Naturopathic Source

The other day a patient was in my office and was telling me how several of her joints were hurting. And then she said, ``Oh, I don`t want to complain -- there are starving people in Africa. I should consider myself lucky.``

She was right -- she should consider herself lucky. So should we all. We don`t live in a third world country, a state of political unrest and we aren`t starving.  But that`s no reason not to pay attention to the signals our body is sending us.

I`m not saying to go around everyday complaining about all the things that are bothering you over and over. But when you realize that something is wrong, do something about it. Encourage your kids to tell you when something hurts. Pain is a signal from your body that something is wrong. So is discomfort. So is stiffness. So is feeling tired all the time. I could go on for a while here, but you get the picture. Now, when a person generally feels great and a mild pain or discomfort comes up, I generally feel it is okay to wait a day or two and see if it goes away. If it goes away and stays away, great. If it goes away but keeps coming back, it`s a problem.

Many people ignore all types of physical symptoms for all kinds of different reasons. Some people just can`t be bothered to take the time and effort to get things checked out. Some people are afraid they will have to take pills of some sort (prescription medication or even supplements). And other people just hope their symptoms will go away. Others still don't see symptoms as a problem until they start interfering with their quality of life.

I'm beginning to feel preach-y here so I'll just cut to the chase. The bottom line is this: Health problems do not simply go away. In most cases, they get worse as the years go by and the worse they get the more difficult they are to treat. You wouldn't wait until your car fell apart on the side of the road before taking it to a mechanic. Don't wait until your body falls apart before taking care of yourself. 

TC