Treat the Cause

Addressing and treating the cause is the foundation for my practice. If we do not  search for and treat the cause of health problems they will continue to deteriorate and the reliance on prescriptions will increase. My goal is to encourage your body to return to a place of balance decreasing reliance and hopefully eliminating the need for medications.

Let's use the car as an analogy to demonstrate this. Recently my brakes stopped working effectively. I initially thought that this was due to the rain and perhaps my tires being old. I took a look at the tires and they appeared to be fine, there were no bald spots and plenty of traction. I continued to drive for a week and the brakes seemed ok. Then all of a sudden my brakes seemed less responsive than before and there was no rain! Needless to say I took the car in. The mechanics looked at it and found the brake fluid level low but they did not find any leaks. They refilled the fluid and said to wait and watch. And that is what we did. Over the next few months the brakes seemed to be ok until one day I realized that they were not responding as well. I promptly took my car to the mechanic and they searched more extensively and found the leak in the master cylinder, not an obvious location. They replaced the master cylinder and refilled the brake fluid and I was back on the road as a safe driver.

If the mechanics had failed to continue to search for the problem and just kept replacing the brake fluid the cause would not have been addressed. Over time more problems would happen resulting in more work to be done. This analogy can be applied to the body as well.  Symptoms start to develop and eventually they are noticed. A visit to the doctor is made and a treatment plan is suggested. Initially the plan is focused on palliating. If the focus is only on palliation the symptoms will be masked and more severe symptoms will result. If the cause is sought out and addressed the body is able to return to a place of balance and health is restored.

Treating symptoms is an important aspect of care, it improves how we feel and often helps with the road to recovery. Combining this with addressing the cause is a recipe for success, one that I use daily in my clinic.