My kid has strep. Being the curious type, I did some research about strep. Here are some interesting things that I found about strep on the web.

“Strep throat will go away in 3 to 7 days with or without treatment.” – WebMD

“Although waiting to treat strep throat may prolong the time you have the illness, delaying treatment for a few days does not increase the risk of rheumatic fever or other complications.” – WebMD

“-Strep throat is self-limiting and resolves within a few days.
-The rationale for antibiotic treatment is prevention of suppurative infection, prevention of rheumatic fever, and reduction of communicability
-The antibiotic of choice is penicillin because no increase in resistance has been seen for the past 50 years
-Despite appropriate antibiotic treatment, chronic strep colonization is common. Children can be chronic “strep” carriers (i.e. strep present on culture without any signs of infection) for up to 1 year after infection, but there is generally no need to treat chronic carriers because they are thought to be at low risk of transmitting disease or developing invasive GABHS (strep) infections.
-In summary, strep throat will go away on its own without antibiotic treatment and we only treat to reduce side effects that don’t occur that much to begin with.” – epmonthly.com

“There have been only two other cases of rheumatic fever ever reported in a pharyngitis study, both in 1961. In fact, despite large, contemporary studies tracking tens of thousands of strep throats in the general community, many of whom received placebos or no treatment, there hasn’t been a case of rheumatic fever reported in a study for nearly fifty years. When the incidence dropped to less than one per million in the general population in 1994, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped tracking rheumatic fever entirely.” – epmonthly.com

In my few years on this planet, I have thus far come to the conclusion that God has given us medicines, and for a good reason. I have also come to the conclusion that medicines are over used and over prescribed. Wellness of a human body is affected by a great many things. Medicine and surgeries have their place, but they are not the answer to every problem, nor should they be. In the same line of thought, herbs and other natural remedies have also been given to us by God, for a good reason. Natural remedies also have their place, but just like medicines and surgeries, they are not the answer to every problem, nor should they be.

It is my belief that true wellness comes from a proactive approach to living and eating. How active we are and what we put into our bodies, in the way of food, both play a great part of how well we feel. The saying, “we are what we eat”, is correct on so many levels. If live a sedentary life, our bodies will atrophy. If we put poor excuses for food into our bodies, our bodies respond poorly. Simple truths.

Medical doctors are not the answer for every illness. Chiropractors are not the answer to every ache. It is my opinion and belief that health practitioners should be more about health and wellness education than they are about symptom treating. As a society, we should seek health advice before we are sick, so that we do not get sick. If our health and wellness practitioners were used to help us be more aware of how to care for our bodies, we would be more healthy. This is already proven if we compare the ignorance of people hundreds of years ago to the little common knowledge that we now have.

I think the best health care system would be to combine EVERY form of health treatment and medicine.

Instead of shunning methodologies that we do not understand or consider to be quackery or witch doctory, we should learn more about them and incorporate them into our health care systems.

As an analogy, let us think of how many tools there are in the world. If your mechanic decided that a hammer was the best tool and decided to use only the hammer to fix things, he may have some success in fixing things, but he would create a lot of collateral damage. If he would learn about and embrace the idea of a wrench, he could be much more efficient.

This is the same for medical doctors and chiropractors. They have certain tools that they have discovered to be useful. Yet by not learning about alternative tools they are limiting their effectiveness to heal while also practicing potentially harmful activities because “that is what is accepted”.

With that in mind, here is a short list of other tools that health practitioners could use to help people be well: Iridology, acupuncture, low-level laser therapy, meditation, aroma therapy, Chinese medicine, dance therapy, music therapy, massage, herbalism, therapeutic touch, yoga, osteopathy, chiropractic, naturopathy, and homeopathy. (Wikipedia)