Many people suffer from diagnoses like irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, or fibromyalgia. While it is helpful to have an answer to the debilitating symptoms, labeling you with a syndrome hardly helps to get your health back on track. Rather, these labels largely provide two things, neither of which help you feel better: a code for insurance company submissions and a list of pharmaceutical options. I am in no way saying your symptoms are in your head, quite to the contrary. these symptoms are very real and very disabling. But they are exactly that: symptoms. We need a framework for working backward, rather than merely treating symptoms. It is time to scratch the surface and understand the root of how you got here. Simply assigning a name to it gets you nowhere. To do this, compare your body to a house. Symptoms like fatigue or digestive problems are external manifestations like the roof needing replaced or maybe the siding is falling off. Those are cosmetic issues that you know can be replaced. Where your focus should really be is the foundation. if the foundation is cracked, you are going to have a tough time for the future years in your home. Maybe you’re suffering from chronic fatigue (roof), and cannot sleep soundly (siding). While we want to spend some time focusing on your symptoms, what we really ought to be doing is looking at the foundation issues that are driving these downstream problems. your health foundation is built on three overlapping areas: - Nutrition: your body needs a variety of foods that come directly or very nearly directly from nature. Consuming a diet that is mainly fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits, nuts, beans, eggs and wild caught/grass-fed/free-range protein is essential. the more we rely on the convenience of heavily processed and pulverized food-like products and restaurant produced fare loaded with salt and lab-created fats, the more our foundation weakens. - Emotional Peace: Stress comes from all directions: relationships, finances, diet, the environment. regardless of its source, the body responds the same way. over weeks upon months upon years, the body under stress begins to break down. A daily practice for stress management (since avoidance is often impossible) is crucial. Praying, breathing, laughing, loving, forgiving, and exercising are only a few tools for your toolbox. - The Gut: the digestive system is the center of health, housing the majority of your body’s immune system. as your gut goes, so you go. A healthy digestive system requires whole foods, regular stress management and avoiding antibiotics unless absolutely needed and the chronic use of acid-suppressing medications. so imagine your body as a house. is your foundation solid enough for the years you will need it? if your roof is leaking and your door is falling off its hinges, don’t just focus on reactive quick fixes. Look deeper, look for the reasons why. It’s likely that it has everything to do with the choices you’re making, or not making every day.

This is a guest column by Dr. Jeffrey Gladd. Dr. Gladd is the face of GladdMD Integrative Medicine, a practice dedicated to optimizing your health and well being. more can be found at GladdMD.com or by calling 260-449-9698. Visit them on Facebook at facebook.com/gladdmd and on Twitter attwitter.com/#!/Gladd_MD.