23 Jan The Root Causes of Your Problems

You don’t feel well so you go to a doctor. You get some labs and prescriptions. Maybe you feel a little better at first, or maybe you don’t feel better at all. Or the pills cause intolerable side effects.  You go back to your doctor and get more tests and prescriptions. Or maybe, the doctor says there’s nothing wrong with you. Of course you love having the doctor suggest you are a hypochondriac. So maybe you try another doctor. And another.

You still don’t feel well. It’s not part of getting older. Something is wrong but doctors are not finding it or are not treating it. No one’s getting to the root causes of your problems. Now what?

This story is way too common, especially for women. Most likely, the doctor is trying to treat your symptoms. That’s how doctors are trained. If you have heartburn, you get a pill to stop heartburn pain, but it doesn’t cure the digestive upset that gives you heartburn. If you have high blood pressure, you get pills to lower it, but not to cure it. You still have high blood pressure, but at least it’s artificially lowered. If you have high blood sugar, you can get a pill to lower it, but you still have a blood sugar issue. These are a few examples.

Conventional medicine is wonderful at acute care. If you break your arm, an acute problem, the doctor can fix it and your arm will heal. But for chronic conditions, conventional medicine is not always so good. The standard of care is geared toward managing symptoms but not curing the patient.

But you have a choice. Disguise your symptoms or listen to them.

The root causes of disease

I’m a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach. Functional medicine is all about getting to the root causes of disease. And root causes are in lifestyle. Health coaching is all about optimizing lifestyle.

Here’s an example. Suppose everyday you ate candy bars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And you washed them down with a soft drink. Wow, who eats like that. No one, I hope, but certainly that would impact your health. How about you eat only one candy bar meal a day? Might that affect your health? Suppose you ate a big plate of broccoli at every meal?

What you eat makes a difference.

Every choice makes a difference: organic, locally grown vegetables vs canned; protein and fat for breakfast vs sweet cereal; eight hours of sleep vs five. These choices will affect your energy level, how well your digestion functions, and whether you develop a chronic disease like autoimmune or hypothyroidism.

Optimizing Your Choices

So if I were to coach you, I would begin with lots of questions. I would want to know what you usually eat and when. I would want to explore your history and your habits. Then we brainstorm together for ideas for you to try. I have the training to help you find what might work for you. You will try out the ideas you choose, and then report back at our next session. You’ll tell me how you felt and what worked well for you, or not. Then we can make adjustments until we find your best options

We won’t just optimize your diet, we’ll optimize your sleep. We’ll find a way to remove the obstacles to you getting much needed restorative sleep. We’ll find easy ways to get you moving, natural movements throughout the day and maybe exercise too. We’ll focus on stress management, helping you to be able to decompress and handle your many stressors. We can even find ways to optimize relationships, so that people don’t get you down, but are a positive in your life.

So health coaching does not replace going to a doctor or your prescriptions. It helps you feel better so you may even be able to reduce or go off your meds, with your doctor’s supervision, of course. Coaching is not treatment, it’s lifestyle support. And the root of your problems is often in lifestyle.

Tune into symptoms

So listen to what your body is telling you. Pay attention to your symptoms. They are giving you clues that something is wrong with your body. It’s not getting what it needs. Bodies know how to heal. But you have to support the process.

And that’s where health coaching comes in. Contact me and let’s see if we can work together. I’m a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. Maybe it’s time to free yourself of a lifetime of pills for a chronic condition that never gets better. Let’s see if we can work on the root causes. The intro phone call is free.

Comments: Are you looking at a lifelong prescription for a chronic issue?

Institute of Functional Medicine: What is functional medicine

Functional Medicine Coaching Academy: What is functional medicine

Functional Medicine Coaching Academy: Functional medicine coaching

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