my opinion, pre-millenialism was invented by people who have convinced themselves they won’t have to die, but will just be raptured out. As a POST-millenialist Christian libertarian, I am very optimistic long term. Christ’s kingdom will prevail over all the earth. But short term, in the next generation or two, dark things will come, I am convinced. Thus my “pessimism,” although I prefer to call it realism.
As to some of your other points, perhaps some of my readers might refute one or two. Let’s just say that I strongly believe that neither health care, shelter, or even education are rights that should be provided by the State.
Government can only steal the production of others, always at the point of a gun. It can never produce anything. And anything it does is always completely messed up. There is not a single thing that the free market can’t perform more efficiently and more effectively than the State. Not one. The major reason the US health care system is in such a mess is because of government intrusion. I strongly oppose any notion of our government taking over our health care system. Free markets are the only solution.
If I remember correctly, you are a scholar. Read Albert Jay Nock’s Our Enemy, the State.
Comment by Andy Martin — August 8, 2009 @ 4:08 pm
This is from the National Center For Political Analysis web site, from Scott W. Atlas M.D. a senior member of the Hoover Institution think tank, and a professor at the Stanford University Medical Center. This article appeared in the Washington Times on 2-18-09 and i just heard Sean Hannity read it the other day. Here is just a few excerpts.
Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers. Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the US, and 88 precent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the U.K. and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.
Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians. Breast cancer mortality is 9 percent higher,prostate cancer is 184 percent higher and colon cancer mortality among men is about 10 percent higher in Canada than in the United States.
Also 89 percent of middle aged American women have had a mammogram, compared to 72 percent of Canadians. 96 percent of American women have had a pap smear, compared to less than 90 percent of Canadians. More than half of American men [54 percent] have had a PSA test, compared to 16 percent of Canadians. Nearly one third of Americans [30 per cent ] have had a colonoscopy,compared with 5 percent of Canadians.
The United States has 34 CT scanners per million Americans,compared to 12 in Canada and 8 in Britain. The United States has nearly 27 MRI machines per million Americans compared to about 6 per million in Canada and Britain.
Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations. The top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other single developed country. Since the mid-1970s, the Nobel prize in medicine or physiology has gone to American residents more often than recipients from all other countries combined. in only 5 of the past 34 years did a scientist living in America not win or share the prize.
Now my personal opinion is that most Doctors DO care and want to make a difference but they are only doing what they have been trained to do.
Oh and Mr. Martin there is nothing radical about the above article . The numbers simply reflect a free market economy.
VB
Comment by VB — August 9, 2009 @ 9:24 am
How do we expect the government to run a trillion dollar healthcare operation if they can’t even run a 2 billion dollar “cash for clunker” fiasco?
Comment by Andrew — August 9, 2009 @ 5:00 pm
B&W Ointment……I got it about 6 months ago and have used it on minor burns and abrassions. I LIKE IT. I have given some jars to family and friends to have available. They are hesitant to try it because they are suspicious as it is not in some fancy container and made by some well known medical company.
My wife finally tried it, after much urging, and had to agree……she could see improvement where other ointments failed.
Comment by Robert Miller — August 9, 2009 @ 6:12 pm
There are a great many studies showing honey to be a superior wound healer. (Also for aloe.) Been used on horrible leg ulcers and the like. If the docs wanted to use it, they have the studies to back it up. Most will not, though, unless patients insist.
Why? Well, I think they feel it sort of an insult to their highly trained and monopolistic profession to use “kitchen medicine.” Kitchen medicine is for old wives and their tales… and this sort of indoctrination is hard to shake. I could give many other examples of remedies known to work which are never mentioned. Mindbogglingly, where are the doctors who tell their patients to eat yogurt or take acidophilus caps after they have finished their antibiotic? I haven’t seen one. Common medical knowledge though!
Thanks, Ira, for being open minded, and letting us know about this ointment. I had not heard of it. It gladdens my heart to hear than not only is this ointment available, but everyday people are empowered to learn the treatment and be of use to their communities. You just made my day. That’s how life ought to work… 🙂
Comment by Vera — August 9, 2009 @ 8:44 pm
My medical doctor told me to make & eat lots of chicken soup with all kinds of herbs like parsley, garlic onions etc. to help decongest my damaged lungs. Plus gave me a couple of different meds. The soup and meds do wonders in keeping my lungs functioning. I confess I like this balance of home remedies and meds.
Comment by Katie Troyer — August 9, 2009 @ 10:03 pm
Thanks for including the B&W link! I want to get some for remedies to have on hand. There are so many simple ways to treat things (like the book 10 Essential Herbs someone sent us). And God is giving folks new insights against insidious disease agents, like Dr. Jernigan of Hansa Center (Kansas), who is seeing results for even the worst Lyme patients.
Ira, your insight that doctors are not the problem is so on target. Government regulation of health care (communism) and corporations promoting special government regulations to hinder competition (fascism) is. Freedom allows the cream to rise to the top.
Government interference in free markets causes problems (like skyrocketing costs to comply with an increasing steam of regulations). When it gets critical enough, the same folks rush in with their “solution” which is always yet MORE government control. Hmm. Note this article:
“… Lenin said that socialized medicine was the keystone in the arch of the socialist state.
“Without this perspective, one cannot begin to understand what is really going on and the ramifications of socialized medicine on the people, their relationship with their government, and ultimately their liberty.
“Once government establishes universal, mandatory health care, it becomes the platform for the control of people’s wellbeing, the medical profession, and allows government control over the records of every man, woman, and child in the realm. It will also mandate national ID cards and other controlling factors.
“More importantly, it ultimately becomes the prerogative of the state whether one lives or dies and changes the basic foundation of a free state — the protection of the right to life of its citizens. It becomes a form of government that decides life. …
“It was the mandatory health care system that came into effect in Germany in January 1884 that served as the platform for Hitler’s Hospitals, leading from there to a eugenics program, and on down the road to Auschwitz. Those who have studied this entire program know that this is not an exaggeration. …”
Eugenics is not a dead issue (pardon the pun), as Alex Jones’ “Endgame” powerfully shows.
That said, I disagree we’re entering a dark age. A stormy period of change, yes. Some have seen this coming. Soon no one will miss it. But I believe the difficulties will refine and raise up even more creativity and courage, so that the end will be an even greater advance. Think what a future of truly free market health solutions would look like, as inventive souls like Keim, Jernigan, and others become the model for doctoring – healing rather than prescriptions. God keeps delivering us from Babylons, so the dawn will overshadow the darkness ‘fore long. If the storm takes down some old oaks, it saves us the trouble of chopping away at them.
Comment by Leroy — August 10, 2009 @ 7:39 am
I used to live in Canada. Andy Martin is the first Canadian I’ve ever heard that said we (in the USA) need Canadian style health care. Andy mentioned the fact that their life expectancy is higher than ours. The Canadian population is probably less than what we have in California alone.
Wouldn’t bigger numbers tend to take the average down? More infant deaths and all that. I don’t know.
Comment by Gerald D. Hochstetler, Jr. — August 12, 2009 @ 4:44 pm
I generally do not comment on posts, but as a Christian physician, I felt I could lend a medical perspective to this discussion. First, allow me to establish that I am not opposed to (most) home remedies; if you choose to use this B&W ointment and it works, GREAT!, use it! I think you would be hard pressed to find any physician in the United States who would not recommend what is best for their patients. This is, of course, contrary to the pamphlets that float around in the Mennonite and Amish circles, telling you that there in no link between high cholestrol and heart disease (Saw that one for the first time last weekend; beats me where they researched that one).
The problem that we in the medical field face has been addressed: litigation. Unfortunately, physicians today have to practice medicine with the fear of litigation in the back of their mind. In order to protect ourselves from litigation, we practice medicine according to guidelines that are established by professional science/medical academies that are results of extensive scientific research projects. The problem that this ointment has is not that it is natural; it has not been evaluated in a scientific manner and considered to be an acceptable practice.
Several comments have mentioned the fact that Amish (reportedly) will not engage in litigation. While I’m comfortable with that (since I personally have Amish friends/family), for 99% of the medical community, it is unfair to ask them to assume that risk. After all, the Amish are not perfect. They also have had young people who have had run-ins with the law. The Swartzentruber Amish have gone to court (courtesy of the ACLU) to protect their right to travel in their buggies without SMV signage.
Ira, I think that your confusion about why “…someone devoted to healing would ignore such as simple solution?” is paramount to my confusion why lawyers seemingly lack common sense; it’s about following the law, come hell or high water. Any trial lawyer would have a hay-day asking me to explain why I used home remedies rather than “standard medical protocol” in a case that went south. Furthermore, my insurance company probably wouldn’t let it go to trial, and I would shortly be looking for a different insurance coverage.
Finally, I will comment on our healthcare system in the US. Yes, I readily agree its not perfect. But I’ll take it any day over the Canadian single payer system. The number one joint replacement center for Canadians isn’t in Canada; it’s in Rochester, NY. I know a person who had a lump on her breast and had to wait 3 months to get an ultrasound; in frustation, she and her husband came to the US and paid cash for one. Our system isn’t perfect, but it’s still the best one in the world!
What Americans seem to have forgotten is that when you transfer the responsiblity of covering the cost for your own healthcare to another party, you also transfer the right of healthcare decisions to them as well.
Comment by Gary Swartzentruber — August 13, 2009 @ 9:50 pm
Never tried B&W but I have found that Watkins salve does a great job when I get a splinter and can’t see it. A bit of Watkins salve and a bandage for a day or two seems to be able to pull that splinter to the surface and remove the pain. So I wouldn’t entirely discredit what this salve claims to do.
Comment by Neal — August 18, 2009 @ 8:01 am
I really get what you’re saying here. I have had my share of arrogant doctors who saw only a foot, an eye, a hand, instead of a person. A decent doctor will have to make the decision to do what is right instead of to do what is financially safe. Ideally, both should be done, but it’s not always possible. Money be damned!
My husband and I were discussing the current issue of homosexuals wanting to be active in the Scouts. Both of our boys are Scouts. We agreed we would pull them out and think of another way to give them the Scouting experience.
Yesterday in the mail, I received a letter from Planned Parenthood begging for money. They find it unfair that they aren’t getting all of the financial backing they once did. Afterall, they are only trying to provide safe healthcare to low income women as indicated in the letter. Actually, I was quite inspired by it. I hadn’t realized so many states were opposed to abortion and taking active steps to make that clear. The letter explained it all.
The world contains the same woes it did when Adam and Eve walked the earth. Murder, deceit, sexual sin, greed, adultry. All the same. The one thing that is different, however, is that the sinner wants everyone to agree with and accept his/her sin. For everyone else to put their principles, beliefs, convictions aside. Basically, they want our souls.
Many Christians will fall away from the church because it will be too hard to live by God’s principles. The quality of a Christian will increase, while the quantity will decrease. These are not my predictions. They are that of a loving God who desires all people to turn to Him.
Comment by Francine — January 30, 2013 @ 1:04 am