The Root of the Problem
A woman I went to high school with just became a doctor. I know this because she’s my Facebook friend and for months I’ve been reading her status updates about her crazy residency hours, though I haven’t spoken to her in years. A few days ago, her status read something like this: “I’ve been coughing since August. It totally interferes with my quality of life and interrupts my visits with patients. It’s keeping me up at night. I’m basically addicted to Ricola and Cepacol. According to my doc my vocal cords and throat look pristine, so what’s the problem?”
I thought this was fascinating and sadly ironic. A doctor fresh out of med school who doesn’t understand why she has a chronic cough! Here was a real-life example of how our medical system, beginning with how we educate our doctors, is failing us. It’s obvious, no? Inflammation comes from infections caused by viruses, bateria, fungus, yeast, and parasites, as well as from nutritional deficiencies and toxicities, psychological stress, and environmental toxicity.
What’s the Problem?
I’m not a doctor, but when I hear that someone has a chronic cough that’s been going on for months, the first thing I wonder is how is she eating? If she’s eating a lot of sugar and carbs she’s feeding the virus and encouraging inflammation. The fact that she’s addicted to Ricola drops, which contain sugar, tell me that she’s coating her throat in a constant sugary syrup. Of course her cough isn’t healing! And both Ricola and Cepacol contain many potentially toxic chemical additives, which weaken the system and hinder the body’s ability to heal.
Since she’s a doctor, she’s also probably not getting enough sleep and is probably under significant stress, which taxes the adrenal glands and doesn’t allow the body the time or proper resources to heal. She needs to sleep more and find more time to relax.
The Root of the Problem
What’s disturbing here is that the doctors being churned out of med school today (or at any point in Western Medicine’s history) are not being taught to get to the root of illness with dietary changes, detoxification, and supplements to rebuild and regenerate the body. This all seems so simple to me! And yet, for various reasons that we could speculate about, from Big Pharma’s financial hold on medical schools, or the narrow belief that diet has little to do with illness, or a slew of other reasons, doctors are not being taught these very basic tools to address disease. Instead, new doctors with chronic coughs are popping chemically-laden cough drops and visiting their doctors, who are telling them they look fine.
A chronic cough is a red flag, an indication that a system is not in balance. And a doctor with a chronic cough who doesn’t understand why they have it is an indication of a medical system out of balance – one that’s failing it’s current and future patients by not teaching its doctors basic tenets of health.
What do you think?
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Hi,
Great posting. This is a classic example of where things go wrong and where the root cause isn’t touched but rather the symptoms or the surface expression of a more systemic problem.
It’s a reminder that we all need to create the deeper determinants of health and to engage with those root causes when we aren’t feeling well or when we have more systemic illness.
Best,
T