All Spokes of the Medicine Wheel (All systems of medical care working together)

  As a 14 and 15-year-old who lived on the streets, frequently sheltered by the kindness of friends, dumpster diving for food was a necessary art form. Krispy Kreme, with its "made fresh daily" policy, leads to entire unopened boxes of freshly glazed donuts being thrown away. The guy at Atlanta Bread Factory who felt bad for us, so he'd give us the whole loaves of bread in trash bags rather than throwing them into the bins when we'd show up before 5 am. Frito Lay's expiration date policy, and the back parking lot of Winn Dixie on February 16th, filled with kilos of Roses to make art from, or to sell.

  While these seasons in my life certainly kept me resourceful, I also acquired some unwanted gut bacteria. I can still see Ross's worried face as he rubbed at the pain in his lower left abdomen. Certainly, the Mushrooms we had harvested fresh from the cow fields after Lightning struck the Hurricane Lilies had not helped his belly situation...but that's a story for another time.

  After decades of trying to treat the unbearable on-again, off-again pains in my lower left gut, I am feeling lifetimes lighter following my Nature-informed, laboratory-led treatment protocol.

The ease and safety I feel from practicing and receiving health care in places where the local reigning cultures have not yet effectively engineered a polarized and political health care system completely calms my nervous system.

  The amount of energy I have just from feeling layers of myself becoming integrated into my present self....the layers of me which had become depleted and numbed by so many years of hosting these unwanted bacteria.

Such underlying health issues can and do go undiagnosed for years or decades, all the while eating away (literally) at the parts of us we no longer have the energy to embody.

  It's strange and yet so familiar to reencounter the parts of myself which had remained shrouded in the states of disease introduced during those Seasons.

  It can be so frustrating in all of the ways to be treating and curing underlying health issues, imbalances, and disease within medical systems (both allopathic and holistic), which are incomplete. How modern holistic and mainstream health care practitioners and industries are being pitted against one another is very unfortunate for all of us who just want (and need) the treatments to work.

  When spokes in the medicine wheels of healing and treatment are irreparably broken apart - generally in the name of capitalistic gain and/or ego - the people who suffer and die needlessly are the patients - your mother, your boss, you.

  In some reining cultures, such as the US and Canada, the varying models of health care have become so polarized and political that some medical doctors are strictly forbidden from even considering the effects of diet and supplements on the overall state of health. Meanwhile, chronic underlying conditions such as yeasts, fungi, and bacteria are entirely excluded from even the most comprehensive medical curricula. Politicizing and weaponizing access to medicine, both from the Plant Nations and the laboratories, is a huge disservice to all of Humanity 

  So, let me preface with:

This isn't medical advice; everyone is different. This was just what has worked for me in my path to heal from Diverticulitis.

• 7 days, 3 times per day of adult Bactrim Forte with lots of hydration and rest.
• Daily pitcher of Emoliente tea base (Flax seed, toasted Barley, Horsetail, Boldo). While warm tea is better for our digestive system, I was making it into iced tea, due to the blazing hot days.
• Followed by weeks of probiotics (the living liquid kind from the pharmacy with multiple strains), and keeping with the same tea, sometimes adding Aloe, or for extra digestive support.
• Continue with supportive lifestyle choices such as a high-fiber diet, ample hydration, and exercise.

The privilege to have the opportunity to host our Advanced Clinical and Advanced Herbalism CT Skills Immersion Retreat in such a place - The Ucayali region of the Amazon Rainforest.