Many people are looking for a single cause of their symptoms. Unfortunately, health rarely works that way. By the time someone develops fatigue, reflux, insomnia, headaches, brain fog, weight gain, and joint pain, multiple systems are often involved. Blood sugar may be unstable. The microbiome may be disrupted. Nutrient deficiencies may be present. Restoring health often requires addressing several layers of dysfunction rather than searching for one magic answer.
Restoring Health Is Like Peeling an Onion
If magnesium helps you with your insomnia, by all means take it. You should, however, be aware of the systems that are at the root of the problem. If you wake up in the middle of the night, you may need to get cortisol under control. You may need to do something about insulin insensitivity. Look for underlying causes.
Restore Your Health and Move On (If You Want To)
Be strict until you feel better: Dietary advice often produces despair in patients. Most absolutely love something that is not good for them. It’s ok, once your health is restored, you can cheat. I see a lot of people who can be described as “just plain sick”. They have been to multiple doctors and have not gotten answers. These people usually have multiple systems that do not function well. They may have digestion/microbiome problems, thyroid issues, cortisol issues, multiple nutrient deficiencies. In a medical system that focuses on symptoms, these folks confuse doctors–they don’t have a disease that can be named. They frequently do not get help from traditional medicine and are often written off as having mental health problems.
Dietary changes must be strict at first. Consistency pays off. Most of these patients, at some point, will come in the office and say something like, “I had birthday cake at a party, and I am ok.” It takes time to get to that point, but most people get there. The trick is to not fall back into old habits, but the occasional transgression is well tolerated.
Health problems rarely develop overnight, and they rarely disappear overnight. As digestion improves, inflammation decreases, blood sugar stabilizes, and nutrient deficiencies are corrected, many people become more resilient. Restoring health is often a process of peeling away one layer at a time until the body can function normally again.
Learn how to take a systems approach to restoring health.
