symptoms vs. root causes
Some of you know me when I lead Ayurveda courses years back. I took a break to fill some knowledge gaps that I couldn’t answer when clients asked. And then added in another, really in- depth mentorship in Functional Nutrition to dive deep into Nutritional Science. All the way to it’s roots.
I love Ayurveda… don’t get me wrong. I am often awed by just how forward thinking this system was. For instance, some things that currently interest me is how they could understand that certain tapping points, called marma points, would correspond not only to meridian points in Traditional Chinese Medicine but to lymph nodes where lymphatic fluid tends to accumulate. 3 different systems of thinking. All interested in energy flow and all finding similar vortexes of energy flow using different models - be they energetic or physical.
I also love that Ayurveda was hip to the idea that immunity is the most intimately tied to our gut/gastrointestinal health. According to modern understanding, about 80-90% of our immunity is tied to gut health. They knew this 5000 years ago. Incredible!
All that said, I didn’t study Nutrition within the Functional Medicine lens for nothin’. When I did health coaching based on Ayurveda, I felt very skilled in helping with symptom relief. If someone had gas or bloating, I knew which dosha was out of balance (vata) and what foods to recommend eating and avoiding (eat earth foods and some fire foods and decrease air or vata- increasing foods). Or what herb or supplement might help lessen the imbalance. What I didn’t get is WHY they had these symptoms to begin with.
While Ayurveda is very good at understanding balance and imbalance in the body, how they start to manifest as symptoms, and what to do/not do on a symptom-level, it does not address root causes. It is a question of WHAT versus WHY. This is where Functional Medicine shines. For instance:
If eating dry foods, meat or certain veggies causes digestive upset, WHY is this the case? If a body is designed to thrive consuming the widest variety of proteins, veggies, fruits, herbs, and fats, why would a body have such a hard time doing the very thing that makes it thrive? (Functional Nutrition would look to low stomach acid, low digestive enzymes, low Secretory IGA, gallbladder or liver function or mucousal membrane function) - what functions in the body are not working properly which are causing symptoms. We want to live a symptom-free life, for sure. But if all we do is run away from symptoms, we can also avoid looking at larger dysfunction that create further problems down the road.
OR.. If a body has a lot of symptoms of inflammation like acid reflux, joint inflammation, chronic muscle tears and injuries or frequent infections, how does merely taking away some firey foods in the diet help us to understand where the inflammation is coming from and why is the body constantly fighting inflammation. Functional medicine would look to issues like chronic infection, bacterial overgrowths, underlying gut inflammation, mold or mycotocin exposure, food allergies, hidden autoimmunity or even an overreactive lymbic system.
Ayurveda and Functional Medicine are super complimentary, and I use both in my Nutrition practice. I lean on Ayurveda for lifestyle tips, great adapatogenic herbs and it’s whole 5-bodied approach to healing (physical, mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual). And I use Functional Nutrition to prod into the deeper WHY questions using functional labs (gut and hormone lab tests), understanding the inter-related relationships between different systems in the body like the adrenals, sex hormones and thyroid, or the adrenals and blood sugar regular or blood sugar regulation and sex hormone balance.
We are all interested in living our lives happy, healthy and symptom free. Digging down to the roots can be the thing that’s missing!
Reach out if you want to schedule a free 15 minute Functional Nutrition Discovery call. Or perhaps I see you on retreat in France, Italy or Asia next Spring.
