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Good Health is About a PROCESS not a Pill.
Growing public interest in alternative medicine
is unmistakable and encouraging. For most, this
interest is based on a desire to seek a drug free
treatment for their ailment. The majority of people who
self-medicate in health food stores may be avoiding
drugs, but they are not obtaining natural healing based
on its real principles and purposes. Few people seek
true naturopathic medicine, simply because of a lack of
understanding about the difference between taking a
natural supplement and taking on natural healing.
Naturopathic health care is much more than simply taking
a ‘natural pill’ versus a synthetic pill. It is the
process of treating the underlying root of disease
versus simply treating the symptoms. Only the former
approach can begin to offer a pathway toward cure
instead of suppression.
The
Cause of Disease.
To understand the cause of a disease a naturopath must
look thoroughly and deeply into all aspects of his/her
patient’s presentations including the physical, mental
and spiritual components that together make the whole
person. Each symptom (for example, hot flashes,
itching, acne, pain, etc.) is only revealing in the
context of the whole person and the dynamic, fluid and
interconnected systems of their body. Taking a
‘natural’ pain killer for a headache or a natural
‘anti-inflammatory’ for joint pains is not naturopathic;
it is suppression of symptoms without prescription
medications. This is usually safer and definitely a
valid way of controlling symptoms. But one must ask,
“Why am I having chronic pain?”. Are your headaches tied
to food sensitivities, hormone imbalances, poor
digestion or other triggers? Why is your immune system
reacting to foods that other people can tolerate? How
did your hormones become imbalanced? With the help of
such questions and using a wide variety of assessments
used by naturopaths, we discover imbalances and
shortcomings in the integrity and functionality of
multiple organ systems. If one system is weak others
must compensate and they become imbalanced over time.
We need to find the weakest link in the chain and
support its recovery. Balancing systems and removing
the triggers that upset them in the first place is the
goal of true preventative medicine.
Naturopathic Training.
Naturopathic doctors are specially trained in the art of
true principles of healing – their approach requires
creativity and insight as well as knowledge, experience
and science. Their primary aim is to investigate the
root cause. Naturopathic doctors are scientists,
detectives and investigators. Their thinking is
dynamic, non-linear and relative, just as is the body.
With each treatment they get progressively deeper until
balance is obtained at the most fundamental cellular
level. Ideally the body should be self-sufficient and
the use of external supports, be they natural vitamins
or prescription medications, should be minimal. This
process takes a committed doctor but moreover a
committed patient.
While naturopathic doctors do prescribe
supplements that you might find at a health food store,
their role is much broader than that. They teach
balanced living and good nutrition as being fundamental
to healing. They use acupuncture, homeopathy, drainage
therapies and other deeper energetic approaches to cut
through layers of imbalance. As the patient’s condition
changes with treatment so does the treatment plan. We
are not static and nor should our supports be.
Treating Symptoms versus Causes.
For those interested in true naturopathic health care
they must let go of the notion that there is a single
pill for each and every problem. Naturopathic doctors
don’t treat symptoms and diseases; they treat the
underlying imbalances reflected in the whole person that
ultimately manifest as disease. Initially symptoms may
be addressed in order to relieve discomfort and provide
a means for transition off medications. Treating
symptoms is pleasing to patients who are accustomed to
judging the benefits and effectiveness of their health
care by the speed and degree to which their symptoms
disappear and/or the normalization of blood tests. But
symptom control does not reflect a cure. What happens
when you come off your blood pressure medications? Your
blood pressure spikes right up. This means you have
been treating the symptoms but have not addressed the
cause. Symptom relief is gratifying because it produces
observable and measurable changes.
Symptoms as the Great Revealers!
As an alternative approach, ask yourself not what can I
take for symptom A or B but why do I have these symptoms
in the first place? Often symptoms are the body’s
natural and brilliant way of trying to compensate for
deeper underlying chemical imbalances. Symptoms can
reflect a process of healing or protection. Symptoms
are great communicators and a guide to help the
naturopath gage deeper healing. For example, the body
spikes a fever to speed up the immune system so the
invader can be defeated quickly. Fevers are wonderful
and yet we fear and suppress them. Skin diseases such
as eczema or psoriasis represent a toxic outlet for a
body that cannot properly eliminate waste products
because one or more of its key elimination roots (such
as the liver and kidneys) are sluggish. The skin is not
the problem, just a great communicator. The skin does
not need to be treated or suppressed in these cases.
Treat the underlying causes and the skin will cure
itself.
If we don’t address underlying causes then
we are still gong to develop the chronic diseases that
ail modern persons such as cancer, heart disease,
diabetes, autoimmune disease, Alzheimer’s and the like.
For example, if we simply take a cholesterol lowering
drug or supplement we have not addressed the underlying
reasons for having high cholesterol in the first place:
chronic inflammation, dietary imbalances, chemical
stresses, etc. Cholesterol levels may remain low but
these issues will manifest elsewhere in the form of
cancers, autoimmune diseases or other degenerative
diseases. Taking a natural hormone instead of a
synthetic one may save you from some of the side-effects
of drugs, but why are your hormones off balance in the
first place? Why not support the body’s ability to
produce its own hormones? Taking a natural anti-Candida
supplement to kill off the overgrowth of this microbe in
your digestive tract may be valid, but why did it grow
in excess in the first place? If you don’t’ treat the
underlying terrain that made it possible for the bug to
grow it will return.
The choice is ours to make when it comes to
our own bodies. We commit our entire lives to evolving
ourselves in the arts, family life and work, why not do
the same for our health?
This lovely and
humorous poem written by Jason Latremoille was inspired
by the above article.
I just want a quick fix
One pill that’ll do the trick
Make all my symptoms go away
You’re asking for too much you say
But pills for us are just like candy
We’re raised on them and they’re so so handy
Always there when we need them
Especially if you can afford ‘em
You talk about addressing ‘root causes’
Things so real that they’re scary
But we want things like Santa Claus
We want lives that are airy-fairy
If we pay you to tell us what to do
Do we really have to take part too!?
Can’t we just push a button
Or take a pill and just do nothing?
July, 2007
By: Jason Latremoille
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