\n<\/p>\n
F<\/span>or women, starting around your mid-30s, it\u2019s par for the course to discuss the latest wellness trends and treatments with female friends and family. Talking about symptoms such as gas and bloating, brain fog, migraines and varying degrees of crippling period pain over dinners, coffee, voice memos and long walks becomes part of a shared quest for better health. With medical biases and discrimination wreaking havoc on women\u2019s health and destroying trust in mainstream medicine, it\u2019s little wonder why many of us remain vigilant for anything<\/em> that may help us feel better.<\/p>\n But what can we do when someone we love mentions a new health regimen that sounds downright dangerous?<\/p>\n My family has been grappling with this question for the last four years, since my cousin Lauren was found in a coma at a large public hospital in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. She had undergone a risky and unproven treatment for chronic Lyme disease. Two days later, she died. She was 37.<\/p>\n I wrote my book Wormhole to examine the cultural and institutional forces that led Lauren down this path. These are the best tools I believe we have to protect others.<\/p>\n I rode shotgun with my cousin as she explored many outlandish-sounding treatments but, as she ventured deeper into what I\u2019ve come to know as the wormhole, some of her views on health left me scoffing, while others left me aghast. I sniggered or shut her down when she shared her views on vaccines. I called her an anti-vaxxer without questioning how her experience of fibromyalgia and ME\/CFS may have led her to lose trust in medicine.<\/p>\n She knew that her family didn\u2019t approve of many of the treatments she was following \u2013 the chlorine dioxide (bleach) she\u2019d drink, the sheep dip she\u2019d buy from veterinary supply stores to consume orally \u2013 so she would keep them secret. If our loved ones feel shamed by us, we lose the opportunity to talk to them about risks. Using judgmental language like \u201cquack\u201d, \u201cgrifter\u201d, \u201canti-vaxxer\u201d and \u201cscammer\u201d inhibits productive conversation, even if those descriptors may be accurate.<\/p>\n Those with chronic health conditions and invisible illnesses can be particularly vulnerable to exploring dangerous alternative medical treatment. Female pain is consistently underestimated compared with male pain, and conditions that more frequently affect women, such as endometriosis, take six to eight years to diagnose. This systemic invalidation of women\u2019s symptoms erodes trust in medicine and leads sufferers to look elsewhere, even if that comes at the expense of evidence based-care.<\/p>\n Remaining resolute in our belief of our loved one\u2019s symptoms and supporting them to find care that affirms their experiences can go a long way in ensuring their safety against exploitative practitioners. In the case of chronic illnesses such as fibromyalgia, symptoms can change and evolve, which can be confusing to others. But offering support for new symptoms as they emerge and refraining from questioning ones that disappear can ensure those suffering don\u2019t carry the burden of explaining themselves. A heat pack, a rain check or an offer to run an errand sends the message that a person\u2019s pain does not need to be seen to be believed.<\/p>\n One of the biggest sayings in the conspiratorial world of alt medicine is \u201cfollow the money\u201d, referring to the belief that Big Pharma sustains itself by keeping vulnerable people sick. Our pain is their profit. It\u2019s important to acknowledge the times in history when this has been the case, because modern medicine has a chequered past. Yet the sentiment \u201cfollow the money\u201d can also be applied to the world of alternative medicine, projected to be worth US$1,282.70bn by 2034.<\/p>\n Many purveyors of \u201calternative\u201d and \u201cnatural\u201d medicine I discovered in the course of researching Lauren\u2019s journey charged exorbitant subscriptions for supplements, enema kits and video calls with the company founders (available exclusively to those on platinum subscriptions). Often, claims on websites advertising certain treatments purported to be backed by studies. But a deeper look at those studies revealed they were conducted by the company selling the product and were not peer-reviewed. One company sold Lauren non-standard tests that consistently showed that a further six months of treatment would be necessary.<\/p>\n Preying on the chronically ill can be lucrative, and the exploitative practitioners reveal themselves the moment the patient or their family expresses doubt. Lauren saw one holistic doctor who spent a two-hour phone call pressuring my aunt into spending $1,000 a week for five years.<\/p>\n Alternative practitioners would tell my cousin that her family were unsupportive when they refused to pay for high-risk treatments, even if it would have cost their homes. The only way we can stop our loved ones being swept away by this insidious current is to stay anchored to them, even when they push us away. Even when they see our concern as a lack of support.<\/p>\n But even then, it may not be enough. My aunt did everything she could to keep her daughter safe. And no one who has lost someone in this way should have to carry the burden of wondering what they could have done differently.<\/p>\n This is a systemic problem. If we don\u2019t address issues such as medical misogyny, misinformation and wellness culture, and treat chronic, misunderstood conditions that don\u2019t fit neatly into diagnostic boxes, others will meet Lauren\u2019s end. Until that happens, it\u2019s left to family and friends to take on the job of validating, listening and supporting each other to find quality care, while keeping open communication about the risks. Which may mean that continuing to discuss our health with our friends over coffee might be the best thing for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For women, starting around your mid-30s, it\u2019s par for the course to discuss the latest wellness trends and treatments with female friends and family. Talking about symptoms such as gas and bloating, brain fog, migraines and varying degrees of crippling period pain over dinners, coffee, voice memos and long walks becomes part of a shared<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[2588,6443,613,1253,24785,3140,2337,2292,24784],"class_list":{"0":"post-50419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-conspiracy","9":"tag-hannah","10":"tag-heres","11":"tag-love","12":"tag-mcelhinney","13":"tag-medical","14":"tag-person","15":"tag-sick","16":"tag-wormhole"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}We can\u2019t shame our loved ones into concealment<\/h2>\n
We need to believe women\u2019s pain and symptoms<\/h2>\n
\u2018Follow the money\u2019<\/h2>\n
Stay tethered<\/h2>\n