Help others by sharing your experiences

The other day when I sat down to write this week's column, my 10-year-old daughter asked, "Won't you run out of things to talk about soon?"

My response was: As long as there are people in the world, there will be stories to share. I told her I get the most feedback when I share a story about real-life experiences.

These are stories about people who have walked down a new path to find health and happiness, and stories that get people talking and thinking about what they are putting into their one precious body.

I also told her that sometimes people don't agree with me, and that's perfectly OK, too. The bottom line is it gets people thinking and talking — how beautiful is that?

I have another story that needs to be shared.

When our daughter, Jordan, was 5 and we were told to give her a steroid to stop her wet asthmatic cough (after she was already on a regimen of Singular and inhalers), that is when we decided enough was enough. We needed to figure out why she had asthma, not just how to treat her symptoms.

It turned out that we had been asking the wrong question. We wanted to know how to make her feel better when all along we should have been asking: How do we actually make her better? How do we cure her?

We started a journey that led us down many paths that were very informative and eye opening but did not provide a long-term solution to Jordan's asthma.

All of this changed the day Jordan had a substitute teacher in kindergarten. Her teacher could not help but notice Jordan's asthmatic cough. After school, the teacher shared with us her success story she had with a holistic doctor — an experience that changed her family's life forever and got her and her family off of medications and feeling healthy.

Needless to say, we were on the phone that afternoon making an appointment with this holistic doctor. Long story short, it has been eight healthy years since Jordan has had to take any meds for her asthma. No more wet cough, no more ear aches, no more missing out on life.

I just wonder how long it would have taken us to find the solution to our daughter's asthma if this teacher had not shared her life-changing story. Her story changed our lives.

Take the time to share your stories. You never know whose life you might influence or change. It took someone taking the time to share her experience about her own family before we knew where to start looking for the solution for our daughter.

This is one of the main reasons why I love writing this piece. I love sharing the stories about how people have figured out how to live healthier lives — naturally.

If this column helps one person then mission accomplished.

Kevin Cotter is managing general partner at locally owned New Earth Market in Yuba City.