The Journey to Health is a Marathon, Not a Sprint.....

Rebecca Milham

Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

Chronic illness took a while to appear - if often started long before you noticed symptoms, so why is that we expect to get better in the space of days or weeks?

High cholesterol? Give me a statin....STAT.  
Hypothyroidism? Quick give me thyroxine.
Anxiety?  Xanax will fix that...

The problem with this approach is that while it may improve symptoms, or blood markers, in a short space of time (and don't get me wrong, sometimes that is exactly what we need to do in the short term), it doesn't fix any underlying issues, and it's these underlying issues that take a lot longer to resolve.  

People have become very used to this symptom control style of healthcare, so now even in the natural medicine world, results are expected to be quick - but unfortunately that's not always possible.  Reversing damage in the body can take time.  Sure - sometimes there's a quick fix - particularly if your problem is a recent one, but for long standing health issues sometimes change can take anywhere from weeks to months to years - but generally with improvements occurring all the time along the way.

A Naturopath I used to see with my eldest daughter likened chronic health problems to peeling back the layers of an onion.  Once you peel back the layer of those first symptoms and start to resolve them often you uncover other problems in the layers underneath.  These aren't set backs, they are issues that have been there for a very long time - but they have been masked by the other layers of symptoms.

Naturopaths look holistically at health and work to uncover what's driving the symptoms you're experiencing.  For example is your thyroid issue caused by nutrient imbalances?  Is it due to excessive intake of goitregens?
Is it because you have Hashimoto's (an auto-immune disorder)? And if it is Hashimoto's, were their factors that may have initiated the condition? 
In an initial appointment, we spend around an hour with you taking a full health history.  While some of the questions we ask may seem irrelevant, the answers you provide give us clues as to what is happening inside your body which enables us to find the best way to help you.  Sometimes that requires further testing, which may seem like another delay, and an unnecessary expense - but may be an essential part of helping you get well again.  

So remember, the results you are looking for may not always be as quick as you would have liked, but making lasting health changes is worth the wait.  

Rebecca Milham
Naturopath & Nutritionist
The Natural Health & Wellness Clinic
www.rebeccamilham.com.au
www.thenaturalhealthclinic.com.au
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