Your Brain and Chronic Illness

Ask Dr. Z - Functional Illness - An Overview

What is Functional Illness?

Many people don't feel good, but don't really know why. They complain of unexplained symptoms such as chronic fatigue, over-weight, depression, food cravings, head aches, muscle and joint pain, arthritis, intractable back pain, heartburn, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, mood swings, rashes, itching, allergies, ...the list goes on. Standard medical tests show little or nothing. Many of my patients have reported over the years that their MD's either ignore these symptoms or give vague explanations such as:

• It is because of your age
• You just have to live with it
• It's all in your head
• It is stress
• It is...

What this really means: nobody knows how to determine the cause for all these symptoms.

As the name implies, Functional Illness comprises symptoms caused by the abnormal function the body. An organ or groups of organs have begun to malfunction. The real problem arises when this abnormal function remains undetected for prolonged periods of time. This may then lead to a state of actual disease. Disease implies pathological changes that can be evaluated by standard medical tests.

• So we could say that Functional Illness is this gray and vague area between optimal health and disease.

Here are some factors that may contribute to Functional Illness:

• structural stress: misalignments of the spine which can lead to stress on the nervous system
• emotional stress
• lack of sleep
• over-consumption of sugar and carbohydrates
• lack of proper nutrition
• junk food
• food additives
• sedentary life style
• "recreational" drugs
• pharmaceutical drugs
• antibiotic use (past or present) which destroys the healthy intestinal flora
• alcohol
• tobacco
• environmental toxins
• silver amalgam (mercury) fillings in your mouth
• with increasing age normal organ and glandular functions tend to decline
  

The only questions to ask with any presenting health problem:

• What is the cause?
• What underlying imbalance and/or organ malfunction causes the symptoms?
• What stresses the body
• What keeps the body from healing?
• How can normal function be restored or at least be improved?
  

These are of course the most difficult questions to answer.

We live in a symptom oriented society. Nobody wants headaches, pain, heartburn, high blood pressure, etc. It appears much easier to cover up symptoms with the available pharmaceutical drugs:

Drugs for pain, arthritis, blood pressure, cholesterol, heartburn...the list seems endless.

So we take these drugs. They appear to do the job, initially. Then we need to take them more often, for longer periods of time. We notice side effects. We develop new health problems. We need new medications for these problems. The vicious cycle continues.

• Headaches are not due to Aspirin or Motrin or Vicodin deficiency.
• Depression is not due to Prozac deficiency.
• We only pretend they are.

Symptoms are useful. They indicate that something is wrong. They should be taken seriously. Simply covering them up with medication is not useful.

Imagine yourself driving your car. The oil warning lamp (symptom) comes on.

• You could cover up the warning lamp with tape, paint it black or unhook the wire to the lamp. This way you would not notice anything. The symptom is gone! Sooner or later, however, your car might not run so well anymore, or not at all.
• The proper response would be to pull over as soon as possible to find the cause for this warning light (symptom). The cause could be a simple malfunction or a more serious problem.

Typically, the earlier you address the underlying malfunction the less extensive the damage and the less costly the repairs.

The same applies to our health. It is vital to pay attention to the symptoms of Functional Illness. We do not feel well, but we do not really know why. Often typical medical tests do not show anything. We may be tempted to simply ignore these symptoms or cover them up with medication.

• Early and proper response to symptoms is essential for optimum health
• Prevention is the key to success!

Go to Dr. Z's Self Evaluation for Functional Illness help!

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