Do You Want To Get Well?

Do you want to get well?

Imagine your car making a horrific screeching sound every time you turned it. Obviously, something is wrong, so you take it to the expert who knows how to assess and diagnose the problem: your trusted mechanic. Imagine getting a call later that afternoon and the mechanic says to you, “I was able to isolate where the noise was coming from…” You’d be thinking, “Great! What a relief!” Well, what if he went on to say, “I was able to isolate where the noise was coming from and I sprayed A LOT of WD40 on it and now it doesn't squeak!” ……….

Confused would probably be an understatement for how you would be feeling. You’d probably be wondering, how does spraying a lubricant on the squeak fix the problem? Doesn't it just mask what the actual problem is? Truth is, you'd be right. It just fixes the symptom of the problem. In reality, you would probably get into a little bit of a debate with the mechanic about how he chose to go about “fixing” the problem. However, isn't it strange that often our healthcare system does something similar? Often it’s all about treating the symptoms, yet instead of questioning things, we just say thank you and go about our day.

Like the mechanic in the scenario, we have a healthcare system in which providers are trained to treat symptoms of diagnoses, not dysfunctions. Any provider would tell you that we get very little education and training on lifestyle modifications for people’s health. Yes, we know that fruits and veggies are good, we all need adequate sleep and should strive to keep stress down. We know all of that, and that is verbatim what we share with our patients, but it doesn't really stretch much past that. In reality it is kind of ironic because more education and coaching on topics like these is exactly what our patients need. Instead, what we are trained on is medications, and though some of them can be helpful, most of these medications are not treating the root cause of the issue.

That’s why I love functional medicine. It’s all about the root cause.

It’s about being proactive about your health, eating real food, and getting regular exercise. It’s about asking the tough questions: Why do I need to take this medication? Are there other options instead of this pill? Is this really a lifelong problem? How does what I am eating (or not eating) contribute to my health? Are there symptoms that I have that have just been written off as aging or menopause or stress? How does my environment, job, relationships, and other exposures relate to my health situation? These are all valid questions and actually get to the root of what’s going on!

Now, functional medicine isn't for the faint of heart. Once you start getting into the root cause of the dysfunction in your health, you can expect to spend a good amount of time, energy and effort to get better. This is why functional medicine isn’t necessarily for every one…yet. I say “yet” because the principles are for everyone, but not everyone is ready to put in the time and make the changes. There is also still a lot of global education that needs to happen, so not everyone is at the same point on their health journey, and that's ok! At the end of the day, it’s all about taking steps to achieve the level of health you are wanting to achieve.

One of my favorite passages in the bible is John chapter 5:1-8. Jesus walks into the pool of Bethsadia and he has an encounter with a man that the Bible says had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. Now, this pool was known and believed to have healing abilities and so people with different ailments would often lay by the pool waiting for the waters to stir hoping to get in before they stopped, in doing so, aspiring to get the healing they craved. Then in 5:6, John records this: “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’”

Think about that question - Do you want to get well? He asks a man who had been paralyzed for THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS if he wanted to get better. Of course he did!! But what’s interesting is the man immediately starts rattling off excuses. “No one will help me down there! Other people get there first and beat me to it!” How often do we do the same thing with our health? I can't lose weight. I love food too much. Everyone in my family had this issue. But they told me I have “X” diagnosis. This situation will always be the case for me. So on and so forth…

I feel like God is often looking at us and asking us the same question - “Do you want to get well?” And after the excuses, we are often met with the same answer that he gave to this man as well: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” (5:8). Or in other words, take some initiative, do what you know you need to do and believe that it can happen. Too often we are worried about not achieving the results when we haven't really even begun to do anything in the first place.

So no more treating symptoms. Let's get to the root cause of your dysfunction. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I ask you the same question Jesus asked: do you want to get well? Like the man at the pool, maybe it's time you pick up the excuses or whatever has been holding you back and start making the changes you need to make, one step at a time.

Be well!

Zach