Medical Science gives me a headache sometimes. It appears any more that they rarely look for the cause of your symptoms nor have a true causative agent for almost anything. Not even the “common cold” (more on that below). For example: look up “dry eyes” on the internet. Better yet, look up “dry eyes cause” and you’ll get such unrelated things as how to treat dry eyes, and the utterly ludicrous statement that “dry eyes is caused by insufficient production of tears.” (Gee, Really?)
Holy Double-Talk, Batman! That’s not a cause. That’s a symptom. From the name, one might even assume it’s the symptom. In fact, one might even short-hand that to “dry eyes.”
I see this constantly in “medicine.” What to me is just another symptom is actually being addressed, labelled and marketed as a primary diagnosis.
Example: bronchitis. Bronchitis, which if you know any Latin at all (don’t worry, that’s not really Latin; it’s only medical Latin, which is a unique beastie unto itself) means “inflammation of the bronchi” or air passages. That’s a symptom! Something causes that, such as an environmental or food allergy, car exhaust, etc. Inflammation is never a cause — it’s a symptom. It’s the body’s reaction to some thing. To What, is the question!
Ah, but wait! It’s not a symptom any more; it’s now a primary diagnosis. (Comes with steak knives, too.)
Bull! It’s a symptom, and one does not treat symptoms. (Well, modern doctors often do treat symptoms and never quite get all the way to what’s causing them. Not their fault, though; they were taught to do that.) To treat a symptom without knowing the cause used to be considered really bad practice. That was before HMOs and such made medicine into Big Profit. (Not saying that’s the cause; but there’s certainly been some serious correlation there.)
So, to return to “common cold.” An unknown, but I suspect rather high, percentage of “that’s a cold” diagnoses are nothing of the sort. There actually is no clinical test for a cold, because it’s been considered pointless. [Well, also, there’s considerable debate over just which virus or thing actually causes the cold. So, it’s hard to make a clinical test when you haven’t really decided what to test for, yet, eh?] Just wait, it’ll go away. Problem is, those symptoms are caused by a massive variety of things. Including food allergies, pollen allergies, dust / dog / cat / mold / mildew allergies… sinus infection, dental infection, foreign objects up the nasal passageway, repressed grief (though your doctor may not know about that one, you therapist most certainly does), flu (sometimes), bacterial infections in the air passages, even the lungs, clogging of the lymphatic system, inhaling ground pepper, and so on, quite a long list further yet. Those “symptoms” are shared by a great many conditions, only a few of which are actually diseases in the technical sense.
Have you ever gone to a doctor for “treatment” of a cold? (BTW: There is no treatment for a true cold, only symptom suppressants, which are actually a very bad idea, because the “symptoms” are not from the cold virus but are your immune system fighting the cold. Suppressing the symptoms is then suppressing your body’s natural reaction to it. Mostly a bad idea (there are some exceptions though).
So, you’ve been to a doctor for a “cold” but has the doctor ever definitively ruled out allergies of the 900 different sorts? Especially food allergies. It’s quite possible that if you frequently come down with “a cold” that it’s not in fact a cold at all, but something else. And there are many other things besides allergies that can cause all those symptoms (as mentioned above).
Don’t accept “sinusitis” as a diagnosis, either. That’s like saying “bronchitis” and it only means inflammation of the sinuses; that’s a symptom, not a cause.
Alright, to be fair, first causes for just about any health condition are very tricky to arrive at. (Just ask Doctor House). But for a doctor to take a quick glance and then issue a mule-back diagnosis is also irresponsible — my opinion only, though it is shared by some doctors I have known socially.
Ok… some will have noticed in my other posts that I claim to be a long time computer professional. What qualifies me to talk about health matters? (Odd you should ask that question at a time when every website on the planet has suddenly become an expert on CoVid, regardless of their actual service… annoying.) I have quite a bit of training and experience in Holistic health practices, including (but not limited to) massage, acupressure, reflexology (surprisingly powerful), nutrition and nutritional “medicine,” quantum healing (one of the branches of “energy work,” and it does work). I have also studied acupuncture, both western and Chinese herbology, and several other related things. I have also been a life-long fan of molecular biology, endocrinology, epidemiology and other things. (Yeah, I have some weird hobbies.) I have received training as an EMT-B (“B” for basic, terminology changes, area to area), first responder, and other things. I’m also a results oriented person, who keeps things that work and discards what doesn’t (strange practice, I know.) Blah blah blah, theAuthor, XyZ. Big deal, right?
Well… here’s the Big Deal (my opinion only). In Holistic Health we call a runny or clogged nose an “elimination response” and it indicates certain processes that are active in the body; it’s a clue, but woefully insufficient in itself to pin down anything specific. So, we then look at other body systems and conditions, including some that most Allopathic (i.e., “western” or “main stream” medical practice) practitioners would not think of. In Holistic practice, the entire body must be considered, as — strangely enough — we consider the body a unified system, all parts affecting all parts. A clogged nose, watery eyes, diarrhea, bad or strong breath… these are all elimination responses and one has to further dig down into diet, health-history, life style issues and other like things to pin point (or at least get much closer) to what the body is trying to eliminate.
See… the big question with “a cold” is not that you have a cold, but why do you have one? How come your immune system didn’t block it? Me, I haven’t had a cold since the early 1990’s, when I had a rather bad one, and my immune system seems to have taken the lesson to heart (so to speak) and I haven’t had another one since. (Truly! I know some people will scoff at that statement; what can I tell you?) My understanding of how an immune system works is completely consistent with those results, too. What I don’t get is why allopathic medicine’s understanding is so different.
Perhaps they might say, because people get colds over and over again. To which I answer, yes, because you insist on suppressing the symptoms, which are the body’s reaction to the cold and so interrupt the body’s immune response and self-education process on how to fight that virus or whatever effectively next time it comes around for a drink.
So… back to what inspired me to write this article: looking up dry eye on the internet.
Dry eye: caused by insufficient production of tears. No Duh! I want to know what causes insufficiency of tears — and if it can actually be fixed rather than just treated? The “treatment” (allopathic treatment, that is) is to forever more dump “fake tears” into your eyes (i.e., eye drops, sometimes by prescription); a nice steady income for sterile saline manufacturers, but does not return my body to factory condition. I prefer corrections, permanent fixes, returning the body to original, out-of-the-box condition. Correct the imbalance. Silly Holistic me…
Do your research; it’s your body after all, and you’ll probably live in it all your life. Why not invest a little time finding out how it really works. That can be useful, you know?
[Note: I am not a doctor — in case that isn’t already obvious — and your mileage has probably already varied, etc. I am suggesting nothing… just rambling. Please do not use me as an authority for anything. Any statement I seem to have said that sounds like a suggestion for you is nothing of the sort. So there.]
Achoo!