This is a story I like to tell as it really helps my patients to understand how much is involved in treating disease. Sometimes, as in this story, we don't even need to address the immediate problem to get the desired results. In some ways this takes the guess work out of treatment, getting back to basics rather than losing ourselves in the complex world of pathology. Philip Battiade, 2008
Imagine your backyard is full of nice flowers. You like to sit out there and enjoy the sun. It would be great if it weren’t for all the frogs that croak and crawl around there. You have tried trapping them, poisoning them, and shooting them, but the more you do, the more they seem to come back. What is wrong? How can you solve this problem?
By taking a look at the flowers, you may notice that most of them are plants that like to grow on boggy ground, and if you look at the earth in the garden you will see that it is swampy and water logged. Boggy, swampy ground is the best place for frogs to thrive. Obviously, if you want to get rid of the frogs, you have to change the quality of the soil. Digging a drain and channeling the water out of the swamp helps to dry up the earth. But suddenly your flowers start to die. Now you have to sow new seeds and plant flowers that thrive in healthy, moist soil. This takes work, but after some time, when you sit back in your garden and enjoy the sun, you realize that something is missing.
No more frogs! No more croaking! No more crawling! Just by digging a hole and sowing some seeds you have successfully solved your problem with frogs.
Therefore, when becoming sick we first focus on the quality of the soil, the underlying cause, and address it. This might not be a quick fix or the most convenient solution. It will require work, but after some time you may be able to sit back and realize that your complaints have been resolved because the underlying root cause was taken care of. Your body has regained its basic healthy state and the problem with frogs has been resolved.
Treating the incurable is no easy task, but getting the body into a clean and balanced state can be more than 50% of the cure.