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Jul 19,2005

Home : Medicine : Finding That Elusive Cause

Finding That Elusive Cause

by Dr. Joel Brame

Chapter 11 of Modern World, Modern Health By Joel E. Brame, ND, M.Ed.

A popular story in medical school goes like this:

A third year medical student and his professor took a walk by the river that flowed gently through the town park. As they were walking, the young student noticed something strange in the water. He quickly walked over to investigate and was horrified at what he saw: a person floating face down. As his professor stood watching, the student immediately rushed to action and jumped into the river. He grabbed the floating body and pulled it to shore, urgently beginning CPR. After about two minutes of intense CPR, the person miraculously started breathing again. The student was exhilarated that he had saved this person?s life, and exhausted from the effort. He was also quite proud of his performance in front of his professor.

While the student was recomposing himself, he looked towards the river and gave a gasp of surprise, another floating body! The student raced back down to the river and jumped in, pulling the body back to the shore. He then initiated another round of CPR. To his utter amazement, after a couple of minutes of CPR, the body came back to life. The student was flabbergasted, but was relieved that he had saved another person's life. He gave a worn-out smile to his professor, who was watching quietly nearby.

The professor then pointed towards the river. The student looked to where he was pointing: yet another floating body! The student performed the same process again, but this time a little slower. He was exhausted after the intensity of saving two people already. He pulled the body to shore, performed CPR, and brought the person back to life. This time, he yelled to the professor: "What's going on here? I keep saving people, but more bodies keep appearing."

The professor looked at the student and said, "Maybe you should go over there to the bridge and stop that man who keeps throwing people over the bridge into the river."

One of my mentors once told me, "Most people never really stop to consider the cause of their symptoms. They just ignore it, suppress it, or try to make it go away as quickly as possible. But for those who have had enough, the body gives a tremendous amount of exciting opportunity to learn more about ourselves."

I believe he was right. The more I learn about the causes of my symptoms, the more fascinated I become with how my body communicates with me.

I remember a recent evening when I had developed a headache. My first urge was to make it go away because, frankly speaking, it hurt! I was prepared to stop the headache using natural remedies that I had in my cabinet, some acupressure, or if necessary, an over-the-counter medicine. However, I decided this time I would bear the pain and seek out the cause. I wanted to know why it was there.

I lay down and mentally evaluated the two days before the headache. Had I hit my head on something? Had I gotten enough sleep? Had I been drinking enough water? Had I been drinking any wine? Had I been exposed to some chemicals? I went through a whole mental checklist, trying to find the cause. In doing so, I accidentally fell asleep. When I awoke twenty minutes later, the headache was gone! Surprised, I asked myself, "What does this mean?"

I realized that lack of sleep was indeed the cause. I had been going to bed a little later than usual for the previous few nights. I concluded that my neurotransmitters were deficient, which likely also affected my body's mineral and electrolyte balance. These imbalances caused the headache.
I share this story because it exemplifies how much easier healing can be when we get to the true cause. I could have easily loaded up my body with medicines (natural and otherwise), applied some manual therapy or acupuncture, or done some other expensive treatment plan. But instead, a short nap was all I needed.

Those who maintain great health and vitality frequently seek to identify the causes of their symptoms. They value awareness of their body, then educate themselves on the possible causes of each symptom. Sometimes they consult with a professional to help them find the cause when it is harder to pinpoint, as in a cause on the energetic level. But once they have found and treated the cause, the symptom goes away on its own without any direct intervention, just like my headache went away simply by taking a nap.
"How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?"

I have met many people who never think about the causes. They bounce around from symptom to symptom, disease to disease, without a good sense of what it all means. But when they finally decide to listen to their body, a whole new world opens up to them. This world offers them the hope that they can finally achieve the level of health they crave but were never able to achieve.

A common example of this principle involves chronic ear infections in children. Do you know of a child who has taken numerous antibiotics for an ear infection, only to watch the infection come back again and again? I have seen parents in this situation. They try a variety of different drugs and supplements to help their child. But they express great surprise when I tell them of a much simpler solution: stop feeding the child milk products. They no longer need to spend money on supplements or medications because the child?s ear infections stop. The parents can rest more easily knowing they do not need to medicate their child.

Indeed, each of us can choose to go very deep with our analysis of the cause of a symptom. With the assistance of a healthcare professional, especially one holistically trained, we can trace a symptom back to its original cause. This is a rewarding and revealing process. It takes time, though. Patience and an open mind are critical for success, but the insights gained can move even the biggest cynic. Let's explore another common example: allergies.

Allergies
I have talked with many holistically-minded people who suffer from allergies. Most of them have common allergy symptoms including sneezing, itchy watery eyes, and runny noses. With their holistic therapy, these people claim to be treating the cause of their allergies. They honestly believe they are treating the cause, but in many cases they are not. Even holistic therapies, if not treating the cause, will only cover up symptoms.
In the case of allergies, the true cause is a chain of several steps. Going back to the beginning of this chain will reveal the original cause. This discovery can be quite moving for the patient. Let me illustrate this:

Steps To An Ailment

The story of Robert demonstrates how this chain of events leads to allergies. I will break down his experience into steps in order to illustrate this process.

Step 1: Robert is a 45 year-old business executive with a highly stressful job and three young children at home. He does not take time to relax or sleep properly. He therefore suffers from chronic stress and sleep deprivation. This stress puts a great demand on his adrenal glands (which help the body cope with stress), eventually exhausting them after many years.

Step 2: The adrenal glands are responsible for much of the body's energy production. The creation of stomach acid demands a large amount of that energy. With chronic stress, Robert?s stomach eventually does not produce sufficient hydrochloric acid because it lacks the energy for this process.

Step 3: With insufficient stomach acid production, digestion is poor. In fact, the digestion of proteins is not completed in the stomach as it should be. Large polypeptides (partially digested proteins) move through the stomach and into the small intestine, where they cause inflammation (due to immune reactions to the polypeptides).

Step 4: Over time, the inflammation erodes the mucous membrane lining in the small intestine. Normally, this mucous membrane protects the cells of the small intestine like a sealant on wood flooring. But when it has been eroded from inflammation, the small intestine walls then develop gaps between the cells. The undigested polypeptides squeeze through these gaps and directly enter the bloodstream.

Step 5: Once in the general bloodstream, the polypeptides receive attacks by the immune system because they should not be there in the first place and are therefore considered foreign elements in the body (remember, they were supposed to have been digested by the stomach). The immune system becomes overly sensitized to these and similar proteins, including those that we inhale. So it then goes on a rampage and begins to attack proteins that we breathe in (such as pollen) and ingest (such as wheat gluten), thus creating an allergic response.

Step 6: Robert suffers from seasonal allergies.

One does not need a medical degree to understand the principles behind this sequence. Just as only the tip of the iceberg juts out of the water, the seasonal allergies are just the surface problem. There is so much more beneath the surface.
To continue the story, Robert then goes to a holistic practitioner who decides to treat the cause, rather than just hide the allergies. Possible treatment approaches under this category can include:
1. Break apart undigested proteins in the bloodstream with protease enzymes
2. Supplement with hydrochloric acid capsules during meals to aid digestion of proteins
3. Support the adrenal glands to provide more energy to the whole body
4. Decrease stress levels and help Robert learn coping strategies

With any of these approaches, the superficial allergic symptoms will eventually subside.

Approach #1 alone will help quickly resolve the allergy symptoms, but will do nothing to address the stress levels or the stomach acid problem. On the other hand, approach #4 will address the deepest cause, but will take longer for its effects to reach the surface symptom level.

As my mentor once told me, "Seek the deepest possible cause for your illness, for that is where the deepest healing will occur." I encourage the same with my patients. With the collaboration of a healthcare provider, they can go far down the rabbit hole and discover an abundance of information about themselves.

How deep can one go? The bottom row of the pyramid diagram above represents the original, true cause of illness. You will know you have reached the true cause when you can no longer ask the question, "Why?"
For example, if you have high blood pressure, you could ask "Why?" and discover that a magnesium deficiency is involved. Then you could ask, "Why do I have a magnesium deficiency?" and discover that you are taking a medication that can create a magnesium deficiency (such as cortisone and some antibiotics), thus inhibiting your body's access to the magnesium that you eat. At that level, it becomes difficult to go any deeper. So the solution may very well be simple: stop taking those magnesium-depleting medications.

In my opinion, this is the thought pattern that every patient and doctor can use for every symptom. I constantly try to think about cases by asking the question "Why?" until I can go no further.

After years of analyzing cases, I have come to the conclusion that there are six major causes of illness that lie within the base of the triangle diagram. The six causes are:
1. Stress
2. Genetics
3. Trauma (physical or mental/emotional)
4. Infection
5. Dietary deficiencies and excesses
6. Environmental toxicity (radiation and chemicals)

Primary point: While the true cause of a symptom may not be apparent, take the time to discover it. This exercise is well worth the effort.

Joel E. Brame, ND, M.Ed.

Copyright 2005 by Joel Brame.
Visit http://www.joelbrame.com/ for your copy of Modern World, Modern Health and more health information from Dr. Brame. Click here to view Dr. Brame's bio in the personality section.

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