I was reflecting on two somewhat random health “unlocks” over the past decade.
In my third year of college, I started getting painful bouts of gastritis. In the decade that followed, this affliction followed me around. Eating at regular intervals kept it at bay. But such bouts still occurred every three to six months and each bout required consumption of a Magnesium Trisilicate tonic (over the counter).
Until a health-awareness phase when I decided to run a few tests to understand how I was doing. My usual doctor was away on leave and the replacement doctor spotted the bacterium “Heliobacter pylori” and recommended one course of antibiotics. It’s been 6 years since that course – and 6 years since a bout of Gastritis.
I’d mentioned this to multiple doctors over that decade – nobody had answers. Until one spotted this bacterium in a test. Unlock!
The second unlock is more benign – but impactful nevertheless. I remember one of the first times I went to a dentist for cleaning as a child. My teeth seemed coated in black marks and he reprimanded me for bad brushing habits.
That reprimand stepped up my brushing game. But it didn’t seem to matter. A few months after my cleaning, the black marks came right back. I went to dentists across different continents in the subsequent years. They’d all ask me similar questions – do you eat a lot of chocolate? Drink a lot? Any smoking? The answer was no to every meeting.
They all speculated about the cause – one shared that some people are predisposed to it thanks to the nature of the saliva. No one could figure out what I could do to avoid it.
Until a dental hygienist at a doctor close by recommended using a toothpaste from Arm & Hammer. She reasoned that the extra baking soda in the toothpaste would help keep the marks at bay.
It did. Those black marks haven’t come back in the past two years. She solved a 20 year problem that had befuddled so many people. Unlock!
I’ve learnt two lessons from these experience:
The first is to not give up on problems. Both of these were longstanding problems. They could easily have become part of my identity – “I get Gastritis a lot.” They probably were – to an extent. But I’m glad I didn’t give up on them.
Next, the Gastritis issue was spotted by a replacement doctor. Would my normal doctor have spotted it? Unclear. Similarly, I’m grateful for the dental hygienist who I spoke with about my marks. Funnily, I only took action on her recommendation when she repeated it six months later. I probably needed to hear it twice to give it a shot.
The second lesson, thus, is that solutions can come from unexpected sources. Stay curious and keep plugging away on problems – you never know when the solution might present itself.
