Why western medicine fails to heal

Many of us are now waking up to how toxic the world truly is and how what we eat and what we do have a tremendous impact on our health and quality of life, but there are still so many people who rush to mask symptoms without looking deeper into what caused them in the first place.

Western medicine is largely to blame for this, providing people with medications for symptoms instead of helping them find the root cause, but the blame is also partly on a lot of society who don't want to change, despite their bodies telling them something is wrong.

So what exactly is the root cause approach? How can we get to the bottom of our health issues in a realistic way? Well that's exactly what we'll be covering today so let's dive in.

Band-aid solutions

When you start to feel something is wrong, symptoms are very helpful, you can diagnose yourself just from knowing them, but where most go wrong is in thinking that if they stop the symptom they've stopped the cause. Unfortunately we've been led to believe that headaches are normal to have often and you just need to take some paracetamol, or that skin issues are caused by external sources, or even that an autoimmune disorder has just started out of nowhere.

The problem with always masking symptoms with a band-aid is that you never know what is truly causing them, you just keep covering the symptom hoping it will go away. But this is a dangerous game. The more we mask symptoms and plod on as if nothing is wrong, the more our body is crying out for help, and other symptoms begin to propagate.

You've most likely heard from someone you know that they have to take one medication to counter the effects of another, but is this really something we should just accept? Or can we pay close attention to the symptoms and the lifestyle that led us there?

Some doctors will even tell pre-diabetic patients to start exercising more and clean up their diet, but the problem is the convenient option is right there and the lifestyle advice isn't very specific or helpful. Instead of using band-aids to cover ailments, we need to find the root cause.

Ancestral wisdom 

We haven't always held the idea that we should simply treat symptoms and ignore the root cause. Traditional Chinese medicine and many other ancestral approaches to illness, such as homeopathy, functional medicine, and naturopathy all place greater emphasis on the root cause of illness rather than masking symptoms.

You don't have to fully align with any one of them, but instead take what resonates from each, keeping the core message in focus, that is questioning what led to the illness or ailment in the first place. From nutrient deficiencies to withheld resentment, there are many root causes and ancestral wisdom has always been there to help us get to the bottom of our illnesses.

We used to instinctively know if we needed more sun, a sea swim, exercise, or more nutrient-dense food. The problem arose when we were told to avoid natural healers such as the sun and saturated fat, and instead defer to what western medicine decides is healthy. 

Daring to look deeper

The root cause approach to healing isn't an easy one, but it's one that focuses on true healing, not just making things on the surface appear fine. Start asking questions such as: has my diet been healthy? Have I moved my body enough? How many hours of screen time have I had? When was the last time I had a walk in nature without checking my phone? 

When we start asking these questions and answering them honestly, we can often gain real insight into why things haven't been so great health-wise. For example, if you've been having more headaches but haven't prioritised electrolytes or reduced screen time, those could be root causes.

Or if you've been bloated after every meal but are regularly eating ultra-processed food, again the root cause shows itself. If you've been sitting down a lot and noticed weight gain or a sore back, the root cause is a lack of movement.

As you can see, it's often not pretty, it means you need to look the root cause square in the eye and take responsibility. Refuse to accept the "that's just aging" or "that's just how things are" narrative. Instead, pay close attention to diet and lifestyle, begin to pick them apart, and see where you can realistically make changes.

Doing the best with what you can

Of course we cannot all lie on the beach and eat organic watermelon all day long (as nice as that would be). If you have an office job, ensuring your lifestyle outside of work and your diet at all hours is as good as possible is what matters.

Whether it's cost-related or time-related, making the best with what you have, is key. Being honest about where you could improve things, and ensuring your lifestyle also makes room for rest and fun, is again crucial to good health and getting to the bottom of the root causes of ailments.

Testing can also help you get to the bottom of things, hair, blood, urine, or stool tests, but often you can make a lot of progress health-wise simply by assessing your current diet and lifestyle and aligning them more closely with our ancestral ways. Things such as your job or where you live can take years to change, but never impossible to change.

Assessing your lifestyle

As mentioned above, our lifestyle is so often the cause of ill health. Yes, we live in a toxic world, but often we are our own worst enemies. When it comes to movement, screen time, use of toxins, alcohol consumption, and the way we use our time in general, all of these we can influence and begin to change the course of our health for the better.

When it comes to diet, we are what we eat, so ensuring we stick to organic whole foods as the basis of our diet and use superfoods as healers, will help us maintain a foundation of good health.

Whether you are trying to heal ailments, get back to a healthy weight, heal your skin, or gain more energy, the important thing to remember is that it takes time. Medications are often so enticing because they offer immediate relief, but this comes at the cost of never knowing what caused the ailment to begin with.

Healing your body requires patience, consistency, and above all a mindset that things will get better. Western medicine fails because it looks to mask symptoms while simultaneously creating new issues. The root cause approach is a tougher pill to swallow in theory, but it's one that offers true healing through diet and lifestyle.

Summary

Whether it's paying attention to the root cause of your headaches or getting to the bottom of a long-standing condition, finding the root cause is the way to truly heal. It is of course a daunting task and one that requires patience, but it is a path you will be glad you chose rather than opting to mask symptoms. 

Do the very best you can, research topics, and find what works for you, never listen to those who say certain ailments are just a part of aging, for they are not. If you have found the root cause and healed yourself, please let me know in the comments below, it could really help others on their journey!