Last Updated on July 18, 2020
If you are user, ie a person looking for health information via Google, you may or may not notice that since 1 August 2018, there have been some changes implemented in the search results especially related to health topics. Perhaps you would notice that sites that are landing on top of Google search pages consist more of ‘authoritative sites in the medical field’ such as Webmd.
Many health blogs that are not written by doctors or academically qualified health professionals saw their traffic plummet down. My blog is one example where I saw my traffic plummet down drastically after the update.
When there is a need to consult a doctor
I can understand that there is a need for users to be able to locate accurate advice. Especially in acute condition such as symptoms of a heart attack, stroke or organ failure. However certain conditions such as pain management, I find complementary treatments would work better.
Of course, one would still need to consult a doctor to check and rule out any medical conditions before attempting complementary treatment. For example, my own friend often complained of tiredness and fatigue. In the end, a blood test revealed she had nephritis which is scarring of her kidneys.
There is also an account of an old lady who felt very tired all the time…. she was given Chicken Essence. After about a month of drinking the drink, her kidneys failed. Her kidneys could have been close to failing and a blood test could have detected this. There would be dietary changes and medication that she could have taken rather than taking a remedy that did more harm than good.
Chronic conditions- alternative treatments may be more effective
On the other hand, there are really a number of things that conventional medicine is not able to cure. For example last year when I took my mom to Emergency unit after my mom literally screamed with pain about 12 hours after her fall…. the doctor told me there was nothing they could do except to give her painkillers and muscle relaxant. The doctor suspected that a hairline fracture from an old injury (from checking the Xray) could have resulted in the pain.
My mom’s liver is already failing. If I continue to give her more medication it is going to make it worse. If we follow along the line… we would probably resigned to the fact that she would have to live with pain or use painkillers to control the condition. Eventually, she would be less mobile and eventually bedridden.
I refuse to walk down that path…. at least not without exhausting all alternatives. In the end, her pain was managed with acupuncture treatments. It was not easy…I literally had to force her there and endured a lot of verbal scoldings but it is better than to see her suffer in pain.
I come from a science background and my mom worked as a staffnurse till retirement. Her friends consist mostly of retired staffnurses and doctors. Initially I believe completely in Western treatments as well.
But as I witness more and more incidents where complementary medicine worked better, I started writing about them in this blog to share or at least create awareness about these methods. I myself have experienced an array of pain from neck, shoulders, lower back, knees and foot at different periods of my life. I have seen doctors for numerous times and all they could give me were painkillers and muscle relaxants.
They also told me to exercise and lose some weight. But how to exercise when I am in such pain?
With just a visit to for blood-letting (bekam) treatment, my shoulder pain miraculously disappeared. It last for about few months before the pain comes back (it does unless you make conscious lifestyle, especially dietary changes then the duration gets longer). However nowadays I tend to visit a chiropractor which I find is excellent for pain management because it helps to correct the alignment.
I have some friends who suffered from physical pain as well. But they often refused to try alternative treatments because it is not covered under the company or insurance healthcare. Hence they would stick to pain killers which is provided free. The thing about pain killers is that after a while, you would need stronger and stronger dosage in order to work.
A few of my mom’s friends developed severe arthritic as well as joint pains. They are so worried about a painful outbreak when they are out that they have to take a strong dose of painkiller each time they want to go out. Else, at home they would suffer in the pain, often being unable to sleep well at night.
I am very concerned for them because they are true gems that are always kept in touch with my mom. I tried and tried but could not persuade them to at least try acupuncture treatment. They are not open to the treatment. It really makes me feel sad to see them suffer in pain.
While there are some people who I am not able to persuade to at least give it a try…. at least I hope my writings can help to open up about these treatments to others. Over the years, I’ve had people writing back to me to thank me for helping them solve a long time health problem.
After all, what have to lose than to part with some money? If the treatment works, they would save on medication and its nasty side effects.
Would I give up when traffic plummet?
Initially, I did feel a bit disheartened by this change. But then I question myself on my objectives of having this blog.
If I were to blog for purely the money, I would have abandoned this blog when the traffic plummeted. But this blog was not even monetized for majority of the years that it has been live online. I used to pay for hosting using my salary when I was working for the silly reason that I was too lazy to want to file taxes to separately declare my online income. I turn on the monetization on this site last year after I stopped working.
Regardless of whether my traffic is high or low, I still believe in the cause of this blog- to continue to provide alternative considerations for others. It covers complementary and traditional medicine as well as the role that emotions and stress play on our health.
