Is it the symptom—or the soil?

I am not going to lie, building health and resolving unwanted health challenges is not an easy task. There are no one-size-fits-all remedies, protocols or therapies. There is no enchanted fairy dust to sprinkle upon oneself or magic wands to wave around in the air. Self-healing is a complex puzzle, yet it is a puzzle that can be completed and is well worth the effort. 

When alternative or natural health practitioners discuss causal and healing factors, a common visual used is the proverbial iceberg, where roughly 10% of it is exposed above the water’s surface and 90% is below, unseen but present. We are told that what you see of the iceberg are the symptoms and what you don’t see are the causal factors. While this is technically true, it is overly simplistic and leads to questionable marketing practices and mixed messages. 

What I am offering is a more realistic and accurate perspective by way of a Tree story. 

When you look upon a tree, what most see are its leaves, its branches, the trunk and the bark that encompasses it. Whether or not a tree is viewed as healthy or diseased largely depends upon its outward appearance. This is also how many people view health. Their perception of health is related to their physical appearance more than anything else. 

Just as I have had trees die in my yard that appeared otherwise healthy, at least until they didn’t, the same applies to people. I have worked with individuals that were physically fit, at ideal weight and had impressive physiques, but on the inside they were suffering in a dysfunctional body with a complaint list a page long. While the outward appearance offers insight, looks can be deceiving.  

If a tree’s outward appearance is compromised; dead/dying branches, leaves browning, curling, cracking and falling prematurely, mold/fungus present, bark falling off, etc., most homeowners would be concerned, as they should be. When the tree’s physical appearance is manifesting outward such obvious problems, overall health is greatly compromised as the tree’s natural defenses are being overwhelmed. The tree is essentially crying out for attention.

While branches can be removed, fungicides can be sprayed and pesticides can be injected, these treatment methods are at best, marginally effective. While these are simple to understand solutions to execute, they were not necessarily inexpensive much less long-term solutions. This approach is similar to visiting a physician with a complaint, and after a short conversation, being given a prescription for pharmaceutical drugs or submitting to an invasive procedure or two or having surgery to remove unresponsive tissue. A superficial examination with easy to understand, yet not necessarily effective, solution options. 

Trees, like humans, are much more than what is portrayed outward. As in the human body, what creates a tree’s outward appearance depends upon the function of trillions of cells that make up the varied structures of the tree. This includes the leaves, the branches, the trunk and root system.  For instance, the leaves are the principal photosynthetic organs. We also have a continuous vascular system allowing for the free exchange of water, nutrients and end products of photosynthesis (oxygen and carbohydrates). There are the stems where leaves are attached providing support, water and food conduction and storage. The roots, provide a structural anchor while offering a system for harvesting large amounts of water and mineral resources via the soil. In some cases, root structures supplement tree nutrition via a symbiotic relationship; with nitrogen fixing microorganisms and fungal symbionts called mycorrhizae. Tree roots also serve as energy storage depots, especially in seasonal climates. 

As you can plainly see, a tree, like the human body is a complex system consisting of a multitude of unique structures designed to work together. Where one system begins and another ends can be incredibly blurred if not non-existent. A tree, like the body is not a machine consisting of separate individual parts that can function independently. 

You can’t separate the bark from the leaves, or the vascular system from the heartwood or sapwood and expect the tree to live. Just like you can’t separate the cardiovascular system from the endocrine system from the nervous system and expect any of those system to function in the human body. Can you specialize in one aspect of metabolic function? Sure, but the human body is a holistic organism where everything is connected with everything else. If you alter one aspect of any given system, there is a cascade effect that will influence every other system. The more you know about one thing, the less you know abut everything and the harder it becomes to see the big picture. 

To create a healthy tree, one must consider the entirety of the tree, not just hyper focus on a symptom manifesting in/on one part of the tree. If a tree presents with a mold issue or bug infestation, there is something wrong with the whole tree.

While we can’t physically enter the interior of a tree much less manually alter/correct the tree’s internal structure, we can understand how the individual systems work together and what healing opportunities are present to take advantage of. 

Think about where and how the tree goes about obtaining nutrition to grow, bear fruit or the seeds too propagate. Photosynthesis can’t occur without sunlight. The roots must have access to water along with essential nutrients found within a healthy living soil. Ultimately, what dictates the health or lack of health within any given tree is the environment in which the tree lives and how it interacts with that environment. 

If exposure to direct sunlight is blocked, the tree will suffer. If the aquifer or access to water is altered; too much or too little, the tree will suffer. If the soil is disrupted in a manner that depletes minerals and/or kills living organisms, the tree will suffer. If someone decides to start spraying the grass or nearby land with chemical pesticides or herbicides, the tree will suffer. If air quality changes and pollution increases, the tree will suffer. If construction happens nearby which damages enough of the root system, the tree will suffer. 

Your body is in a similar situation. Fortunately, we have the ability to gain much greater insight into the multitude of complex functional systems of the body by using functional lab testing. We can uncover strengths, weaknesses, imbalances and dysfunctions. Understanding what is ‘wrong’ along with a history of lifestyle, we can better understand how your health challenges came to exist and manifest. At the same time, we have gained insight into valuable healing opportunities to take advantage of. 

Having unwanted weight, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, eczema, poor energy, mental fragility, etc., are not the true problem. They are merely the outward manifestation of the problem, which is Metabolic Chaos® or a loss of function within the cells that make up the varied tissue, glands, organs and complex systems fo the body. That level of function is determined largely by the lifestyle choices you make, that is, how you interact with people, places and things, including yourself and the environment in which you make those choices. 

If you wish to change your health, you have to change your lifestyle choices and the environment in which they are made and you live. To the degree that the changes address the underlying causal factors driving cellular dysfunction, you will experience healing, repair and growth. Make appropriate changes, and health improves. Make inappropriate choices and the worsening of symptoms increases.