A 50 year old woman presents with what appears as an array of disconnected, idiopathic symptoms (can’t figure out where it came from or why it is happening). She is a public speaker and fund raiser. After about 10 minutes of giving a speech she begins to get sick. She has to lie down and gets a low grade fever that lasts for up to 5 hours and she cannot urinate for up to 12 hours. She has a low grade cough, which gets worse when she lies on her side. When she eats raw fruits or vegetables, she gets an allergic reaction that manifests as sores in her mouth. She also suffers from acid reflux and is post menopausal. To help really complicate things, she was born premature and has some genetic defects. She has only one kidney and an improperly formed liver (size, shape, location). The Docs are baffled and keep going back to the idea that she has an infection of some sort. She has been tested for all kinds of offending agents with no luck.
This person has no infectious agents causing the problem. Her only kidney has begun to pro-lapse (a loss of tone, support to and from the structures around the kidney, which result in a small but significant physical shift in organ location). Pro-lapse is not that uncommon post-menopause. When it does occur it is usually bladder and or uterus. These women often suffer from repeated bladder or vaginal infections. The menopausal shift in hormone balance alter the suspensory tensile strength of supportive structures. Estrogen, and particularly progesterone play an important part in this area of maintaining tone. The first hormone that drops precipitously post menopause is progesterone. The use of supplemental hormones as a first choice is a poor one. The use of hormones is absolutely last (and then only bio identical hormones). I try to get the body to do what it is supposed to do first, which is balance it hormones through a number of means with Natural Medicine. In this particular case of pro-lapse, body work in the direction of visceral manipulation (Osteopathic Medicine) can be very effective. That is the case here. As strange as this may sound to our western minds, there are herbs that have a lifting affect on this type of organ pro-lapse. They create more tone and lift. Chinese medicine calls it raising yang. Whatever the name or reason they work. These types of herbs are often contraindicated when people express upper body tension: tight lungs, tight jaw, tight shoulders and neck, etc.
She began to get better after the first session. Mostly less pain. Better again by the second session: can now stand and speak for longer periods without the problem of fever or urine retention. Her cough has resolved. I would like to add the personal note that when people get better fast, it’s the absolute best high there is for a practitioner. She has begun to take bitters before meals, which is helping the acid reflux and allergic response to raw fruit and vegetables. Next stop is raising Kidney Chi (adaptogenic herbs are brilliant in this area). In essence, this is hormone balancing ala Natural Medicine.