Most people decide to see a health practitioner, such as a nutritional therapist, when they are unwell. Often this is a last resort, because their doctor has been unsuccessful in treating their health issues, so they decide to take a different approach.
Many people’s concept of health care, is that they seek professional help when they’re sick, and once they get well again, they have no need to see a practitioner. They return to their previous lifestyles and don’t think about their health until they get sick again.
This is not health care. This is sick care.
So what is healthcare?
Healthcare is about reaching for more health, more vitality, more vibrancy. It’s about keeping your body balanced, and correcting imbalances BEFORE they become illnesses.
We’re constantly changing from one month to the next. What worked for us last month, last year, or even yesterday, may not work for us today.
We fluctuate.
We go through stress.
Sometimes we have lots of free time, then we struggle to find time.
We eat healthily, then we don’t.
We wish we could find our balance.
Our weight fluctuates, along with our moods.
We feel energised, then exhausted.
How balanced do you feel?
Hormones; moods; weight; food choices; sugar cravings; alcohol intake; habits; emotions; energy levels; stress response… there are many aspects to that elusive concept of balance.
The thing is, all of these factors are the factors that lead to dis-ease.
Imbalanced hormones lead to all manner of conditions, such as PCOS or hypothyroidism; mood disorders make every part of our lives worse; sugar cravings keep us addicted to unhealthy foods and put us into a pre-diabetic state; low energy indicates many underlying issues, like adrenal fatigue, or post viral fatigue, or simply lack of nutrients; and our stress levels affect every part of our health from sleep, to emotions, to cravings to relationships. Stress, if unchecked and chronic, as in most people, goes on to create all manner of imbalances in our bodies. Bodies that are simply not designed for the modern day pressures.
The wellness model:
- Regular reassessment
- Individualised support
- Diet
- Exercise
- Mind and spirit
- Physical structure
- Supplementation
Optimal health and vitality = physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.
“Normal” health = minor health problems, poor energy, impaired digestion, stress symptoms, weight gain.
Functional impairment = fatigue, digestive disorders, obesity, thyroid dysfunction, mood disorders, reproductive problems.
Disease = chronic disease, diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis, cancer, osteoporosis, autoimmunity.
Individualised wellness programs are the way forward
Wellness for weight maintenance
Wellness for pregnancy
Wellness for children
Wellness for fertility
Wellness for cardiovascular health
Wellness for stress reduction
Wellness for energy
Wellness for oestrogen dominance
Wellness for chronic disease
Wellness.
Not illness, wellness.
Changing paradigms
- We don’t have a healthcare system, we have a disease care system
- Patients expect a pill for an ill
- Patients hand over power and responsibility to their doctor
- We seek help once we are ill
Wellness medicine
EVERY HUMAN BEING HAS AN ABILITY TO HEAL AND REPAIR.
EVERYTHING YOU DO AFFECTS YOU IN TWO WAYS – EITHER ALLOWS YOUR BODY TO HEAL, REPAIR, CLEAN AND DETOXIFY OR YOU CHALLENGE THIS ABILITY.
Wellness medicine reflects a “systems biology” approach to healthcare – a comprehensive analysis of how the complex systems of the human body interact functionally with the environment over time.
The conventional system of medicine focuses on the physiology and function of individual organs, cells and molecules, placing attention on only one component of various biological systems at a time.
In clinical practice, this process usually leads to confusion, because a patient NEVER presents with series of individual, compartmentalised, discrete entities. They have an interacting series of signs and symptoms of varying degrees of severity and duration, from headaches to irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis or eczema.
Individualised medicine works
Understanding how an individual may have come to be expressing a particular dysfunction in their body is part of the wellness model. It’s more important than simply isolating that symptom, giving it a name, and then trying to suppress it. The wellness model does it differently.
One hundred people may walk into a clinic with a headache. Each of those people have different reasons why their headache occurred.
That’s one hundred different contributing factors for a headache. Each one unique to each individual.
There simply isn’t one pill for every ill.
You have to address the underlying factors.
Your choices:
- Ignore your body’s sign and symptoms until dis-ease sets in
- Treat your signs and symptoms with relief care
- Reduce or minimise the contributing factors/stressors
- Support the body’s ability to resist and adapt to the contributing factors/stressors
- Learn the importance of living an optimum health lifestyle without signs or symptoms
Our bodies are infinitely intelligent and are constantly communicating with us.
Are you listening to yours?
Article by Jo Rowkins, nutritional therapist and founder of Awakening Health.