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Last week, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention came out with a statistic that obesity-related health care costs the U.S. $187 billion a year. Despite the fact that this number is inaccurate and based on utterly faulty math, it keeps rearing its ugly head in the debate over health care.

Even if this $187 billion number were right, I would like to pose a separate question: How much of those costs are actually caused by the way the medical profession treats its patients?

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the NAAFA Convention. Aside from meeting such brilliant Health At Every Size heavyweights like Linda Bacon and Marilyn Wann, I heard again and again from fat people about the poor treatment they received from their medical professionals. I heard about the pain, the discrimination, the over-medicating, the under-treatment. I hear these things again and again from clients too.

Wherever I can, I send people to other fat friendly professionals, like me. But oftentimes it’s too little, too late.

The debate over health care and obesity have stirred two issues in me. The first is that all patients, regardless of size, need access to health care along with fair and respectful treatment. The debate over health care and size diversity should be framed in this way, instead of denying people access to health care due to faulty numbers over the cost of obesity. By scaring insurance companies even further away from providing insurance to fat people, the CDC is perpetuating the problem of health care costs rather than addressing it constructively. Regarding this first point, I ask you this week to email or call your senators, congresspeople, and local politicians in order to impart your feelings about preventing discrimination in health care on the basis of body size.

Secondly, we must start talking about proper coverage and the inclusion of alternative medicine.

I’d like to share with you my personal experience with alternative medicine. I used to believe that Western medicine was the only right way to treat people and that alternative medicine — acupuncture, chiropractic, energy healing, reiki, etc. was hooey.

I thought that right until a few days after my 19th birthday, when my right ankle swelled up to at least three times its normal size. I was in so much pain I couldn’t walk. I ended up going to a rheumatologist who followed the usual protocols: cortisone shots to bring down the swelling, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, x-rays, etc. The diagnosis was inconclusive — no one could decide if I had psoriatic arthritis or fibromyalgia.

The winter came on and I found myself struggling and in pain constantly. I was dragging myself with a cane to my college classes. I would try to study and the NSAIDS would make my stomach feel like a baby tiger was trying to claw it’s way out of my body. I started taking drugs to mask the pain in my stomach. At one point, I was taking 5 different medications a day, including NSAIDS, zantac, allergy drugs, The Pill and a pain killer. I felt like I was sinking in quicksand. I felt like there was no way out and that I was staring down a life of excruciating pain, pharmaceuticals, drugs and more pharmaceuticals to mask the drugs.

On top of that, I was fat. I had spent a lifetime (short as it was at that point) dieting – and I was still fat. I had done everything to lose weight — calorie restricted diets, diet drugs, (shockingly disgusting) meal replacement shakes, and so much more. I had done this all through the advice of actual doctors. So on top of the pain of my condition, I was constantly being told that if I could just lose some weight I’d get better, even though doctors had never actually “solved” my “weight problem.”

I don’t know if it was divine intervention or maternal intervention or both, but a few months after my initial diagnosis, my mom ran into an acquaintance who told her that she had been seeing a chiropractor who was helping her greatly with her arthritis. After years of bashing alternative medicine, I was ready to seek it out. I started going to this chiropractor, Dr. Michael Balas, and within a week I felt 50% better. I kept going, getting adjustments, taking foul smelling herbs, changing my diet, etc. Within a year I was no longer taking pharmaceutical drugs. I was able to walk for at least a mile without pain. I was healing. I started to see an acupuncturist, Eric Adler, who introduced me to books that changed my thinking about my ability to heal. Eventually, I started seeing a massage therapist, Steve Cocoros, who helped me heal further and supported so much change in my body.

As I healed more and more from these modalities, I felt pulled to deepen my learning of alternative medicine and nutrition, which led me to my degree from The Institute For Integrative Nutrition.

I often think of what might have happened to me if my Mom hadn’t run into that acquaintance. Would I have found alternative methods? Would I have learned all that I have? Or would I have stayed in pain, taking more and more pharmaceuticals until I ended up addicted to painkillers or immobilized?

So, my dear readers, after you email your governmental officials, will you consider adding a little alternative to your medicine? If you’re thinking about trying acupuncture or chiropractics, let me give you a gentle nudge and suggest that you follow through with that inclination. (If you’re looking for a fat friendly and reasonably priced acupuncturist, try my friend Geleni.) If you want to work with someone on changing disordered eating or having a more loving relationship with your body, would you give me a call?

Please check back here and let us know who your representative is and how it went when you spoke with him/her. Also, let us know what alternative medicine modalities you’ve thought about using, used or try this week.

Please stop by my Facebook group and become a member of the Body Love Wellness Group! Also, I would love it if you would follow me on Twitter!

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor with a degree from the Institute For Integrative Nutrition. Through her fun, simple, stress-free approach, Golda specializes in transforming her clients’ relationships with food and their bodies.

Want some individualized attention actualizing this week’s tip? Check out www.bodylovewellness.com to set up a consultation with Golda!