Why Your Doctor Can’t Help You

We benefit from the skills of doctors and medicines, and have done so for thousands of years.

For our annual check ups and routine matters, primary care doctors are very helpful. For emergencies and critical care, hospitals are essential. But what happens when we experience chronic illnesses and compounding health issues?

Are the 8-minute doctor visits, a generic diagnosis, and another medication going to resolve your health concerns – or just make them feel less obvious and more entrenched?

What Does “Reclaim Your Health” Even Mean?

The most common cause of death in the United States is Heart Disease. This is an astonishing fact because heart disease is largely preventable. A slew of “pre” heart-disease conditions, known as risk factors, can be identified early through some good old-fashioned sleuthing. They are often easily remedied with new lifestyle choices, nutritional supplements, and occasional prescription medications. So, why do these approaches go largely unnoticed?

Conventional medicine leans heavily towards an idiopathic viewpoint. This means that instead of asking why a certain condition is surfacing, instead of getting curious and discovering why health has shifted towards disease, the conventional view remains: “Well, there’s an issue here, but we have no idea what’s caused it. So, here’s a medication for the symptoms.”

This approach makes it difficult to return to or, reclaim, our previous state of good health.

Reclaiming health comes from asking: “Why?” Why are these symptoms and these conditions surfacing? Why has our health been compromised? What’s causing the imbalance? How do we return to normal? When we finally do reclaim our health, it is because we are restoring the vitality and optimal functioning of our body instead of putting a bandage over a boo-boo and learning to live with the limitations.

Part Of The System

Doctors do want to help. I can’t imagine anyone pushing themselves through medical school that didn’t truly want to bring comfort to people who are suffering. Unfortunately, medical school is more like a medical system…spitting out doctors into various other systems that have hefty paperwork requirements, manuals of protocols to follow, and boxes to check. These systems have all been put in place by insurance company mandates, large hospital systems, and BigPharma marketing & funding.

The system is set up to be profitable for companies, not to dig for answers for you and I.

As wonderful as our doctors are, they are subject to strict rules, industry regulations, and limited choices when it comes to prescribing protocols of care. Any doctor who strays from this "Standard of Care” is subject to peer pressures, institutional censorship, or the difficulties of being “out of network”. Doctors often feel trapped and even demoralized, but do not see a way out of this system. Sadly, this means that we all may suffer from a "Standard of Care” that is actually substandard, with unresolved issues that may limit the quality and length of our life.

Reversing The Cause

For many conditions, some time, a few quick tests to rule out common causes, a short chat with the doc, and a new prescription medication will make us forget that anything was ever bothering us in the first place… so everybody’s happy, right?

Wrong. Would you be happy with your auto mechanic if your ‘check engine’ light came on, and all they did was slap a piece of duct tape over it, gave you the thumbs up, and sent you rolling on your merry way?

Early signs and symptoms are exactly that – early signs and symptoms letting us know that something isn’t quite right. Within the conventional system of care however, these are often overlooked and trivialized, or masked with a drug while the cause is left unattended. Then, we trot along with a bunch of ‘little problems’ until something far more serious rears its head.

When we don’t take the time to ask ‘why’ and dig thoroughly to uncover the underlying cause of conditions when they are still simple enough to reverse, then we are playing Russian roulette with our health and our lives.

Over the past 25 years there has been a growing trend of doctors who are leaving the system for Integrative and Functional medical practices. These doctors focus almost exclusively on asking why a condition in present, and use evidence-based medicine to support their patients in reversing and healing the underlying causes. These doctors refuse to limit patient care to the confines of insurance company mandates, pharmaceutical protocols, and the restrictions set by the "Standard of Care” practices.

When To Seek Help

Ultimately, you are in charge of your health and the type of care that you receive. What kind of health care are you in need of?

For emergency medicine, critical care, primary care, and simple matters, your conventional doctor will be best able to provide what you need.

However, when you are suffering from chronic symptoms, un-addressed conditions, side effects of medications, or on-going illnesses that are compromising your quality of life, then it’s time to look outside the system and find a doctor to uncover why. That’s when you need some real help – when you’re finally choosing to Reclaim Your Health.