Don’t Kill the Messenger
One of the tenets of holistic medicine is that when the body is out of balance it will try and get your attention by creating unwanted symptoms. The first clues are usually subtle, something like general tiredness, some aches and pains, a bit of a headache or joint pain for example.
Because we can, we usually ignore these mild symptoms, and we often don’t make any adjustments to our lifestyle. It’s a bit like seeing the petrol light come on in your car and ignoring it. You can ignore it for a little while but continuing to take no notice at all turns a small inconvenience into a big one.
Without making changes, the mild symptoms generally turn into more significant ones. You might get sick and not fully recover or have pain that becomes more intense or chronic, or your fatigue or headaches or anxiety become more disruptive. It’s around this time when people usually seek help.
At the point of seeking help, the road comes to a significant fork. One path takes you down the track of suppressing your symptoms e.g. pain relief medication for headaches. The other takes you down a holistic path that looks at why you’re getting headaches in the first place. It addresses the causes, which can be myriad, but might include stress, diet, hydration, posture, sleep and so on.
To my mind, relying on painkillers is like cutting the wire to the petrol warning light – the signal that something is wrong goes away, but the underlying problem is now going undetected. You keep on driving thinking everything is ok, but you’re on borrowed time before a more difficult health condition arises.
When you develop chronic symptoms or suffer with chronic pain it can feel like some aspect of your body is broken but, even if you’ve suppressed symptoms for a time, it’s not too late to change course. Generally speaking, even with more challenging symptoms, the body never loses its ability to heal, and you can set your body back on the path to recovery. Obviously, the sooner you stop ignoring symptoms the better and the easier and quicker the recovery.
