We experience symptoms of illness (ie high blood pressure or dysbiosis) as a sign that something within the body is not working as it should. The presence of symptoms should alert a person that the body has become imbalanced in some way, so that action can be taken to restore balance and function. Instead, most people are taught to treat the symptoms only. Examples would be taking pain relievers to control pain or using muscle relaxers for muscle spasms or even blood pressure pills and statin drugs to help with risk factors for heart disease. This unfortunately does not correct the underlying imbalance that caused the dysfunction and symptom to result. The true problem may continue creating imbalances in the body's system until more serious conditions manifest.

There are few cases of "one cause, one cure" that happen in the human body. Pursuing health means maximizing the function of all the body's intrinsic systems as well as the brain. This is a completely different concept than what we usually encounter in healthcare. Often asked is the question: "will my insurance cover that?" when explaining health-building strategies, and the answer is almost always a "no." The reason is that insurance companies sell disease care policies, not health care policies. The number of pure health building interventions that are covered, if any, can often be counted on one hand. For example, does insurance cover nutritional supplements, gym memberships, yoga classes, new bicycles, probiotic foods, kitchen tools such as a VitaMix and similar items? Perhaps some of these are covered items in some countries, but not in the United States. Nothing that prevents cancer is covered, but annual early detection is, to see if your have it yet. The "system" is geared toward specific treatment for a specific disease, and yet almost all diseases have several factors or circumstances as causes. If a person falls and breaks a wrist, the doctor that treats that wrist has a very specific job. If the patient instead has arthritis and migraines, what are the causes? Inflammation, poor diet, biomechanical issues, lifestyle, genetics--four out of five of these are variables that we have control over and yet often do nothing about.

Adapted from The Symboint Factor by Richard Matthews DC DACNB FACFN