What is Preventative Medicine and how does it apply to you?

Imagine buying a brand-new car. What would happen if you never washed it, or never changed the oil, fluids and air filters? What if you filled it with cheap fuel? How long do you think the car would last? Now think about your home. What would happen if you stopped taking out the garbage, washing the dishes, or keeping up with the wear and tear? Don’t you think you might run into some problems with things breaking down or falling apart? All these things are preventative measures we take to get the most out of our investments. So, what about our body, health, and well-being? Why is it, that these areas of our lives mostly get attention once something goes wrong, or breaks down?

I will start by saying that there is a definite need for both conventional and holistic approaches, such as repairing my broken arm after a car accident.

The three things that differentiate a holistic approach to problem solving vs. a traditional approach is that with the holistic approach:

1. The remedies are all natural.
2. The goal is to get to the root of what caused the issue in the first place, rather than just treating symptoms.
3. There are no damaging side effects.

A holistic mindset recognizes that the body has a natural ability to heal itself given the proper environment. The approach is to integrate the body, mind, and spirit, as well as, recognize how they each affect one another. It can be used to address all areas of life such as: health and weight management, relationships, careers, or any other areas of imbalance. By focusing on discovering the source of the issue at its root, we can stop it in its tracks and prevent it from returning.

Although I do believe conventional doctors want to do everything they can to provide relief to their patients, they have been trained to mostly treat the physical symptoms of the issues. Medical professionals give you a diagnosis based on symptoms, then prescribe the matching treatment in hopes of alleviating them. They typically prescribe medication or may even suggest dietary changes, but none of these get to the root of “why” the problems first appeared to prevent them from persisting. The only way the body can heal is by addressing what started the issue in the first place. It is not the doctor’s job to resolve the underlying reasons for the issue.

Furthermore, the treatments being offered use harmful chemicals on some occasions with possible deadly side effects or invasive procedures. Treatments for cancer as an example include; chemo and radiation, which attempt to aggressively kill off cancer cells in the body, but these approaches kill off the good cells as well. Since we depend on these healthy cells for healing, the body is left weakened and defenseless.

According to the latest research:

• 70 million Americans are on mind altering medications
• 8.4 million are children.
• 1 in 5 adults are prescribed psychiatric drugs.
• 70% of Americans are on at least 1 prescription drug.
• 20% of people are on at least 5 prescription drugs.
• 6.4 million American children have been diagnosed with ADHD – with a 42% increase in an 8-year span

What happens when we treat only the symptoms?

Imagine if your car’s “check engine light” went on, and instead of seeing what was causing the light to go on, you went over and disconnected it. That would be ridiculous wouldn’t it? Yet, it would be equivalent to numbing pain with medication without investigating where the problem originated.

The holistic approach recognizes that cancer and all disease are byproducts of an unsupportive environment. If the environment does not change, the ailment or disease will continue to reproduce itself. The symptoms are the body’s way of letting us know that there is something deeper going on. So, if we eliminate the body’s indicators the problem will continue and worsen over time.

So, what do we do?

I believe there is a better way other than the treatments listed by fueling the body with what it needs to thrive.
When you own a fish tank if the fish start getting sick and dying, they recommend that you change the water…or change the environment. Which in turn changes the acidity. Our body is made of 80% water and in a healthy supportive environment we re-produce healthy cells regularly. Addressing things from a holistic approach looks at the areas of life that are NOT at ease that produce energy drains and over time creating dis-ease. We address the body’s needs through proper fuel and good nutrition, spiritual tools, mindset retraining, stress management and coping skills.

As an example; let’s say you find yourself feeling anxious. If you take a medication to take away the feeling, it doesn’t cure the problem. It may dull the symptoms, allowing you to not feel as overwhelmed, but when you feel that way next time, you will likely believe that you need medication to calm down. You may even think there is something wrong with you. The problem with this approach is the focus is NOT on what is actually causing you to feel anxious, nor how to prevent it from becoming unmanageable in the first place. As a matter of fact, the medication gets in the way and makes it more difficult to think clearly and fully feel your emotions because it inhibits (or even shuts down) the body’s ability to react appropriately. I want you to look at pain and discomfort as an indicator to go deeper. Remember this acronym for PAIN: Pay Attention Inside Now.

Without realizing it, we can become fooled into believing there is something wrong with us, so we take medication or self-medicate with substances that dull the senses hoping to address the physical or emotional pain. This becomes the coping skill or the escape that inhibits our ability to fully feel and get to the bottom of what is going on with us internally. We contribute to exacerbating the problem without realizing that we are moving in the opposite direction of our goals.

Case Example; a client that we will call “Tom” came to me struggling with alcohol addiction. At the time, I was temporarily working at a holistic treatment facility, dealing mainly with those suffering with addiction. Tom was like a gentle giant. He was 32 years old, and not only had alcohol taken control of his life, he also suffered with anxiety and depression. Most nights, he couldn’t sleep. He quit his job and isolated himself from the rest of the world numbing himself with alcohol and video games. He finally went to detox once his life unraveled before him. When he came into the office for his first assessment, I asked where it all began for him. He reflected upon a time in junior high school when he moved to a new neighborhood and was picked on by the other children.

One day in school, he passed gas by accident. After that day, his classmates teased him unmercifully. Not knowing how to deal with the harassment and shame, he began to experience social anxiety, and eventually became completely overwhelmed. His mother took him to the doctor, where he was prescribed anxiety medication. He was instructed to take one whenever he felt anxious, although he was only 15 years old! I don’t know about you, but as I recall, being that age is particularly rough in general. As everything is starting to change with your body externally, hormones start to go haywire internally.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, addiction to Benzodiazepines (antidepressants) like Xanax have become increasingly common. The rate of overdose deaths caused by these drugs has more than quadrupled in the last decade.

So, as you may have guessed, Tom found himself anxious quite a bit. When he started the medication, he was only taking one pill at a time. As life became more difficult, he still didn’t know how to cope with stress or find happiness, and therefore his doses increased. He had built up a tolerance over the years and somehow this was never questioned by his doctors. By age 30, Tom had gained a tremendous amount of weight, found himself deeply depressed, and was experiencing insomnia. Not only that, he was up to 18 doses of medication just to make it through the day.

It wasn’t until Tom moved to a different state and changed doctors that they became alarmed by the amount of medication he was on and immediately cut him down to three Xanax per day maximum.

He was left feeling defenseless and ill-equipped to handle everyday life because he had never really learned how. Tom experienced withdrawal and started isolating himself more and more as a way of coping. He left his job due to the amount of social anxiety and stress he was under. He began to drink alcohol to compensate for pharmaceutical medication. It started with a few beers in the evenings to take the edge off, and his other family members drank most evenings, so it didn’t cause alarm with anyone. A short time later, he found he needed something stronger, and eventually turned to straight vodka. It was only a matter of time before he would hit rock bottom. He had been through a more traditional treatment program the previous year where he was given medication to ease his craving for alcohol (as if the alcohol was the problem). Not surprisingly, he went right back to drinking when he got out of treatment, because nothing had changed inside.

What happened to this innocent 15-year-old boy was that he began to hate himself and the world around him. As he continued to grow older, Tom isolated himself more and more to survive. He felt alone, lost and completely misunderstood. He became resentful and angry with God and life in general. He was holding onto so much built up frustration that he was like a pressure cooker ready to explode. He would exhaust all his energy fighting the beast that was simmering under the surface of his anger and frustration. He became apathetic and aloof. His sense of confidence, self-worth, and faith continued to decrease.

His parents didn’t know what to do when they saw him struggling, other than take him to a professional who would prescribe more medication. Their way of dealing with problems and coping with stress was to drink every night after work. Don’t get me wrong - they weren’t neglectful in any way. I believe they cared for him the best they knew how. They just didn’t know anything else.

Can you see how Tom could feel so anxious and depressed that it kept him up most nights? Knowing what you do with the background I have shared; can you understand how he might want to drink his life away? Yet, medical professionals continue to treat the problems and not their actual causes.

On the other end of the spectrum, It is recommended to have a positive mindset to increase a sense of well-being; by using affirmations, visualization, and focusing on the good in your life, it can make all the difference in shifting unhealthy patterns. However, it is nearly impossible to maintain a positive mindset if you don’t address unresolved feelings and beliefs below the surface of the subconscious mind which create negative patterns in life. Those subconscious beliefs trigger unwanted, self-sabotaging behavior which we usually regret afterward creating guilt/shame and self-loathing. Remember, Tom’s story began by innocently passing gas in school and evolved over time into feelings of alienation, anxiety and hopelessness that took a devastating downward spiral that medication could not resolve.

To further illustrate; within a short period of time, my grandmother was hospitalized three times for congestive heart failure. Each time, they had to pump large amounts of fluid out of her lungs. After the third hospital stay, the doctors still had no idea what was causing the problem. Though it was still early in my career, it finally occurred to me that maybe there was something I could do to help. I stepped up and asked my grandmother what medications she was on, which turned out to be a total of seven. I asked the doctor why she had been prescribed each one. She was originally on Prednisone, which she had been taking for fifteen years. When I asked the doctor the reason for needing this medication he was not even sure what it was addressing nor why she still needed to continue taking it. Since she began taking Prednisone, she had experienced side effects including stomach pain, weight gain, and water retention. She was then put on three more medications to counteract these symptoms caused by the Prednisone! When I inquired why my grandmother was prescribed one of these medications, Zoloft, the doctor replied, “because she’s old.”

I left the office infuriated by such a callous answer and went to the library. I researched each medication and their side effects. One of the first side effects listed for Prednisone was congestive heart failure! She was hospitalized three times and the doctors didn’t make the connection until I brought it to their attention. I was beside myself. It had not occurred to me before then to even think of questioning how my grandmother was being handled, because the doctors/surgeons were the trained professionals. Once I heard, “because she is old,” I was done listening. Like so many other patients, she was being treated according to her diagnosis, rather than her individual circumstances.

So, what do we do?

Remember the fish tank analogy, when your body is speaking to you, start by looking at your environment (internally and externally). Removing anything toxic from our lives, eating well, and exercising are essential to creating a healthy environment. Additionally, one’s mindset has more effects on the body’s well-being than we realize. Studies show that the people who overcome illness exponentially faster are those who:

1. Can forgive and let go of the past (and therefore let go of shame and resentment).
2. Participate in some sort of faith, spiritual practice, or inner renewal process.
3. Have the ability to experience unconditional love in relationships even if it is by owning a pet.

If you or your loved ones are faced with a startling diagnosis, you can explore ways to aid the body’s natural ability to heal by changing the environment.

Do you:

• Exercise? Or are you more sedentary?
• Have a lot of emotional stress?
• Eat a lot of sugary, highly processed food or a high alkaline diet?
• Take multiple medications?
• Have built up anger and frustration or holding onto to resentment?
• Hate your job?
• Have difficulty in relationships?

By addressing the areas of your life that weigh on you and then changing your environment to one that fulfills your personal needs, goals, and priorities, it not only sets you up to win, it positively affects the others in your life as well.

Today is the day to invest in You!

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