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Be Sure to Take Your VitaminsWinter, 2007 Within the past couple of years our family has made the decision to improve our health using vitamins. Most specifically, we've increased our intake of vitamin C. I believe it has improved our immunity to most of winter's ills and our overall good health. Problem is, taking all those pills. A friend suggested I try vitamin C crystals, which I did. I had a hard time, though, because their addition changed the flavor of my beloved morning orange juice! Once the container was gone, I went back to taking horse pills. This was okay, except that on some days I just couldn't face the pills, and I wouldn't take them. Then I also began to learn about and come to understand that, duh, our bodies process vitamins and supplements much better if they aren't compressed into hard little pills. So I began looking for vitamin and mineral powders. Long story short, I found a brand I wanted to try and bought the basic vitamin and the vitamin C. Now last summer, I had the misfortune of breaking a heel spur. Anyone who saw me on crutches, in the boot, or hobbling along on tiptoe couldn't believe that all I had done was dive off the board at the swimming club. Leave it to me to find a way to make swimming detrimental to my health! Thank goodness my doctor thought we could let it heal on its own without surgery. I was grateful for that and began researching heel spurs and how to care for them naturally. This, of course, led me into learning more about calcium. I'd had a run-in previously where I believed my calcium intake was the culprit and had stepped away from taking any beyond the multi-vitamin level. Now I began to think that perhaps I needed to re-visit calcium--but in powder form. So when I found the brand of powdered vitamin I wanted to try, I also got the calcium. In the meantime--during my vitamin research I mean--I discovered a bone spur on my ankle while taking a shower. Now if you are anything like me, you are a hypochondriac when it comes to finding anything out of the ordinary on your body that just suddenly appears. I mean, really, how could a spur just appear like that on my ankle when I wash my ankle every day? At any rate, there it was. I didn't want to go to the doctor again! They would want all kinds of tests, and we have minimal insurance. I'd spent enough on the heel spur incident, and I didn't need to spend more. For once in my life, I decided to be rational about this out-of-the-ordinary occurrence and apply what I had learned about bone spurs and calcium. And yet, I was hesitant about taking too much calcium. Add to that the fact that the brand of vitamin powder I had found was quite costly for my budget... ...I decided to take half a dose of extra calcium. That, combined with the multi-vitamin, would give me 100% RDA for calcium from my supplements, not to mention the dairy I ingest each day. I found the vitamin powders do-able. Much more so than a dozen pills a day. I was faithful in taking my vitamins, and I faithfully checked my ankle every night in the shower. Sometimes it seems a little smaller, sometimes bigger, but always there. As the calcium container neared its end, I began wondering if I should order more. Rationally speaking, I knew that I already take in a good amount of calcium in my diet, because I like dairy products. Also, I knew that I had spent all that was allotted to this project already. I decided that I was going to have to use the calcium until it was gone, maintain my multi-vitamin, and be vigilant about my dietary calcium intake. Beyond that, I had done all I could do and I had to just stand (see Galatians 6:13) and trust in God for His part. I prayed. Then the day came when I used the last of the calcium powder. When I took a shower that night, the spur was gone. Completely. And it never has returned. Every shower I take I feel my ankle, shake my head, and thank God again for His wonderful provision for me, for something so small that makes me know once again that He cares for me, the very hairs on my head and the bones in my body, just as He does for each and every one of us. He is our creator, our maker, and He knows us intimately. Thanks be to God. |
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Chantal L. DeYoe
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