What If Your Symptom Isn’t the Real Problem?

Dear Wellness Warriors,

Sometimes the place where you're experiencing a symptom isn't the whole story.

Recently, a 35-year-old woman in overall good health came to see me because she was struggling with recurring styes around her eyes.

She had already been to several doctors and had been treated with several medications. They would help temporarily or not enough and the styes kept coming back.

Understandably, she was frustrated.

She wanted to know:

Why does this keep happening?

That's a question I've heard thousands of times during more than 40 years of practice.

And it's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about Applied Kinesiology.

Rather than looking only at her eyes, I performed a whole-body evaluation.

Why?

Because I didn't want to assume that the location of her symptom told us everything we needed to know.

Using Applied Kinesiology as part of my evaluation, I found several functional imbalances and areas of stress that led me to look beyond the eye itself and consider the body more broadly.

That changed the question.

Instead of asking only:

“How do we get rid of this stye?”

I wanted to understand:

“Why might her body be struggling with this problem repeatedly?”

There's an enormous difference between those two questions. This doesn't mean that every recurring stye is caused by an underlying organ or gland problem. And Applied Kinesiology doesn't replace appropriate medical or eye care.

It means that sometimes a persistent symptom gives us a reason to look at the person more comprehensively. That's one of the most important lessons I've learned from caring for patients:

A symptom tells us where something is showing up. It doesn't always tell us the whole story of why it's happening.

• Headaches.

• Fatigue.

• Digestive problems.

• Joint discomfort.

• Recurring health challenges.

They're all reasons to ask more questions not automatically assume we already know the answer.

That's where Applied Kinesiology has been so valuable in my practice for more than 23 years.

It gives me another way to evaluate how different aspects of the body are functioning and responding at that particular moment. I combine that information with the patient's history, examination, laboratory findings when appropriate, and other clinical information to decide what deserves attention.

I don't want to treat a test result. I don't want to treat an isolated body part.

I want to understand the person sitting in front of me.

Because your body doesn't exist as a collection of unrelated pieces. It's one interconnected human system.

And sometimes the symptom that finally gets your attention is simply the beginning of the conversation.

So, the next time your body repeatedly gives you the same message, consider asking a different question.

Not simply:

“How do I make this symptom go away?”

But:

“What might my body be trying to tell me?”

That's the question that can change the conversation.

Your body is always communicating.

We don't guess. We listen to what your body is telling us.

To your health,

Dr. Drew Karp, DC, FIAMA

P.S. If you know someone who keeps dealing with the same health challenge over and over again, please consider forwarding this email to them. Sometimes looking at an old problem through a different lens is where a new conversation begins.