WHAT IS SYMPTOMATIC MEDICINE?
by Lawrence Wilson, MD

© July 208, The Center For Development

An important distinction must be drawn between methods of healing that are primarily symptomatic and those that are far more deep in their level of correction and thus their effects. This is the subject to this article.

The difference is critical, in my view, because the deeper one can heal the body, the more likely the patient will remain well and the less likely the “cure” will harm the patient. Also, with deep healing one can do something that I will call spiritual development.

DEFINITION OF SYMPTOMATIC METHODS

Symptomatic here means that the method or technique is mainly focused on symptom relief. This is in contrast to balancing the body and other approaches. With these methods, one does not focus on symptoms at all, or very little.

Characteristics of symptomatic approaches.

1. They are usually designed to be inexpensive, rapid and simple to apply.

2. One measures success by how well a symptom subsides, even if it is temporary, as it is in many cases. Long-term effects, for example, and side effects, are usually considered less important or they are ignored altogether.

3. Symptomatic methods are simple and popular because they are based on observable phenomena. Methods that balance the body such as hair analysis as we use it or acupuncture are generally less popular and more costly in many cases because they are not simple and are not based on readily observable phenomena.

Modern names for symptomatic allopathic medicine.

1. “The pill mentality”. Whatever ails you, just take a pill.

2. The “quick” approach. Many have been trained to believe healing does not take time or much effort.

3. The “cookbook” approach. Look up your problem in the book and follow the simple recipe for fixing it.

Allopathic or drug medicine mainly symptomatic. The most familiar example of symptomatic methods for most people is our conventional medical system. This consists of pills, operations and other items designed for relieving symptoms, from headaches to heart attacks.

It is heavily advertised and seems to work well, but the cost is rising out of control. degenerative diseases such as cancer and diabetes are spiraling out of control and more doctors are being sued as a result of the superficial and inadequacies of this method of healing.

EXAMPLES OF SYMPTOMATIC VERSUS BALANCING APPROACHES

A Structural Example. If one goes to a chiropractor who simply adjusts the vertebrae of the neck to relieve a headache, this is what I would call basically symptomatic. The adjustment may also balance the spine, but is not aimed at doing this primarily.
However, if the chiropractor first checks the entire spine to see where the problem areas are, then he or she is not simply giving symptomatic treatment. Instead, one is addressing a deeper imbalance. This, then, is not symptomatic healing, but rather balancing.

A Nutritional Example. One could give a nutrient to remove a symptom. For example, one can give vitamin C to cure a cold. This is symptomatic nutrition at its worst. However, it is done all the time and, indeed, is helpful at times.
Now, one can also use vitamin C to raise the sodium level on a hair analysis, or to lower the copper level, or to remove cadmium, or for other reasons. These would be balancing body chemistry with the same remedy, and much less of a symptomatic approach.

A homeopathic example. One can use arnica to help relieve a painful bruise or cut. This is pure symptomatic homeopathy, though it can be quite effective, and is relatively cheap and safe compared to the use of some allopathic drugs.

One can also use homeopathic examination to prescribe a “constitutional remedy”. This is one geared to the person’s entire constitution, not simply one symptom or another. This is less symptomatic.

A medical example. If a patient complains of hip pain, a doctor may run no tests and just give a painkiller. This is mainly symptomatic since the doctor does not look for deeper causes and uses a remedy that only addresses the superficial pain.

A less symptomatic approach is to do x-rays and a physical examination to determine if the leg is broken, out of joint or something else is wrong before giving the pain killer.

If the tests are negative, a still less symptomatic approach is to send the patient to a physical therapist, chiropractor or someone else. This would be acknowledging that one must find the cause of the pain, and yet, the doctor is not the only practitioner who might find that cause.

This discussion is needed to help one understand that the word symptomatic is often relative. We may believe that drug remedies are all symptomatic, for instance, but this is not always true.

In fact, surgery, when needed, is one of the least symptomatic aspects of the modern conventional medical system. That is, it can take care of a critical emergency like a broken leg or an appendicitis that could be life-threatening.

Remedies from medical doctors may, in fact, be recommended based on deeper tests and they may balance the body a little, which is why some work. In other cases, the same remedy, such as an anti-depressant drug, will work poorly and may cause a suicide or homicide because it severely unbalances something in the body.

WHY ARE SYMPTOMATIC METHODS SO POPULAR?

1. They appear simple. This means they are largely superficial and easily understood by doctors and patients alike. Balancing methods like nutritional balancing and acupuncture are much more difficult to comprehend and practice as well.

2. Doctors and others love them. This is sadly the case because the patients never really get well, so they must come back for the next symptom or problem. This is simply good for business. Sadly, even the socialized medical systems of Europe, Canada and elsewhere continue this stupid and costly method.

However, a warning is in order. Most holistic physicians are still recommending symptomatic treatments, in my estimation. Among these are chelation therapy, bioidentical or natural hormone replacement therapy and even vitamin and herbal treatments. Hoemopathy as it is usually practiced by natural doctors is also largely symptomatic.

In my conversations with many holistic practitioners, many are still interested in having the patient come back many times. Therefore, they are less interested in deeper balancing methods that actually heal the patient at the deepest level. However, they are more interested in real healing, in most cases if not all, than are the conventional medical people I have met.

3. They ask little of the patient in most cases. thus, they often seem easier for the patients. They can keep eating their junk food, avoid adequate rest and sleep and ignore the problems in their lives and just run to the doctor when problems arise and get a pill or an operation.

I said “seem” easier because in fact, symptomatic methods shorten one’s life and bring on cancer and other severe, painful conditions. So it is really not better for patients, no matter how it seems.

PROBLEMS WITH SYMPTOMATIC APPROACHES

1. Superficial. This means that dealing mainly with symptoms does not really tell us much about underlying causes of the problem. Allopathic doctors understand this to some degree, but still practice mostly symptomatically because that is how they are trained.

For example, if someone is suffering from depression, one might ask why. However, most doctors do not ask much in the way of probing questions. Instead, they prescribe a drug to get rid of the symptom.

Maybe the patient needs more rest, a vacation, a change of employment, a better diet or a complete nutritional balancing program. However, this requires more questioning or testing than most doctors even know how to do or wish to do.

2. Very high cost. This occurs because the person doesn’t get well at a deep level. Instead, people often become more ill from the drug side effects and the fact that the underlying imbalances are not corrected or even addressed.

All modern health care systems in the world are in trouble because they are largely based on symptomatic healing approaches. The situation will only get worse until symptomatic medicine is abandoned in favor of balancing and then later in favor of spiritual development. These are discussed later in this article and elsewhere on this website.

3. Adverse effects often occur. These are also called side effects, collateral effects or unintended consequences. This problem stems from the interconnectedness of all parts of our bodies. If you affect one part, you often affect many others as well. The body stays in some sort of balance and it is easy to upset this balance.

Often, altering one condition or symptom often leads to other changes in the “system” that are unwanted. For example, a drug that lowers blood pressure may make one tired or upset sexual activity or dangerously reduce potassium in the blood. A drug that kills bacteria may kill the good flora in the intestines, leading to yeast infections and other “secondary problems”.

The importance or severity of adverse or secondary effects vary greatly, depending on the drug or method used. While some are of little consequence, others kill people every day, though most are not aware of how the problem occurs.

This problem occurs a lot with “natural” or bio-identical hormone therapy, for example, because the body is not designed for hormones to be taken on a time schedule or a doctor’s schedule. They are highly dependent on body conditions that can change each second, literally.

This may help explain all the adverse effects we see from natural and of course, synthetic hormone replacement therapy. For more information about this important topic, read Natural Hormone Replacement Therapy on this website.

4. Masking worse problems by covering up symptoms. Even worse, symptomatic methods often block out or make less clear deeper problems in our bodies. For example, simple fatigue can signal a small cancer in the body or a pending heart attack.

However, most doctors, faced with this common complaint, do little or no testing to find out if something deeper is amiss. Instead, they may advise the patient with fatigue to exercise more, take a nap, take a vacation or worse, have a cup of coffee or tea.

By following this advice, however, the patient often masks or obscures the original symptom of fatigue. This often leads to worse problems in the following months or years. Fatigue is the basic underlying symptom of illness in our bodies, assuming that it is not just caused by lack of rest and sleep.

5. Little spiritual development. This problem of symptomatic methods is more subtle. It has to do with the mentality behind the symptom-based approaches.

Most people do not like to work for their health or much of anything else. However, there is benefit in digging deeper and correcting underlying imbalances in our bodies.

For lack of a better term, I will call this process spiritual development. It is the slow, gentle unraveling of layers of imbalances that may be physical, emotional, mental and other levels of our bodies that cause symptoms.

As we slowly undo these layers of imbalances, most symptoms subside on their own. However, the process is more or less continuous because there are many levels and layers to remove.

It requires constant attention to one’s diet, lifestyle, attitudes and it requires remedies at times as well. However, the remedies must be chosen carefully so that they work on the deep levels, not just on the surface imbalances that one can see clearly.

This is the challenge and reward of spiritual development. This topic is discussed in much more detail in the article on this website entitled Spiritual Development.

6. The remedies can give a person a false sense of confidence that all is well when it is not really so. This may sound minor, but it is not. No better example can be cited than chemotherapy for cancer. It does not cure the disease, but only disables it a little. This is not healing, but just suppression in most cases. It often comes back worse than ever and now cannot be addressed nearly as easily.

However, nutritional remedies or homeopathics can do the same thing.

7. There is value in discipline and learning how to eat and how to live, regardless of their value only for healing. This is a mental or spiritual benefit and reason for using a comprehensive healing program rather than a remedy.

We use remedies at times, but always in conjunction with a complete program for this very reason at times. Let us explain.

As a human being develops, learning good eating and living habits is part of a general process of discipline or self-control. This is an important value for a human being.

It is one of the reasons that working a job, for example, is better than having a check mailed to you each month without requiring any work or discipline on your part. In other words, there is value in living well or a well-tempered life.

Just using remedies gives people more license to live badly and to waste their substance and their life in too many cases. This is one reason the medical profession in America and elsewhere is failing miserably. They do not insist on much self-control and self-discipline.

WHEN SYMPTOMATIC METHODS ARE OKAY OR EVEN EXCELLENT

Symptomatic methods are good in a number of situations:

1. When one is following a deep healing program and symptoms crop up on the way. For example, one may not sleep well at times as the body changes at deep levels. If this occurs, one might take a simple sleep remedy and not worry about deeper causes of the sleep issue.

If, of course, the sleep problem continues, one might become a little concerned and check with a practitioner. However, in most cases it is just a temporary situation and a symptomatic remedy such as calcium and magnesium or L-tryptophan or valerian root or even a drug if all else fails can be used.

2. When one has a strictly self-limiting condition. These are the cases when one has a headache or upset stomach and it is definitely self-limiting, meaning it will clear up soon.

In these cases, taking a symptomatic remedy such as an aspirin for a headache or a Pepto-bismol for the stomach is not that bad. These are still not the best remedies as they both are toxic to some degree, but at least they will not severely unbalance the body if used only occasionally and are strictly for quick relief.

3. When one will not follow a deep healing program or does not know about deeper healing methods. This, unfortunately, describes many people in our society. Most are not aware of the alternatives to symptomatic medicine so they take whatever relief they can find.

Others are those who have essentially given up and don’t care about living any more. This is basically the only time I suggest using symptomatic remedies.

4. When a symptom is life-threatening, it must be handled first. Examples include an overwhelming infection, very high blood pressure, arrythmias, a large tumor that is blocking the intestines or some other vital organ, a blocked artery that is causing life-threatening complications or other similar situations.

This is where emergency medicine excels. In these cases, one must deal with the symptom first. Then, when the condition is stable, one may begin a balancing program to correct underlying problems.

5. Some use of symptomatic remedies may convince a patient that nutrition can be helpful. This is why we use them at times in nutritional balancing programs. We are careful, however, that any symptomatic approaches do not unbalance the oxidation rate or any of the ratios on a properly performed hair mineral analysis.

BALANCING METHODS

The opposite of symptomatic approaches include methods that balance the body at deeper levels. These are covered in other articles on this website such as Nutritional Balancing And Why I Recommend It.

It also includes spiritual development, as mentioned earlier. The purpose of this article is merely to help us distinguish these various approaches to healing.

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