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Voice for a choice:
By Jan
Jonas
Bera Dordoni is a rescuer.
And when she smiles at you, you want to be rescued.
That's what her three dogs would say if they could speak. One is
blind, another has joint problems, and the third, like so many of
us, simply needs love and attention.
Those are the things Dordoni, a naturopathic doctor, spreads
around, whether to dogs or people.
As a naturopath, she has been taught how to treat disease - or
the body's dis-ease, as she calls it - by using natural mechanisms,
such as water, air and organically grown fruits and vegetables. She
rejects the use of drugs and medicines normally espoused by medical
doctors.
To those willing to commit to choosing a healthy lifestyle, she
also has advice on how to make the concept real.
"This is a mission to help others help themselves," Dordoni, 52,
says.
The Bernalillo resident has released a CD with several original
songs and has published a book, "I Have a Choice," in which a highly
driven movie director learns he can choose how he wants to live and
changes his lifestyle. He becomes healthier and, as a result of
feeling better physically, he is also happier.
"The book is a primer for strengthening the immune system,"
Dordoni says.
A life-threatening bout with pneumonia when she was singing in
smoke-filled night clubs in the early `70s drew her into the world
of alternative medicine.
Feeling like conventional medicine had failed her, she says, she
became convinced alternatives to the American Medical Association's
treatment recommendations could be helpful. She later attended a
school of natural healing started by John Christopher, earning a
degree as a naturopathic doctor.
Dordoni hasn't been to a medical doctor for years, she says,
because she knows her body well enough to understand what it needs.
Some suggestions are things we've heard for a long time.
Eat fresh fruits and vegetables - organic is recommended.
Exercise helps relieve stress and brings oxygen to your body.
Drink water - filtered and lots of it, even if you think you
don't need it.
"If there's any pain in your body, 90 percent of the time, it can
be eliminated by drinking enough water. Most pain comes from
dehydration," she says.
Dordoni swears by seaweed, tofu and noni juice, made from the
plant that grows in Hawaii and Tahiti.
She also fills up on brown rice, fresh carrot juice and dark
green leafy vegetables, often consumed in a powdered form of
green-food concentrates that can contain wheat grass, barley grass
and alfalfa.
These are daily staples for her and anyone who follows her plan.
Cheryl Heath, music director of the Christ Unity at the Edge of
the Woods church, came down with pneumonia a couple of years ago and
didn't want to take antibiotics.
Dordoni recommended a tonic of five ingredients, including garlic
and hot chile peppers.
"They're very strong," says Heath, 51. "It's like bad germs can't
live in this. I used this under my tongue every couple of hours.
Afterward, I continued using it three times a day. Now I keep it in
my purse. If I ever get a cough, I just put some in my throat, and
it stops the cough."
Within three days, Heath says, she was better. With the pneumonia
gone, "I was open to whatever might make me feel good," she says.
She has been following Dordoni's plan since then and says she has
been healthy.
"If I follow common sense, which is all I think it is, I stay
well," Heath says.
That healthy feeling is something Dordoni also planned out for
Bunny Hauser, who has fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes
widespread muscle pain and fatigue.
Hauser, 52, owns a nail salon in Fullerton, Calif., that Dordoni
used to frequent when she lived nearby in the early Õ90s.
"I thank God for that woman because I would not be where I am
today or who I am today," Hauser said in a phone interview last week
from her home.
After about nine years of following a vegetarian diet and
shopping mostly at health food stores for organic ingredients for
carrot and other juices, Hauser says, "I love juicing. When I don't
and I get away from it, I don't feel the same. . . . Your body will
tell you what it needs every single time."
But, Dordoni says, "Until you say, `Dang, I don't want to live
this way. I don't want to feel this way,'" you can't be
ache-and-pain free.
"Knowledge is power, but applying that knowledge is what allows
us to heal from a malady, whatever it may be," Dordoni says. "That's
why it is so important to know your choices."
Once you know what those are, she says, you can rescue yourself.
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