Three Upside-Down Outdated Views on Health

ONE: Your health is determined purely by genetics.

Really? Still? Yikes.

Sorry, maybe I put my judgy pants on this morning.

(Truth be told I'm not really sorry. I'm hear to wake you up and sometimes that takes a bit of an edge).

Believing that is like thinking the cake bakes itself and the pastry chef has nothing to do with it.

• Stop scapegoating your genetics.

• Stop being a complacent victim to what came before.

• >>>Take charge of your health.

(Of course there are some conditions that are purely genetic. Frankly even in those scenarios I do believe that it's possible to change your experience of those things).

For the purpose of this post I'm speaking about our modern day diseases of a chronic inflammatory nature - due to our insane stress levels, our toxic world, and our poor lifestyle choices.

The latter of which is highly changeable.

Right side up current view on your health and genetics.

Consider epigenetics.

There are countless factors within your control that will allow your body to turn off disease causing genes and turn on health promoting ones.

• Your choices matter.

• The things you eat matter.

• The things you think matters.

• How you move matters.

• Who you spend your time with matters.

• >>> Be your own pastry chef. (But maybe eat less croissants and bagels and more broccoli).

But I'm not going to tell you to do that.

TWO: Your doctor knows best.

The number of times a patient has shown me a skin rash and said that their doctor diagnosed it as eczema or over the phone.

Yes. That's right. with out even looking at it.

These patients spend months in agony, rubbing on steroid creams. Nothing changes.

They come to see me (often as a last resort). I look at the rash and think, "That looks fungal!" (Or whatever it looks like).

We implement naturopathic therapies and treat what's going on under the surface, to find they get better.

This has happened countless times.

Or the GP who told a patient that her menopausal mood changes were not real - even though they were wreaking havoc on her family. They couldn't possibly be real because they were just an Instagram trend. 😤🤬😠And this coming from a female doctor in her mid-40s.

Right side up current view on who knows best.

You know best.

In my humble opinion, Western medicine has taken a turn for the worse. Not recently, but worse since COVID, especially since the common adoption of telemedicine. I

t's completely hands off.

There's no physical exams.

It's direct to blood work

It's immediately to a referral for imaging, which of course takes months to actually get.

Whatever happened to good old fashioned:

• case taking

• inspection

• auscultation

• percussion

• palpation?

Your doctor will never fully understand your day to day lived experience.

Why?

Because they're not you.

You know Best you know what's normal in your body.

You know what's new and surprising.

>>>Take charge of your health.

Be your own advocate.

Be your own doctor.

But maybe not one that gaslights you, dismisses you, and doesn't actually see you in person.

Find someone who will believe you.

I and most of my naturopathic colleagues likely will. Just sayin'.

I'm getting passionate up in here. I did not expect to get myself so riled up.

I need to pause for a deep breath.

Aaaaahhhh... that's better.

Lets keep going.

THREE: Your Diagnosis is Everything.

Sure, you spend six to eight months in agony from your itchy rash, slathering on your steroid creams.

When you finally get to the dermatologist, which you drove two hours to the big city to see, he calmly says, you've got dermatitis.

Yeah, I'm sorry for the struggle, sweetheart, but we already knew your skin was inflamed.

But I'm asking, but why?

Same story, but this time for the daily headaches.

Finally you get to see the neurologist and they brilliantly tell you you've got cluster headaches.

Yeah, we already knew that your head was in pain and it was coming in groups.

But I'm asking, but why?

Right side up current view on your Diagnosis.

Get to the root cause.

Your symptoms are not your disease and your long awaited diagnosis is often nothing more than a description of what's happening symptomatically.

It's a fancy Latin label that simply describes your body's adaptation to the root cause or causes that it's trying to cope with or manage.

My Formula for Health says that...

The root cause or root causes is a combination of not having enough good things and having too many bad things.

AKA not having enough nutrients in and not getting enough toxins out.

This imbalance creates the perfect storm that causes your body to decompensate.

This is how and why our symptoms start and continue.

Is the fix simple?

Yes. Nature knows best.

Is the fix easy?

No, not really.

Changing our habits is hard and I get that. I really get that.

Which is why I'm no longer pushing you to eat your broccoli.

And it's also why I'm proud to be offering you nutrient IV therapy so that we can focus on:

• getting the nutrients in

• which actually does help get the toxins out.

Let's directly and immediately give your body what it needs so that your cells can start to recoup what's been lost and you can manage life's hardships without your health suffering anymore.

Look me up. It's nanaimoivtherapy.com. I am happy to help.

Thanks for being here. I’m Dr. Tonia Winchester, a Nanaimo Naturopathic Doctor, and certified IV nutrient therapist. This is all taking place at Knead Therapy in Nanaimo, BC, central Vancouver Island.