The Holistic Approach To Health – New Year New Me

Thinking holistically about health is one of the core principles of Holistic in the Head (I mean, it’s even in the name). This is the third and final post in the New Year, New Me series. There is SO MUCH I could go over in this post, but the goal is to give you practical action steps to start thinking about health is a holistic way.

A Holistic approach to health takes into account the body as a whole. It does not focus on symptoms. Instead it works to address the reason the symptoms are occurring in the first place. A holistic approach takes into account the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health of a person no matter what the issue is. If you aren’t healthy in one of these areas, it will affect you as a whole. Holistic approaches focus on the whole person, taking into account mental and social factors, rather than just the symptoms of an illness.

What Is A Holistic Approach To Health?

When a client I work with appears on my screen (I have a virtual practice), I am looking at them as a multifaceted human being. If they’re on my screen, that usually means this multifaceted human being is having some sort of health issue that is getting in the way of them being who they want to be or feeling the way they want to feel. I will ask questions about the symptoms of course, but I will never try to fix specific symptoms. This is because the only thing I really care about as a nutritional therapy practitioner is why your having symptoms in the first place.

Finding what’s causing the symptoms and addressing the problem head on is the only way to get rid of the symptoms. The cause is not always what you expect. Digestive symptoms can be indicative of a myriad of different things. Parasites, autoimmune, leaky gut, intestinal bacteria overgrowth, etc. While NTPs do not diagnose or treat any conditions, we can work with you and make recommendations that will support the proper function of the digestive tract. Meaning, we can help you create an environment in your gut where a parasite cannot thrive, help you eat in a way that calms inflammation and protects the gut lining, and/or help you create habits and boundaries that make eating the way you need to easier.

A holistic approach to digestive health looks for anything in your life that may be contributing to the dysfunction of your digestion. An extremally high stress job, a mold infested home/workplace, cooking with toxic cookware, cleaning with harsh chemicals, food sensitivities, not eating enough nutrient dense foods, cooking with rancid oils, poor quality of sleep, not participating in activities that bring you joy, etc. can all be making your body have to work harder to function properly. NTPs look at it all.

There are certain things that might be essential for your holistic approach but are out of an NTP’s scope. Prescribing medication (which can be necessary), dealing with trauma (I know I’m a nutritional therapy practitioner but that refers to a therapeutic approach to food, not for dealing with trauma), or any bone/muscle work that needs to be done by a Physical Therapist or a Chiropractor are all examples of this. For these sorts of things, I will refer out to the proper practitioner. I will only recommend food and lifestyle changes.

The Holistic Approach Vs. The Conventional Approach To Health

The conventional approach to health is to eat whatever you want and then go to the doctor to get medicine if and when your body starts to rebel against the way you’ve been living. Most dietary and lifestyle changes people make are for the purpose of weight loss. I’m not denying that obesity can cause health issues, but obesity in and of itself is often a symptom of the way we as Americans live. Most medication is made to address symptoms. It is not made to heal or fix the actual root cause.

Our society does not promote healthy lifestyles. They may try and claim that they do. At the end of the day, the hospital is serving jello and microwave mac&cheese cups. “Motivational” content promotes “grinding” and “hustling” even though it leads to burn out. The weight loss industry in America is worth upwards of $70 billion and we are still not happy with the way our bodies look. Prominent dietitians are promoting fast food as part of a balanced diet. The list goes on.

There are some people who try to watch what they eat before health issues arise. This is great except…it’s pretty hard to figure out what information is legit or not. The government declares foods like pizza to be a vegetable. In a new, government funded food pyramid, almond M&Ms scored higher than ground beef or an egg fried in butter (feel free to check out that monstrosity here). It gets even more complicated when you add in the fact that every body is bio-individual (something the conventional approach to health doesn’t do a great job honoring). We’ll talk more about bio-individuality below.

If you are reading this post, you likely don’t have to be told that the conventional way people approach health is not working.

A holistic practitioner DOES NOT focus exclusively on symptoms, but we also do not have quick fixes. It often takes time, patience, effort, and dedication to support your body to the point where you can confidently live symptom free. Because of this, a holistic approach is not for everyone.

Often, my clients have hit rock bottom and they don’t know where else to turn. A holistic approach is often not the first choice. But, oh my goodness. It’s so rewarding to watch them make simple changes and start living happier and healthier. Several of my clients have come back to me waving lab work in their hands and saying things like “I’ve never expected this!” “My doctor told me to keep doing whatever I’m doing, because it’s working!” “I can’t believe it was this easy!”

Bio-Individuality

Finding the right way of eating and living for your specific body can be a daunting task. There are thousands of diets, trends, and beliefs, there’s conflicting research, and different things seem to work differently for different people.

Related Posts:

Time To Start Caring About Your Health – New Year New Me

How To Stop Yo-Yo Dieting – New Year New Me

That’s where bio-individuality comes in. Bio-individuality is the idea that every person has a unique, individual body that works in its own unique, individual way. No person can eat the exact same diet and have the exact same results. We all have differing needs and we all process things in a slightly different way.

This is especially important when it comes to nutrition. Bio-individuality means that every person needs a specifically tailored approach to diet and lifestyle. Many diet programs and guidelines are created based on what generally works to get you from point A to point B in your health journey. But a generalized guideline will not work for everyone. It doesn’t matter how well researched it is.

For example: Let’s say you want to lower inflammation. I could tell you that turmeric lowers inflammation. While that’s usually true, if your body has a sensitivity to turmeric it will actually cause more inflammation. Then, when you start adding turmeric to your meals, juice, smoothies, or supplement regiment you will start noticing more or worsening symptoms. That’s why it’s so important to keep bio-individuality in mind when starting new diets. There will always be some trial and error as you find exactly what works for you.

There is a set of guidelines that I usually have clients start with…the keyword being start. Thorough investigation is always required to find what tweaks and changes need to be made for your body. A holistic approach to health will focus on finding the best way to your goals that honors your body’s specific needs.

How To Think Holistically

Thinking holistically requires that you think of your body as a whole. Your emotional health can affect your physical health which can affect your spiritual health and so on.

If there is some sort of imbalance in the body, it will often appear as symptoms. We need to evaluate the whole picture before we jump to any conclusions. Are you stressed, burnt out, anxious sad, angry, or depressed? These emotions can cause physical symptoms like nausea, headaches, loss of appetite, stomach aches, diarrhea, constipation, etc. If you type these symptoms in on WebMD, you’ll likely come away thinking your symptoms are more serious than they actually are. I will never discourage you from checking with a medical doctor to make sure your symptoms aren’t a part of something more physically serious. My point is that a holistic approach will look at all the possibilities to find the true cause of the issue.

Spiritual health is more about finding purpose and meaning in life. Personally, I’m a believer. Taking care of my spiritual health looks like reading my Bible and spending time in prayer. It might look different for you, but purpose and meaning are incredibly important parts of being human. Not taking care of your spiritual health can cause physical and/or emotional distress and vice versa. When something goes wrong with your physical/emotional health, it can make finding purpose and meaning in life more challenging.

Social health is another thing to consider. Are the people you hang around positive influences? Can you take steps to implement healthy boundaries? Or are you isolating yourself from people you care about because you feel too busy? Finding balance can be difficult, but it is essential for your health. The people we spend time with are very influential in our lives.

The more you train yourself to think about yourself as a whole person, the easier it gets to identify where a physical symptom, emotion, or loss of purpose comes from. Diet and lifestyle choices are the foundation of emotional, spiritual, and physical health. The quality of your diet determines the quality of your cell structure. That includes the cells in your brain. There’s also a growing body of research on the connection between the brain and the gut. An active or inactive lifestyle will determine in your physically fit or not. Physical exercises that involve the brain have been shown to improve memory and reduce the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Exercising in general has been shown to help mental health and physical health. Lifestyle is also incredibly important to finding and focusing on what really matters to you. Lifestyle is how we live out our purpose.

If you want to learn more about your particular body and it’s needs, you can sign up to work with me 1-on-1 here. I am a nutritional therapy practitioner and I help you find out what’s really causing your digestive issues. I recommend diet and lifestyle changes to help support your body in the specific way it needs.

Summary

Bio-individuality makes it difficult to write this post with a specific how-to blueprint. Every body is different and has a unique set of needs.

The main difference between a holistic approach to health and a conventional one is this: A holistic approach focuses on health as a whole, taking into account your emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Holistic approaches will use diet and lifestyle changes to support your body in the way it needs in order to meet your health goals. A conventional approach generally looks closer at the symptom rather than what causes the symptom. Conventional approaches typically use medication to minimize or mask symptoms rather than addressing the root cause.

Here are two things you can do to start taking a holistic approach to health:

1. Think of yourself as a whole person. Everything is connected.
2. Listen to your body. If that doesn’t come naturally to you, keep a food and mood journal. Log your meals, snacks, activities, hobbies, feelings, and digestive reactions. I plan to write a whole post on food and mood journals explaining how to interpret them.

These two steps will get you started down the path to connecting the dots on what’s really causing your symptoms. Once you start noticing a pattern (negative self talk results in poor eating habits that cause digestive discomfort or a specific food results in brain fog), you can take action (start fighting your negative self talk by writing out 3 things you like about yourself everyday or swapping the food that gives you brain fog with another food).

Could you hear my excitement as I wrote this blog post? I adore talking about the power of treating the body as a whole. If you have ANY questions, comments, ideas, concerns, thoughts, etc. I would love to read them down in the comment section or you can talk with me about them by direct messaging me on Instagram, messaging me on Facebook, or by emailing me at [email protected].