Tedd Koren, DC On Healing

Tedd Koren DC shares his views on health in the following blog. Tedd Koren DC is founder of Koren Publications and Koren Specific technique.

One approach is the Mechanistic or medical approach.  This approach sees symptoms as bad things that need to be eliminated.  Got a fever?  Take an aspirin. Got pain – here’s a painkiller. Infection? Take this antibiotic. Nauseous?  Here’s a pill. Diarrhea?  Got something for you.  High blood pressure? Depressed? Anxious? Shy? Low energy?  Here’s a chemical to make you feel just right.

Of course none of these drugs gets to the cause of your problem.  For example. no one has ever discovered an aspirin or Prozak ™ deficiency – these drugs affect symptoms only.

There is another approach to healthcare. That approach is the Empirical or Vitalistic approach.  Vitalists see symptoms as the way your body tries to cleanse, heal, repair or rebalance itself.

These symptoms may be very uncomfortable. After all who likes spending time in bed with a fever?  Who enjoys diarrhea or vomiting? Rashes or skin eruptions? Pain or discomfort? Nausea, coughing, muscle aches and pains, chills, anxiety, sore throat, weakness and fatigue.  No one!

You’d do anything to get your child and yourself well. Yet interfering with their symptoms, while creating comfort in the short run, could actually interfere with their healing ability and lead to health damage in the long run.

Vitalistic healers (such as chiropractors) describe suppressive healthcare as driving a disease deeper so that it may never leave the body.

Children and adults who let their acute illness run its course are overall healthier than those who take drugs to suppress their symptoms.

Fever and other dramatic symptoms are powerful tools by which a body resolves illness.  Although uncomfortable they will pass. In fact suppressing fever may make you stay sick longer.  In one study adults who had the flu stayed sick 3 ½ days longer if they took something to lower their fever. (1) Other studies have shown that many acute infections in childhood results in less cancer and heart disease later in life. (2-4)

Interfering with symptom expression may cause an acute illness (cold, flu, fever, malaise) which is by definition temporary to become chronic – a lifelong condition that never resolves.

At times, drastic interventions requiring drugs or surgery may be needed.  However that is relatively rare, most people who suffer from acute illness do best with watchful waiting.  It is however especially important that a child (or adult) be free of subluxations so their body may function optimally.  For that reason all sick individuals need chiropractic care.

Additionally, depending on your knowledge or access to natural healthcare providers you may elect to use homeopathy, acupuncture, aromatherapy, enemas or other natural means to work with the body to help promote true healing that strengthens the body so it is better able to cope with future infections.