“Treat the Cause – Not the Symptom”

Imagine the body is like a car!  A car is designed to give us a warning - a little flashing red light is a signal that something isn’t working right.  It’s letting us know it needs some attention and we better attend to it soon because it can only get worse.  The last thing we would want to do is take masking tape and cover-up that flashing red light on the dashboard and keep driving the car.

The body is very much like a car.  It is designed to give us signals (symptoms).  If the symptoms the body gives are headaches, fatigue, heartburn, high cholesterol, etc. and we medicate ourselves with aspirin, coffee, antacids and drugs, are we simply masking over the symptoms and not treating the real cause of our problem?  Symptoms let us know something isn’t working right!  

Do we listen to the symptoms and give the body the attention it needs?  Do we treat the problem now when it may be relatively simple to fix or do we wait and let those symptoms keep on mounting for months, years or decades?  As we keep putting it off, it will potentially make our health worse.  I believe people spend more time and effort maintaining their cars then they do their health.  We need to be “proactive” in our health care not “reactive.”

So how do we start to treat the cause and not the symptom?  First we need a plan.  What do the three little letters “IRS” make you think of?  Taxes, right!  Taxes are like stress to the body, the more stress we tax our body with the weaker our immune system becomes.  So, let’s think how are we taxing our body?  Do we overtax our body with constant mental and emotional stress?  Do we tax our body with excessive physical and chemical stress?  A poor diet will cause nutritional deficiencies and is very taxing.  Poor digestion, heartburn, bloating and gas taxes the body.   Internal pollution like constipation and diarrhea is taxing.  Being overweight, inadequate sleep, to much exercise and not enough rest can be taxing.  An over-consumption of foods with refined white flour, white sugars artificial sweeteners, preservatives, insecticides, and antibiotics is another tax on your body.  All of these symptoms (stresses) are taxes that add up and deplete and exhaust our adrenal glands, which is reflected in our immune system.

To treat the cause and not the symptom the first thing we need to do is Identify where the different stresses (taxes) our coming from in order to Implement a plan.  Secondly, we Rebalance our hormones, blood sugar and digestive system and Remove any kind of harmful toxins irritating contaminets that can further stress (tax) our body.  Finally, we Support and Strengthen our body with proper supplementation and diet.  I call it “The IRS approach to Functional Healing.”  Functional Healing is a step-by-step process the body goes through as we restore normal function and improve overall health.  There are no magic bullets!  No miracle vitamin or super nutrient!  It will take time and active participation by each patient. 

Restoring someone’s health is like painting a house.  Before we begin painting the walls it is wise to first prep the walls.  So, before we start swallowing a handful of vitamins that our meant to support and strengthen our body, we need to see if the body will absorb those nutrients.  Too often people swallow a handful of vitamins each day without receiving any true health benefits.  The reason could be, they are not taking the proper steps to restore their health.  Remember, many of today’s health complaints did not begin overnight.  It is like a “domino effect” something caused something which caused something.  The key to restoring someone’s health is figuring out which order the dominos came crumbling down.

Dr. Len Lopez