As a functional medicine doctor, I am looking to uncover the innate health within you. We are on the lookout for clues as to how your body is working and why you may have certain symptoms. Our body is built perfectly and is always working to make sure all is ok as well as balancing healing and living.
Your symptoms and events in your life represent your timeline which can be helpful to find out the following:
- How your immune system reacts.
- How your nervous system reacts.
This allows us to understand the root cause.
We start by learning about your birth and how you came into the world, and this can give us a clue as to how your body and microbiome was at the start of life. We then look at infections, nutrition, lifestyle stresses and symptoms as they occur throughout your life to see if we can make any connections.
Last weekend (17th June), I was asked to talk to the Health Coaches Academy about the power of the timeline.
I started by explaining how your timeline is a pictorial representation of your history from birth to now. As doctors, we are making connections between when your symptoms first appeared and why. This may include investigations into your environment, allergies, nutrition and any stresses you may have encountered.
During the talk, we went through a typical history and explained some of the reasons people could be having symptoms. For example, if some had ear infections as a child this could be due to the milk that they were drinking, or the potential lack of nutrients for them to fight an infection, or stress in the home environment. Any symptom that is being experienced can come from lots of different root causes.
After the talk, I heard some people starting to make some connections about why they may have had some symptoms which they had not considered before, such as headaches coming from their gut health issues.
That is the beauty of functional medicine; it is personalised to the person sitting in front of us.
After you read this blog, take a few minutes and go through your timeline with compassion and no blame, considering when your symptoms appeared and ask yourself what else was going on around you at that time.
Understanding how your body works is key to reducing fear and becoming more curious about what you can do to bring it back into balance.
I want to thank HCA for this opportunity. www.healthcoachesacademy.com
