It is so tempting to run toward that "quick-fix" protocol. There are SO many of them at our disposal, and they are so often presented in  clever ways that manipulate us into believing THIS one will work for ME. Moreover, we're vulnerable when we don't feel good, and understandably want to relieve symptoms and feel better as quickly as possible. 

There are two big problems with these "relieve all your symptoms in just 10 days" protocols. First, there is no one size fits all! When two people have identical symptoms, or they have been given the same diagnosis with the same name attached to it, the fact is, the underlying causes of these symptoms and diagnoses are different in each individual. Second, treating (or surpressing) symptoms does not make a health condition go away. It may temporarily do so, but most often the source of the problem, which so often goes unrecognized, will continue to exist and present with symptoms elsewhere in the body.

It is the INDIVIDUAL we want to treat, and the CAUSE we must address.

When we direct our attention toward the cause (or root-cause as it is often put) we are looking for the origins of dis-ease, which allows us to investigate the environments that potentially provoked dis-ease. As noted earlier, the environments (or areas of the body) that we would focus our attention on first are the digestive and immune systems. 

By doing this, we are able to determine how to nourish and rebalance these environments. We can consider these environments to be like the soil of a plant. Just as we would tend to the soil of our cherished plants to provide for roots, stems, leaves and flowers that flourish and thrive, we must also do so within our own bodies. To follow with this metaphor, the roots of this beloved plant are like our digestive and immune systems. The soil is all that we are feeding and exposing the roots to—i.e., our diets, lifestyle routines and environments.