Let’s Get to the Cause

Let’s Get To The Cause

The body is an amazing, miraculous machine. It is made up of approximately 37.2 trillion cells, all processing chemical reactions, dividing, and communicating with other cells at the same time. It is truly amazing to consider the complexity of it all.

Many various nutrients are needed by the cells to carry out these chemical reactions. If the nutrients are not available, the body will be able to compensate for a little while, but sooner or later, there will be a malfunction, which in turn, will lead to symptoms.

So, you take your body (with its symptoms) to the medical doctor. The doctor will give the symptoms a name, or diagnosis, and you will most likely be given a pill to treat the symptoms. This will not, however, get to the underlying cause of the symptoms, which is most likely a nutritional deficiency.

Let’s say you have insomnia. Your doctor will prescribe a sleep aid, and this will work to help you sleep, but it may be habit forming and it does not address the issue of why you are not sleeping. You will take the sleep aid for the rest of your life because your underlying problem has not been solved.

But, one day, your friend tells you that she went to a nutritionist or functional medicine doctor with the same problem and she is now able to sleep without her medication. You decide to see the nutritionist also, and you are told that you are not sleeping because your adrenals are stressed and they are producing cortisol at the wrong time of the day (or night), and this is waking you up at night. Your nutritionist gives you supplements that replenish the nutrients needed for proper adrenal function, advises you on what to eat to nourish your adrenals, and suggests lifestyle modifications like turning off your electronics and TV two hours before bed and using black out curtains. Soon you are sleeping like a baby and you are finding that other symptoms are disappearing because you are eating right, getting the nutrients you need and that much needed sleep is allowing you to get your health back.

It really is your choice. You can mask your symptoms with medications and pretend you are better, or you can get to the root of the problem, get the nutrients and lifestyle changes you need, and live a happier, healthier life.