Last week I talked about a device known as the Endocardiograph. This and other instruments have been a Godsend to the medical profession and are used to observe the function and the health of the body.
The greatest tool a doctor can possess is the power of observation. The use of our five physical senses empowers us to identify changes in a person’s wellbeing many times without any mechanical instruments.
When evaluating the health concerns of patients, numbers on paper have some significance, but may not be as important as what the patient’s body may be telling the physician.
Skin tone, temperature, texture, moisture, and color speak loudly. If not observed could cause the practitioner to miss some critical aspect of that person’s condition. Posture speaks too. Anxious, stressed patients may be seated at the edge of the chair, ready to bolt, while the one slouching may be suffering adrenal exhaustion or depression. How a person is clothed can indicate a specific temperature sensitivity, either too hot compared to others or too cold.
Body odors can tell many things. Occasionally elderly patients find it too much bother to bathe. This can be due to laziness or just plain exhaustion. Sometimes their senses aren’t telling them they have a problem when the rest of us are very aware of one.
Hormone imbalances can cause strong body odor even though the person has bathed. A strong fruity odor to the breath may signal blood sugar imbalances suggesting diabetes. A backed up colon can create breath and body odor signaling that fecal matter is being absorbed into the system instead of being eliminated. This can poison you.
The eyes can indicate poor liver function if the whites are showing yellow. Pupillary constriction can suggest an overactive sympathetic nerve issue or use of drugs that are creating constriction of more than just the pupils.
Conversation can reveal different degrees of anxiety, depression, or lethargy. So you see, lab tests are wonderful, but the body has a language all it’s own, which needs to be observed and evaluated if any underlying conditions are to identified and corrected.
Thankfully, we have some wonderful tools to evaluate health, but before all the sophisticated tests we rely on today, the use of the five physical senses were the focus of identifying variances in health. The doctor of the past actually used his sense of taste to identify if patients were spilling sugar into their urine. (Thank God for urine test strips!)
Is your doctor taking the time to listen to your body? Do you listen to your body? Symptoms are actually signs that we, as individuals, need to be aware of so we can either stop doing something that is defeating our body, or find out what we are missing and need to do.
If your work outs are tearing up your body instead of building it up, consider the degree of intensity you are maintaining, or if you aren’t consuming the nutrition and maintaining the hydration required to keep up with the activity.
If your sleep isn’t restful, or it’s hard to attain sleep, what are your stresses during the day which may have your nervous system jacked up. Are consuming a stimulant that keeps your body from attaining a restful state. These are questions you need to ask yourself from the observation of how your body is functioning.
Unfortunately, we as a nation, have been conditioned to see any dysfunction of our system as a need for some kind of pharmaceutical cure. As and example: allergy symptoms require a need for some kind of antihistamine. Acid reflux suggests a need for acid blockers. Depression, a need for antidepressants. Constipation, a laxative. And the list goes on and on.
Symptoms are indicators of basic needs. Observation should result in understanding what’s either missing, or what we may be consuming which doesn’t belong in our body in the first place. Learn to listen to your body more closely, understanding what it’s saying.
The greatest tool a doctor can possess is the power of observation. The use of our five physical senses empowers us to identify changes in a person’s wellbeing many times without any mechanical instruments.
When evaluating the health concerns of patients, numbers on paper have some significance, but may not be as important as what the patient’s body may be telling the physician.
Skin tone, temperature, texture, moisture, and color speak loudly. If not observed could cause the practitioner to miss some critical aspect of that person’s condition. Posture speaks too. Anxious, stressed patients may be seated at the edge of the chair, ready to bolt, while the one slouching may be suffering adrenal exhaustion or depression. How a person is clothed can indicate a specific temperature sensitivity, either too hot compared to others or too cold.
Body odors can tell many things. Occasionally elderly patients find it too much bother to bathe. This can be due to laziness or just plain exhaustion. Sometimes their senses aren’t telling them they have a problem when the rest of us are very aware of one.
Hormone imbalances can cause strong body odor even though the person has bathed. A strong fruity odor to the breath may signal blood sugar imbalances suggesting diabetes. A backed up colon can create breath and body odor signaling that fecal matter is being absorbed into the system instead of being eliminated. This can poison you.
The eyes can indicate poor liver function if the whites are showing yellow. Pupillary constriction can suggest an overactive sympathetic nerve issue or use of drugs that are creating constriction of more than just the pupils.
Conversation can reveal different degrees of anxiety, depression, or lethargy. So you see, lab tests are wonderful, but the body has a language all it’s own, which needs to be observed and evaluated if any underlying conditions are to identified and corrected.
Thankfully, we have some wonderful tools to evaluate health, but before all the sophisticated tests we rely on today, the use of the five physical senses were the focus of identifying variances in health. The doctor of the past actually used his sense of taste to identify if patients were spilling sugar into their urine. (Thank God for urine test strips!)
Is your doctor taking the time to listen to your body? Do you listen to your body? Symptoms are actually signs that we, as individuals, need to be aware of so we can either stop doing something that is defeating our body, or find out what we are missing and need to do.
If your work outs are tearing up your body instead of building it up, consider the degree of intensity you are maintaining, or if you aren’t consuming the nutrition and maintaining the hydration required to keep up with the activity.
If your sleep isn’t restful, or it’s hard to attain sleep, what are your stresses during the day which may have your nervous system jacked up. Are consuming a stimulant that keeps your body from attaining a restful state. These are questions you need to ask yourself from the observation of how your body is functioning.
Unfortunately, we as a nation, have been conditioned to see any dysfunction of our system as a need for some kind of pharmaceutical cure. As and example: allergy symptoms require a need for some kind of antihistamine. Acid reflux suggests a need for acid blockers. Depression, a need for antidepressants. Constipation, a laxative. And the list goes on and on.
Symptoms are indicators of basic needs. Observation should result in understanding what’s either missing, or what we may be consuming which doesn’t belong in our body in the first place. Learn to listen to your body more closely, understanding what it’s saying.
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