People often ask me what makes Dr. Jack different than other kinds of doctors. And the answer to that is really simple. When you go to a traditional doctor you talk about what’s wrong with you, what doesn’t feel right, what hurts, and what symptoms you have. They diagnose what’s wrong and they come up with a treatment plan based on those symptoms. Sometimes that’s a great thing. Where would I be if the neurosurgeon hadn’t removed that crazy benign tumor in my spine? Or my general practitioner who saw there was more wrong then sciatic nerve pain? Sometimes you need that kind of help! But the fact is sometimes you need a different kind of expert, one who asks, “Why?” A good example of that is Hashimoto’s disease. When I was originally diagnosed, the Endocrinologist who treated me, told me that the treatment was very simple. You have Hashimoto’s disease, you just continue to take Synthroid. Sounded easy enough.
At the time I didn’t realize, and no one bothered to explain to me, that that wasn’t actually going to fix anything. All it was going to do was maybe make a few symptoms feel better. But the reality is that the symptoms didn’t go away and if anything all they did was increase in their severity.
I can remember clearly when I was first told I was hypothyroid. The doctor told me it was the easiest disease to cure. You just take this little pill every day for the rest of your life. I was basically told that the symptoms would come and go. There would be times when they would be less severe and times when they would be more severe. For me, the journey was very dufferent than the fairy tale they told, it was one where symptoms appeared regularly, nothing ever went away. It was a steady stream of new and worsening symptoms.
Dr. Jack asked me about my symptoms when we first talked. I remember telling him that it just would be easier if you took at the list of Hashimoto symptoms and put a check next to every single one. What was especially interesting to me was the fact that he never really cared much about the symptoms that I had. He didn’t talk about special shampoo for my dry itchy hair. He didn’t talk about some kind of lotion for my awful skin.
Instead, his approach was completely different and what he was interested in talking about was the “why” I had that disease. I’ve come to find out that that’s what functional medicine does. Doctors who are interested in functional medicine and functional nutrition are more interested in why you have a particular symptom. They are like investigators going after the cause. I admit that in the beginning, I had doubts as to how my body was ever going to heal itself. But as those symptoms left me one by one, I became a believer. I learned quickly that the “Why” guy’s approach really was different! This was what I needed all along, someone who wanted to cure my “Why!”
The fact is that despite the vast amounts of things I tried, the diets, the synthroid, the pills, lotions and creams, none of it ever made me feel better. And this? This totally does!
People act like I am doing some big challenging thing by eating differently. Like I am some kind of freak for giving up sugar and grains. It’s not that difficult at all. It’s all about what you get used to. In over a year, I have settled myself into an eating pattern that makes me feel less bloated, less inflamed, less symptomatic and my body has dropped weight as it wants. My family and friends don’t care what I eat, and I can sit at any function and find food. And when I can’t, I bring my own.
As Dr. Jack told me right from the beginning, if you provide the body with proper nutrition and needed supplementation, it can cure itself of many illnesses and you will lose weight naturally. Who knew that? Hello! The “Why” guy!
“Good food costs a lot,” a friend told me. Well, yeah it does. But I do find that I don’t eat as much as I used to, and that I stopped to think about where my money goes. Now it goes for good food and whole food supplements. It used to go to constant endocrinologist visits, lotions, medication and all kinds of books and programs to cure myself or at least alleviate a few symptoms that never cured anything.
Now, I only need to see my doctor twice a year to check in. All the weird symptomology has disappeared! The “Why” guy took care of it!