HEALING VERSUS SYMPTOM REMOVAL

DEEP HEALING VERSUS SYMPTOM REMOVAL

by Lawrence Wilson, MD

Deep healing is quite different from symptom removal. Symptom removal is the type of doctoring offered by the medical profession and by most holistic doctors as well. Symptoms are the focus, by and large, and the goal is to make them go away. The problem is that symptoms often point to deeper imbalances that are not usually not addressed.
Deep healing is a much more profound process. It has to do with restoring the body to its former state of health. This means restoring its energy production system, its oxidation rate, its minerals ratios and much more.

Healing therefore usually takes longer and involves lifestyle changes as well. It is more work for both the client and the practitioner. Lifestyle, in fact, is always central and this is a good way to tell if your doctor is focused on symptoms or on deeper healing. In the long run, however, it saves time and lots of money, and may save your life as well.

The nutrition and lifestyle programs I design are for healing. They are described in other articles on this website such as Nutritional Balancing And Why I Recommend It. Symptom removal occurs as a “side effect“ of these programs. I know that many people do not want healing, and just prefer a quick fix. I understand and accept this, but in this article I want to help the reader to understand why healing is so much better.

WHAT DOES DEEP HEALING INVOLVE?

Healing involves the following:

1) Improving Protein Synthesis and Genetics. Everyone is born with some mutated DNA today due to radiation that is everywhere on earth. This is due to the use of radioactive materials in A-bomb tests, ammunition, medical x-rays and many other natural sources of radiation as well.

Each of us is then exposed to ionizing radiation and toxic chemicals that can cause genetic damage. As mutated cells reproduce, more tissue is affected until illness manifests. Nutritional balancing programs help reverse this process of degeneration. In particular, ingesting kelp daily for about a year or more, and the daily use of an electric light sauna for several years, can slowly eliminate radioactive metals from the body and destroy mutated cells to prevent them from reproducing.

2) Removing Two Dozen Toxic Metals And Hundreds Or Perhaps Thousands Of Harmful Chemicals From The Body. Everyone is exposed to thousands of times the amount of toxic metals as has occurred in past generations. This is due to industrial use of toxic metals, coal-burning power plant emissions, sealed buildings and household and office chemicals that are everywhere, particularly in cities and in some occupations such as builders and plumbers.
Toxic metals replace vital minerals in enzyme binding sites, leading to impaired functioning of the enzymes. Toxic chemicals bind to receptor sites and interfere with metabolic processes in many other ways that lead to impaired health.
Nutritional balancing and detoxification with near infrared light sauna therapy, enemas and other methods will slowly remove accumulated toxic chemicals and heavy metals from the body.

3) Replenishing Dozens Of Essential Nutrients. Depleted soil, use of hybrid crops, chemical agriculture, poor quality refined food diets, poor eating habits and stressful lifestyles contribute to widespread nutrient deficiencies in the population. Most children are born with nutritional imbalances due to imbalances in the parents. Nutrient deficiencies are subtle at times, and result in a multitude of health conditions.
Replenishing all the vital minerals takes several years, at least, as the body has buffering systems to prevent excessive absorption of any nutrient. Tissue mineral analysis, when done by a laboratory that does not wash the hair and interpreted properly, can help guide the design of nutrition programs to slowly replace nutrients without upsetting body chemistry. Lifestyle changes are also often essential to reduce stress and improve food choices, shopping and cooking practices, and eating habits.

4) Eliminating Infections (Biological Toxins). In my experience. most people have half a dozen or more chronic infections. Over half the population has some degree of overgrowth of intestinal candida albicans and other intestinal pathogens. Tooth and gum infections are also very common and can cause serious health problems.

Most infections in the body produce toxins called endotoxins and exotoxins. These circulate in the blood and can contribute to many conditions such as post-nasal drip, headaches, chronic pain bloating, fatigue and hundreds of others.
With nutritional balancing, In most cases antibiotics, antifungal and anti-parasite herbs or drugs are not required to clear these infections. Enhancing the body’s energy, improving circulation, replenishing nutrients and eliminating toxic substances improves infection-fighting ability and removes cellular debris on which the organisms feed.

5) Balancing The Autonomic Nervous System. Most people have overused their sympathetic nervous system, also called the fight-or-flight system. This system suppresses the immune system and suppresses digestion, assimilation of nutrients and elimination of waste products. The result is poor health.
Reducing sympathetic nervous system activity through nutritional balancing, sauna therapy again, lifestyle changes and stress reduction beneficially affects the autonomic balance and general health.

6) Mental And Emotional Healing. Many types of mental and emotional healing occur with nutritional balancing. These include releasing emotional traumas, reducing the impact of negative situations, reducing emotional excesses and improving cognition, memory and many other mental faculties. For instance, many people today suffer from brain fog, depression, anxieties, panic attacks, phobias. Most of these respond exceedingly well in a short period of time to correction with nutritional balancing. This field I call medical psychology.

Another level at which we work is to help a person let go of false ideas such as cynicism, hatred, arrogance and guilt. These can be every bit as toxic as physical poisons. I also assist people let go of toxic emotions including anger, resentment, unfounded fears and envy. These also activate the sympathetic nervous system and deplete vital nutrients.
Many therapies including meditation, counseling, nutritional correction, color therapy, bodywork and others can help release toxic ideas and emotions.

7) Mental Development. Healing also involves the total development of a human being’s potential. This goes very far beyond symptom removal and is covered in separate articles such as one entitled Mental Development.

The goal is to develop all of our latent talents and abilities. These are vast, as we know from some of the few who have gone on to develop them. In other words, we are not here just to eat, work, sleep and raise families, though all these activities are fine.

This aspect of healing requires meditation and a more strict diet and lifestyle, but not anything unpleasant, in my view. It is a slow process in most people.

DEFINITION OF SYMPTOMATIC METHODS

There is much confusion about what constitutes symptomatic healing. This section explains it in more detail. I will begin with definitions.

Symptomatic as used in this article 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 may be 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. For example, cancer statistics are quoted in terms of five year survival. This only means the person is alive, and nothing else. The quality of life may be poor, the cancer may be growing elsewhere and death may come the following day or week. But for now, the symptom is gone!

3. Symptomatic methods are popular, in part, because they are based on observable phenomena. Methods that balance the body such as nutritional balancing are far more difficult to actually evaluate, especially in the early stages of a person’s healing and development. Later on, the benefits are obvious in better overall health and general well-being.

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 mainly to relieve symptoms, from headaches to heart attacks.

The exception is some forms of surgery to repair broken bones, for example. These go to the problem itself and correct it once and for all. However, this type of surgery is not the most common type. Most is to relieve blocked arteries, remove tumors and other more symptomatic corrective procedures.

Allopathic drugs are heavily advertised and some seem to work well. However, their 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 nature and inadequacies of this method of healing.

Most holistic, naturopathic, homeopathic, herbal healing is also often symptomatic, although less so in some cases than drug medicine. Most holistic and natural practitioners use less toxic remedies such as herbs, vitamins, or homeopathic remedies. However, most still focus on symptoms. An exception is acupuncturists, Rolfers, structural integration, foot reflexologists, competent chiropractic, and a few others.

This, in my mind, is unfortunate, but understandable since the deeper methods of correcting the stress response, for example, and deep removal of toxic metals are rarely mentioned in naturopathic, homeopathic, or herbal colleges today.

The natural methods are much better than highly toxic and costly drug medical care, but often leave much to be desired because they are still so symptomatically based. They are best, however, if one wishes a purely symptomatic approach.

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.
Alternatively, one can 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 is 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 do a quick physical and just give a painkiller. This is mainly symptomatic, since the doctor did 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 thorough and complete physical examination to determine if the leg is broken, out of joint or something else is wrong before prescribing any remedy.

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.

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 are simple. This means they are largely superficial and easily understood by doctors and patients alike. Balancing methods like nutritional balancing and acupuncture are more difficult for many people and physicians to comprehend and to practice, as well.

2. Drug companies and hospitals love them. This is sadly the case because the patients never really get well. They always come back with the next symptom or problem, so it is good for business. Even the socialized medical systems of Europe, Canada and elsewhere continue this stupid and costly methods of drug medicine.

However, a warning is in order. Most holistic physicians are still recommending symptomatic treatments, in my estimation. Among these are chelation therapy, bio-identical or natural hormone replacement therapy and even vitamin and herbal treatments. Homeopathy 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. Many feel they simply cannot stay in business if they truly healed people. Therefore, no matter what they profess, they are less interested in deeper balancing methods that actually heal the patient at deep levels. However, overall they are much better than conventional medical doctors I have met.

3. Symptomatic approaches ask very little of the patient in most cases. The person is allowed to keep eating junk food, skip adequate rest and sleep and ignore the problems in their lives.

PROBLEMS WITH SYMPTOMATIC APPROACHES

1. Superficiality. This means that dealing mainly with symptoms does not really tell us much about underlying causes of the problem.

2. Cost. All modern health care systems in the world are in serious financial trouble because they are largely based on symptomatic healing approaches. The patients don’t get well at a deep level. Instead, they often become more ill from the drug side effects and the fact that the underlying imbalances are not corrected or even addressed.

The situation will only get worse until symptomatic medicine is abandoned in favor of deeper healing and balancing the body, and then later in favor of spiritual development.

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. It is impossible to just change one part of the body without affecting the rest of it. Thus, 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”.

While some adverse effects are of little consequence, others kill people every day, though most people do not realize this and neither do most doctors. This problem can also occur with so-called “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, for example, and all are somewhat toxic. For more about this important topic, read Natural Hormone Replacement Therapy on this website.

4. They tend to mask deeper problems by eliminating warning symptoms. 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.

5. Little or no mental or spiritual development. This occurs for several reasons. First, general health usually gets worse with symptomatic treatment, even if one feels better. Filling the body with drugs does not improve health in most cases, even if the headaches are gone and even if the blood pressure is lower.

In addition, by asking little of the client, one misses a benefit of true healing. This benefit occurs in the process of digging deeper and correcting underlying imbalances in our bodies.

Deeper healing is the slow, gentle unraveling of layers of imbalances that may be physical, emotional, mental and other levels of our bodies that cause superficial and other symptoms. This process, all by itself, tends to improve many qualities and teaches discipline, patience, persistence, honesty and other important mental and emotional skills and attributes that tend to build health on a longer-term basis.

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.

Symptomatic nutritional remedies, herbal treatments or homeopathics can do the same thing, by the way.

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 a person 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 it seems strange to them and they prefer a simple pill or operation to changing their diet and lifestyle and other procedures needed to rebuild the entire system. Others are those who have essentially given up and don’t care about living any more. They are often just looking for a quick fix and are not interested in a deep healing program. Others may not be able to follow a nutritional balancing program for other reasons including financial ones, lack of support from family or friends, or others.

4. When a symptom is life-threatening, it may need to be handled first. Examples include an overwhelming infection, very high blood pressure, severe cardiac arrhythmia, any cancer (see #6 below), 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 symptomatic approaches do not unbalance the oxidation rate or any of the major mineral ratios on a properly performed hair mineral analysis.

6. For active cancers. In these cases, one should do a program to stop the cancer, rather than only nutritional balancing. This may be said to be a symptomatic treatment, since it is aimed at a particular symptom. For example, I recommend the Kelley metabolic cancer therapy. It is a powerful general cleansing therapy that will benefit many conditions, in fact. However, it is still aimed at cancer, and in this sense it is symptomatic to a degree and will not go as deep as nutritional balancing, which should be done after a cancer is no longer present or at least has been slowed down or stopped in its development.

7. Possibly some other advanced diseases may respond better to a more symptomatic approach than to nutritional balancing, though I do not have enough experience with them to say definitely. These might include diseases of mental exhaustion such as advanced multiple sclerosis. Early cases do very well with nutritional balancing, however.

Other include late cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and maybe late stage cases of Parkinson’s disease and other brain diseases and dementias.

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