Attention to detail

Symptoms aren’t just something that you can put aside or ignore. Symptoms occur, not because something small occurred at that point in time, but because it became something that your body couldn’t handle fast enough, and ended up reaching the surface. It is very important to understand that before you ever started to notice any symptoms, something was brewing underneath without you noticing. Sometimes it takes years for a symptom to surface up. Other times it can take days. And sometimes they can occur within hours to minutes.

For those who have never experienced anything grievous, it is easy to pass things off as nothing. And many times, once we start feeling even just a little better, we become just as careless. Times like these, however, are not the time that you should be passing things off as nothing. Times like these are when you should be paying the most attention—attention to every little cry for help that your body makes. Symptoms are a guiding light that help lead the way to the source of the problem. Nevertheless, because of how complex the body is, it is not necessarily straightforward.

An intricate system

Every organ in the body not only has their own role to play, they also depend on the others to accomplish what they can’t. Each are really great at what they do. All the organs work together to help maintain homeostasis. As such, if one of them fails, there is no real replacement for it. When one organ struggles, the rest are generally burdened as a result. While the body has multiple ways of dealing with any, one problem, some methods are just more efficient than others.

Because there is no real replacement of parts during failure, a good place to start when searching for the source of any problem is the area that is in the worst condition. Even in the case where the symptoms are misleading, it is better to start with the area in the worst condition than no place at all. It must be emphasized, however, that the goal of chasing symptoms should never be to address the symptom. The goal of chasing symptoms should always be under the intent of finding the cause of the symptoms. You shall by no means exercise tunnel vision during your search for a cause. Granted, this is easier said than done.

Depending on your current state of health and on the problem itself, you may not immeidately experience any noticeable symptoms, if at all any. The problem may even resolve itself before you ever notice anything. The body is always working towards homeostasis. The fact that the body has several ways to deal with many problems and even do so fairly efficiently is what permits you to live your life feeling care free, and is what permits for carelessness. Yet, despite these facts, symptoms still occur in many people, especially in those who were overly careless. It is because of how well a job the body does at tending towards homeostasis that makes it difficult to diagnose a problem. Albeit, a person’s carelessness tends to assist in diagnosing a problem.

Posteriori knowledge

Having experience with disease will make the search for a cause a lot easier. This is especially true where symptoms can be misleading, like in a lot of skin-related diseases. Of course, experience can potentially induce tunnel vision—of which should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, many, if not most, doctors are not experienced with disease. At least in Western medicine, medical practice involves experience with medicine and the management of disease. As such, finding the root of a problem is often not the main concern.

For those who are experienced with disease, it is helpful to note that a lot of problems were and are sourced in the gut, if not the entire digestive system. A lot of these problems include skin-related diseases, liver diseases, neurological disorders, and many other health-related problems. If you believe the body to be an intricate system, how much more the digestive system! If you can’t determine the area in the worst condition and medical tests are not providing any insight, try starting with the gut. Even if you do have a general idea of the problem or on where to look, you might find that focusing on diet and the gut to also be significantly beneficial.

In cases where diet doesn’t seem to be doing anything, it is possible that you have no idea what constitutes a healthy diet or it could be that the source of your problem is in the gut or the entire digestive system. Though, it could also be a combination of both. A lot of information on the internet pertaining to what constitutes a healthy diet merely just parrots what other people say who themsevles don’t know much about healthy eating, let alone how the entire system works in regards to food. These days there is enough information from trustworthy and authoritative sources that there really isn’t any reason for anyone to be ignorant about these things.

A call for experimentation

Tunnel vision is perhaps the greatest hinderance to any form of progress. Even this very article runs the risk of inducing tunnel vision. You have to chase symptoms in hopes of finding a cause. You have to conduct much research and run many tests in hopes of receiving insight and understanding (though many, if not most, tests are incapable of asserting health, given how amazing the body is at tending towards homeostasis). Yet, if you fail to do this one thing you run the risk of suffering from significant tunnel vision: You must experiment.

Don’t just rely on what your doctors tell you. Don’t just rely on authoritative and trustworthy sources. Don’t just focus on symptoms. Pay attention to what makes you feel better, and pay attention to what makes you feel worse. Granted, the worse you get the easier it will become to diagnose the problem, but the goal is to get better not worse. Do not let yourself succumb to tunnel vision. Question every assumption.

Get in the habit of questioning everything, even any new insights you may receive. Get in the habit of identifying your assumptions. Get in the habit of putting everything to the test. Granted, you run the risk of getting worse in the process, but any experience gained will work to pay that off. And if you have nothing to lose, experimentation is better than doing nothing.

Write things down if you have to, whether it be research notes, symptoms, achievements, failures, dosages, products, diets, sleep patterns, bowel movements, the quality of your poop, the appearance of your urine, the color of your skin and eyes, etc, etc, etc. Having a quick place to fallback on and even to bring into question will prove very helpful. Even if they may seem small at the time, they might just provide incredible insights in the future. Get in the habit of paying attention to detail. Your body will thank you for it in the end.