Ridiculous Health Advice That Does Not Make Sense

Disabled people do not get enough kind comments but are not short of unsolicited health advice because as soon as people see you are disabled they want to cure you. When I am given health advice, sometimes I can understand why someone would think that way because people want to help and may think they are but a vast majority of the time the things people tell me I should do to cure myself are hilarious and I don’t know how they say it with a straight face. As a disabled person, I have been given more unsolicited health advice than I care to admit because I have a visible disability that people think I can fix by eating healthier and going to the gym more. Some of the remedies people suggest can help disabled people improve pain but a vast majority of the time people are suggesting things I have heard a million times and are not helpful. You cannot fix a disability that has no cure, and I wish people would accept disabled people for who they are instead of forcing cures on us because if I could cure myself by eating more spinach, I would have done that a while ago and doctors would be suggesting it. In this post, I am going to talk about a few remedies that people often suggest to disabled people that they think are cures but are completely ridiculous.

Cut your hair for migraine pain relief– When my hair starts to get long, I cut it, because you sweat more when have long hair and it does add a little more weight which can trigger a migraine but it is not a cure and I still need to take my medication and make lifestyle changes to prevent attacks. Short hair can help some people with migraine get some relief and there is nothing wrong with suggesting a haircut, but the idea that the length of your hair caused your migraines is simply not true. Why am I wasting my time going to the doctor to get a preventative for my migraine pain if the solution was as simple as going to the hair salon? If that was true, please explain all the bald men with migraine who have no hair and are you going to tell those people to grow some hair because men get migraine too. Short hair can help give you some relief, but I could never give such a ridiculous and hilarious suggestion with a straight face.

Do some yoga to cure chronic pain- I highly encourage people who live with pain to move their bodies as much as they can because movement helps improve pain and not moving enough can cause more pain. Yoga can be a good choice for people with pain because it’s low impact, but it can be harmful when you start telling people that yoga cures chronic pain. Yoga can help manage your pain levels, but it does not cure chronic pain because if yoga was truly the cure for pain a lot of people would have cured themselves. Please stop telling people that yoga cures chronic pain because if that were true doctors wouldn’t need to prescribe pain medication and would tell people to do yoga. Yoga is a great low-impact activity for people with pain and a lot of people do it but the idea that it cures chronic pain is not true and for some, it may do nothing for your pain. If you are in pain because you aren’t moving enough, you might be able to cure your pain by exercising but most people with severe pain conditions cannot exercise their pain away and it may make it worse.

Eat more kale to cure your disability- Disabled people with physical disabilities often are not told we need to exercise more to cure ourselves because it is often assumed that people with physical challenges can’t exercise, but people do tell us to eat more kale. I eat vegetables often and love a good spinach salad, but if spinach could cure Spina Bifida, I would have cured myself a while ago, because my family loves vegetables. I was born with a physical disability, and my disability was present before I was even born, so I am curious how does this work? Kale can help make you healthier, which will make your life easier, but it can’t fix what is already broken, and in order for a disability to truly be cured, we need more hard science because we need to know what causes a disability before you can cure it.

Get a second opinion– When you are diagnosed with an incurable disability, sometimes people struggle with accepting it, and often will suggest you get a second opinion. There are times when I think a second opinion is appropriate, and if my doctor told me I needed a major surgery that I didn’t think was necessary, I would get a second opinion. Disabled people don’t always need second opinions because sometimes we are happy with our first opinion. If you have an incurable disability, it doesn’t matter if you are going to the best doctor in the country; you can’t cure something that has no known cure, and every doctor you go to will likely tell you very similar things. My medical team is not part of the problem, but they are part of the solution because without my doctors, I would not have lived very long. There is a time and a place for second opinions, but if I got a second opinion every single time a troll told me I should, I would have endless doctor’s appointments.

Disabled people often are given all kinds of unsolicited health advice because people tend to think that if we ate a little healthier, we would have the ability to cure ourselves. I am disabled because I was born this way, and although healthy eating can help make the challenges of my disability a little bit easier, I can’t exercise my disability away and all exercise is going to do is make me a little bit stronger. If a disabled person asks for health advice, it’s okay to give it, but only if we ask for it, because not all disabled people need your advice. It can be frustrating when every conversation you have with non-disabled people has something to do with cures because it implies that my disability makes you uncomfortable and needs to be fixed. Please stop telling disabled people how they can cure themselves, because if your remedy does not work, it gives disabled people who want a cure false hope. Disabled people need acceptance more than we need cures and that is something we can do. I would rather someone accept my disability rather than force cures down my throat that I have probably heard a million times before. I hate it when people give me health advice I didn’t ask for because it tells me you don’t think I am doing everything I can to improve my health. What ridiculous health advice have you heard? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.

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