Imagine this. You’re at your annual check-up and suddenly your doctor tells you that you have high blood pressure, diabetes, or even cancer.
Maybe you’re shocked. Maybe you were expecting some bad news about your health. Either way, I’m sure a lot of feeling would come up for you.
Now imagine that after your doctor tells you this unpleasant news, they pat you on the back, and then send you home with an indefinite prescription for… band-aids.
That would be insane, right?
But that’s exactly what’s happening across our country every day as more people are diagnosed with chronic diseases.
Because instead of treating the source of these illnesses our current medical system encourages and expects physicians to control symptoms with prescription drugs. Prescriptions that might mask your symptoms, but don’t come close to treating the real cause of your disease.
As a doctor, I see the incongruent relationship between advances in medical treatments and the number of people suffering from chronic disease every day. You would expect that since we live in the golden age of medicine, fewer people would be diagnosed with things like hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. Right?
But as treatments improve and knowledge about health, wellness, and medicine increase, the number of us diagnosed with chronic diseases only seem to rise.
What’s going on? And what can you do about it?
Prescription medicine is great… except when we use it as a way to avoid true, long-term healing. Don’t get me wrong – sometimes, prescription medicines are not only the best way to treat a problem – they’re the only way. Like with cases of Hepatitis C or strep throat.
But most chronic diseases can’t be cleared up with medications like strep throat can.
I treat chronic disease every day. But as someone who used to have diabetes and used to take prescription medication to manage my chronic disease, I can honestly say that as a culture, it’s time to think more seriously about a holistic approach to wellness. (No, this isn’t leading to a some woo-woo, drink-more-green-smoothies advice.)
A holistic approach to wellness focuses on complete healing. Not just finding temporary relief through medication.
So when I do meet patients with chronic disease, I use a “band-aid” approach when determining how prescription medicine fits into their treatment plan.
If your blood pressure is 203/119 then YES, we need to bring it down. And I’m going to give you a prescription to help do that ASAP. But that’s the temporary fix until we can address the underlying cause of your disease.
Study after study has proven that lifestyle choices have a direct impact on your health. Maybe you need to quit smoking. Maybe you need to eat more fruits and vegetables. Maybe you need to start walking for 15 minutes a day. And most importantly, maybe you need to reduce chronic stress in your life.
To reclaim health and wellness and eliminate preventable chronic disease, we have to learn to look at our symptoms as the body’s clues to what’s going on inside. The symptom isn’t the problem – it’s the body trying to get you to pay attention to the real problem so you’ll fix it. Symptoms can lead us to the root causes of disease… and to the ultimate cure.
Prescription medicine will help you feel better but it won’t put you on the road to wellness… especially if you suffer from chronic disease. We need to be honest with ourselves and see these prescription drugs for what they are: band-aids to use while we adjust our lifestyles to eliminate chronic disease for good.
You have so much more power to control your health, wellness, disease, and quality of life than you realize.
And if you’re reading this, then there’s a good chance that you’re ready to take the first step to reclaim your health.
Just take 2 minutes right now and think about how you can make one simple change to improve your diet, exercise routine, approach to stress management today. It might save your life.
Remember..You are health,
Dr. Kien
PS — Have you ever been treated for a chronic disease? If so, leave a comment below and tell me how you’re managing it, or how you found a way to change your lifestyle and heal your chronic disease.
