Wes is celebrating his 63rd birthday this week, and he complains to his friend that his joints feel achy every morning when he gets out of bed. “Oh, that’s normal,” he is reassured. “You’ll get used to it.” Suzanne is vexed by constant sneezing which occurs every year when she begins working in her garden, but she reminds herself that it’s just a normal reaction to the onset of spring. 3rd grader Joey has another cold, and his mother attributes it to the normal phenomenon of elementary schoolers spreading colds around the classroom three to four times a year. Malcolm is plagued with fatigue and agitation throughout the day and insomnia at night, but figures it’s normal to experience this because of the stress he faces at work.
There are hundreds more assumptions people make about what is normal. And millions of people downplay their symptoms every day, assuming they just have to live with the consequences of ageing, seasons, childhood, stress, or other compromising influences. But they are setting the bar for their state of health way too low. Achy joints are not normal for a 63-year-old man. But they are common. Allergies in the spring are not a normal reaction to pollen in the air, but they are very common. Frequent colds, in children or adults, are not normal at all. But they are certainly common. And while fatigue, agitation and insomnia can be common responses to stress, those manifestations are not normal.
There are underlying causes to each of these maladies which can be resolved in safe, effective, lasting ways. When you think about Wes, Suzanne, Joey and Malcolm in the fictitious examples above, consider that there are Naturopathic means to approach their ailments which don’t include taking an anti-inflammatory, or anti-histamine, or anti-biotic or anti-depressant. Those medications might alleviate their symptoms, but if they stopped taking them, those symptoms would return.
From a Naturopathic perspective, Wes’s achy joints are likely a result of inflammation, and there are many efficient ways to reduce inflammation throughout the body. Suzanne’s allergies reflect a hyper-reactive immune system, and there are ways to calm it down. Joey’s frequent colds can indicate an increased susceptibility, and it is possible for him to develop a stronger vitality that can resist the microbes surrounding us all, everywhere we go. And the havoc wreaked on Malcolm’s systems by prolonged stress can be eliminated by his addressing an adrenal dysfunction and engaging in practices that help him change how he perceives and manages that stress.
A Naturopathic approach to these common troubles can also promote improved health overall. Enlisting in a program which removes the problem by eliminating the cause means that instead of combatting the symptoms, you can fortify the underlying systems that need to heal. If you address your health concerns this way, you will find the added benefit of restoring your overall health to its optimal state.
There is not a simple one-size-fits-all solution to every health issue that might present itself. Each individual has his/her own unique history, vulnerabilities, habits and beliefs, and the confluence of all of these factors serves as a guide to the most appropriate and effective means to cure. So the next time you think your suffering is normal, something to be accepted or even expected, think again. Don’t settle for ‘common.’ The danger in accepting what’s ‘common,’ is that you forego your commitment to take responsibility for your own well-being and subscribe to practices that ignore the root cause of your complaint, sometimes doing more overall harm than good.
Just remember that ‘common’ does not mean ‘normal,’ and attaining and maintaining a healthy normal means you can not only overcome those symptoms plaguing you, but also realize your highest achievable state of health.
No matter what your chief complaint is, at Naturopathic Athlete your treatment will be based on the specifics of your history, your lifestyle, your experience of your symptoms -- in other words, your unique and total case. You will not be prescribed a common medication for a common condition. Usually, a set of random symptoms are not random at all, and can be traced back to simple or complex sources. At Naturopathic Athlete, Dr. Zorensky will partner with you to discover the triggering causes for your presenting complaints and work with you to address them as they relate to you specifically. By tending to these fundamental issues, you can mitigate the problems which stem from them with more enduring results.