What is Good Medicine?

11. CREATING BALANCE RATHER THAN SUPPRESSING SYMPTOMS

In conventional medicine, we doctors are trained to suppress (or eliminate) symptoms. And although treating symptoms may make patients feel better temporarily, looking for the underlying cause or dysfunction is preferable.

When you’re driving your car and the oil light goes on, you don’t put a Band-Aid over the oil light and drive on. You make sure you get your car to the mechanic to see why the oil light went on. Symptoms should be seen this way, your body is giving you a message that something is off, that there is an imbalance in the system. Looking for the underlying cause of the imbalance and creating balance are more important than simply treating the symptoms.

For example: this is what we often recommend in Conventional Medicine

a. If you have a headache, take Tylenol

b. If you have heartburn, take Nexium

c. If you are depressed, take Prozac

This kind of approach can lead one to begin to think that headaches are Tylenol deficiencies, heartburn a Nexium deficiency and depression, a Prozac deficiency.

Sometimes it is necessary and helpful to treat symptoms, but it is always important to realize that we may be masking some underlying problem.

http://www.drfranklipman.com/philosophy/

http://www.depsyl.com/

http://back2basicnutrition.com/

http://bionutritionalresearch.olhblogspace.com/