For any chemical imbalance, the first question to ask is, “what chemical is my body not producing enough of or else not breaking down properly?” If you have any “non-emergency” symptom that you think may be related to a chemical imbalance, this is the place to start.
Let’s contrast this inner pharmacy approach with the typical approach of Western Medicine, which If you watch any amount of television, you have heard hundreds of times. The standard pharmaceutical approach is to provide a chemical formula for your symptoms, which usually means taking a medication to replace or offset some chemical that your body is not able to regulate on its own. And in some situations, pharmaceutical medications are used to stimulate your body’s production of certain chemicals.
The obvious drawback of the pharmaceutical approach is that it usually doesn’t correct the imbalance in the body that created
the problem. Medications merely offset the imbalance and sometimes worsen it by: 1) inhibiting the body from producing more of the deficient chemical on its own, or 2) by stimulating an already depleted gland and further depleting it. Of course there are situations where medications are beneficial and necessary, but they are so over-used and do so much harm in situations where they should not be the first course of action.
The whole concept of restoring and maintaining normal body function is a foreign idea to most people in the twenty-first century. Yet it is the most fundamental and sound approach that exists for healthy aging. For any new symptom or health concern, don’t ignore it, but do ask a reasonable set of questions of yourself and your doctor. 1) Is something in my body malfunctioning to produce this symptom? 2) If so, is the malfunction fixable? 3) Is there something I am doing or not doing that is causing the malfunction? 4) Is there a health care practitioner who can work with me to correct the malfunction and restore my health? Any “yes” answers to these questions provide opportunities to improve your health and to avoid or postpone using medications that may have costly trade-offs and side-effects.
So many chemical imbalances can be corrected by restoring normal function to the body. My book, Your Inner Pharmacy is filled with guidelines and examples of how you can produce more good chemicals that maintain your health for a lifetime.